PRESENT NEED OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH. 
{Bead Before the Texas Academy of Science at Galveston , December 31 , 1894.) 
THOMAS U. TAYLOR, C.E. 
• , ' 
Before considering the needs of engineering education in the South, 
it will be well to look at the map of the whole country, with a view to 
locating the center of engineering education. As the civil war had such 
a material effect upon the destinies of the South, and as it destroyed the 
old civilization where the cavalier had his impress upon our institutions 
and customs, it took time for our ideas and thoughts to crystalize under 
the new order. This period, then, forms not only a good dividing line, 
but a necessary dividing line, in discussing the needs of any kind of 
education of to-da}^. Before the war the center of engineering educa¬ 
tion was far to the north, and held there with a tenacity that was not 
disturbed by a few isolated efforts in some of our colleges. The Virginia 
Military Institute, from 1840, did much to draw this center nearer the 
Gulf, and the brilliant success of her graduates in engineering brought 
this 4 ‘ West Point” of the South as much renown as that daring band of 
cadets did by their gallant stand at Newmarket. To the Virginia Mili¬ 
tary Institute, about 1840, came Thomas Williamson, a West Pointer, a 
man who impressed his individuality upon his students, and who for 
twenty-five years delivered the only lectures on engineering that were 
delivered in the South. The whole course was almost an exact repro¬ 
duction of the course at West Point in nearly all its details—notably the 
case in engineering, in military science and its method of working. That 
the work was well done in engineering is well attested by the conspicuous 
place taken by the Virginia Military Institute graduates in civil life 
before 1860, and later by the many military engineers that helped the 
South during the struggle. Bat the Virginia Military Institute was 
practically alone in its efforts to train engineers. The main engineering 
belt was confined to that line of States from Massachusetts to Ohio. 
As to the causes that retarded engineering, and in fact all industrial 
education in the South, they were many. The Southern civilization was 
one of otium cum dignitate. It was the civilization of the Cavalier rather 
than the Puritan. But when all this was destroyed, a newer life rose, 
phcenix-like, from the ashes, and girded itself for a new duty. Engineer¬ 
ing education in the South, with the exception of the Virginia Military 
[ 7 ] 
