Alden Partridge - Citizen Soldier

Citizen Soldier

In the summer of 1818 Partridge was engaged in New York City to drill and instruct a volunteer infantry company, and gave a series of lectures on the subject of fortification, military science, and military education. In these lectures, Partridge advocated a new program of regional military instruction and began a lifelong campaign in opposition to the existing national military academy system which would shape the rest of his life. Partridge argued the national academy produced a professional officer class, and was creating a new military elite at odds with examples of the country's great generals, like George Washington and Andrew Jackson. Partridge proposed the nation be divided into state-based military departments, local citizen soldiers organized into militias and officers appointed by department, and units mustered on a regular basis for instruction and drill, much like minutemen of the well-remembered American Revolutionary War. Further, he suggested military colleges for officer instruction be established in each department.

Appointed chief of the surveying expedition establishing boundaries between the U.S. and Canada required under the Treaty of Ghent, Partridge mapped Saint Lawrence River and Hudson River natural watersheds areas, but still consumed with plans for a military college based on his program decided to resign from the expedition in 1820, and retired to his hometown, Norwich, Vermont.