After Thayer Until The War With Mexico
After the tenure of Thayer, the Academy faced challenges to its relevance as many new Western State congressmen saw it as a breeding ground for an elitist aristocratic Officer Corps. The War with Mexico, 1846–1848, changed the nation's perception of the Academy. Because of the Army's slow promotion system of the time, no graduate of the Academy had made General Officer rank at the start of the war. However, many junior and mid-level officer graduates proved themselves invaluable in battle. Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee first distinguished themselves in battle in Mexico. In all 452 of 523 West Point graduates who served in the war received battlefield promotions or awards for bravery.
Read more about this topic: History Of United States Military Academy
Famous quotes containing the words thayer, war and/or mexico:
“With a smile of Christian charity great Casey’s visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult, he made the game go on;”
—Ernest Lawrence Thayer (1863–1940)
“To be deeply committed to negotiations, to be opposed to a particular war or military action, is not only considered unpatriotic, it also casts serious doubt on one’s manhood.”
—Myriam Miedzian, U.S. author. Boys Will Be Boys, ch. 2 (1991)
“Is this what all these soldiers, all this training, have been for these seventy-nine years past? Have they been trained merely to rob Mexico and carry back fugitive slaves to their masters?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)