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    | Transcriber's Note:                                       |
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    | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For     |
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    [Illustration: ARMSTRONG GUN FROM FORT FISHER.]




  GUIDE

  TO

  WEST POINT,

  AND THE

  U.S. MILITARY ACADEMY.

  WITH

  MAPS AND ENGRAVINGS.


  NEW YORK:
  D. VAN NOSTRAND, 192 BROADWAY.
  1867.




GUIDE TO WEST POINT.


Fifty-one miles above New York, on the west bank of the Hudson river,
in the midst of scenery of the most picturesque and impressive
character, and on a bold shelving plateau, formed by the crossing of a
range of the Alleghany Mountains, which here assume almost Alpine
proportions, is a name dear to every lover of his country--a name
replete with memories of the struggle for Independence, and clustering
with historic associations.

WEST POINT, the property of the United States by purchase, possesses a
primary interest from its military importance during the period of the
American Revolution, and a secondary one from its being the seat of
the National Military Academy. The creative hand of natural
beauty--the romance of war--the distinguished career of those who
have gone forth from this locality in the defense of American Liberty,
and the spectacle presented by those preparing for future public
usefulness, have united to inspire the visitor with emotions unlike
those excited at any place of popular resort within the limits of the
United States.

Ninety years ago, when West Point possessed no attraction beyond that
presented by similar adjoining wild and uncultivated woodland tracts
in the Highlands, a band of Commissioners, appointed by the Provincial
Congress of the Colony of New York, instituted an undertaking which
first imparted a public interest to this favored spot. The war for
American Independence was in progress, and then, as now, the Hudson
river afforded the principal channel of communication between the
theatre of the strife and the country lying northward to Canada and
the west.

Nor was its importance thus limited. As a strategic line, separating
the New England Colonies from the more productive region south-west
of them, the control of the Hudson became, early in the war, one of
the principal objects toward which the attention of the military
authorities directing the contending parties was attracted.

Between abrupt and lofty mountains above West Point, the gorge through
which the river flows, yet bearing its ancient name of Wey Gat, or
Wind Gate, is partially obstructed at