walks after four o'clock in the afternoon, followed by "hops" at the hotel in the evening, were very enjoyable. Occasionally the camp would be enlivened by a "stag dance," performed by twenty or more cadets, who gyrated among rows of candles placed on the ground, cadencing their movements by the rattle of a muffled drum. At the close of the third year, the class was reduced from fortyfour to forty members, and Cadet Burnside's class standing was: Philosophy, 14; Chemistry, 13; Drawing, 18; General Merit, 12. His demerits for the year were 64.

The fourth year of Burnside's stay at West Point was an exciting one. The war with Mexico was raging, and the bulletins received from the land of the Montezumas naturally produced a feeling of restlessness among the cadets who were anxious to take the field. In the cadet corps, one of the four captains having been reduced to the ranks for a violation of the rules, Burnside was promoted to the vacancy thus created, in October, 1846. The following spring he was reported as absent from the post without leave, and he was reduced to the ranks on the 15th of April, 1847. The discipline has always been severe against going off limits.

The final examination came at last, commencing on the 4th of June, 1847. The chairman of the board was Hugh A. Haraldson, a Georgia lawyer, afterwards in Congress, and the secretary was Henry K. Oliver, of Massachusetts, a successful school-teacher, who had been made adjutant-general of the state. Among the members of the board were Senator Brown, of Mississippi, Senator Yulee, of Florida, and the ponderous Dixon H. Lewis, a Representative from Alabama, who weighed four hundred and thirty pounds. The examination of the cadets was at times carried on by the professors, and at times taken under the control of the

Board of Examiners. In some instances the professors announced the question and the board selected the individual cadet who should solve it; and in some instances a question proposed to one cadet was, by direction of the board, given to another for solution. Questions, also, of important practical bearing, and relating to subjects not recently reviewed, were freely proposed, and, in most instances, readily answered. In fact, every variety of method was put in operation to test the fidelity of the teachers and the ability and acquirements of the pupils.

The examinations continued for a fortnight, every forenoon being given to literary work in the Library Hall, and every afternoon to military drill and evolutions on the parade-ground. In the Library Hall the members of the Examining Board and the professors sat at a semicircular table, in front of which were three large blackboards in frames. The cadets marched in to the tap of the drum, in squads of eight or ten, one being sent to each blackboard to solve a question proposed, and one standing with arms folded, to answer oral questions. "These were put at him with small mercy and with rigid impartiality. Unless promptly answered he received an unfavorable mark. Whenever a cadet at the blackboard had completed his work he faced about, folded his arms, and waited till called upon for explanation of his work. The regular business of the other cadets, in study and recitation. continued as though no examination was going on."

Cadet Burnside was pronounced by the examiners the finest looking and most soldier-like of the corps, and he was found equally ready when demonstrating mathemati cal problems on the blackboard, or executing manœuvres on the field. One day he was questioned on the preliminary steps and surveys necessary to the laying out of a

line of railway in any new location, and the requisite calculations in excavating, filling, etc. On another day he was examined on the principle which controlled the relative positions in line of the several companies in a regiment, and upon the evolutions of regiments and brigades. One afternoon the cadets, organized as a battalion of four companies, were under examination in military movements, and as had been arranged - General Oliver successively called several cadet-privates from the ranks, placed them in command of the battalion, and directed them to perform several evolutions. Among those singled out was Cadet Burnside, who had distinguished himself at the blackboard in the forenoon, and who without hesitation took command of the battalion, and gave the requisite words of command for the execution of six evolutions, which he saw were promptly executed.

The board, in its report, expressed itself satisfied that the several branches of science prescribed in the academic course had been faithfully studied and skillfully taught, and that the academy had well sustained the high reputation which had always been conceded to it.

Cadet Burnside's standing for the last year that he was at West Point was: Engineering, 24; Ethics, 26; Artillery Duty, 18; Infantry Tactics, 8; Mineralogy and Geology, 29, and General Merit, 18. The class had been reduced to thirty, and Burnside's relative standing when he graduated was eighteen. At last the severe questionings were ended, the final ordeal was passed, the graduating diplomas were handed to Burnside and his comrades, and the class of '47 hastened to

"Doff the cadet and don the brevet,

And change the gray for the blue."

RATES AND GAMBLERS--ARRIVAL AT VERA

CRUZ MARCH

TO THE HALLS OF THE MONTEZUMAS-RETURN TO THE UNI-
TED STATES.

T

HE war with Mexico, whatever may be thought

of the causes which provoked it, showed that the dimensions of the moral and physical power of the people of the United States were far greater than had been supposed. For upwards of thirty years, with the exception of difficulties with the Indians, the Republic had been at peace with all mankind. The men who were to carry the stars and stripes into the land of the Montezumas were, with a comparatively few exceptions, unused to the privations and requirements of martial life. It was said of Carnot, the great French war minister, that in his office at Paris, his mind was capable of accurately surveying the battle-plains of Europe, and "organizing victory"; that to his genius the arms of France owed as much for their success as they did to the general, who in the midst of the strife held aloft the eagles of the republic; and men who in an hundred fields had cheerfully encountered the bayonet and the hail of battle, knew the ascription to be just, and proudly and honestly acknowledged

its truth.

What Carnot had to do for France, President Polk, during the Mexican War, had to do for the United States. To find at any time commanders capable and brave is not difficult; but to raise, organize, equip, and provide with all the munitions of war, an invading army, is not so easy of accomplishment. To do this is to "organize victory," and this did Mr. Polk. The records of the country show that in an incredibly short space of time nearly one hundred thousand soldiers — regulars and volunteers were placed, with all the means of attack and defense, on the territory of the enemy; and that this large body, under the lead of skillful officers, were, in fulfillment of the instructions of the government, converged from different points on the Mexican capital, and conquered peace.

Young Burnside passed the last few months of his cadetship amid the excitement of battle bulletins, which recorded the persevering marches, the impetuous courage, and the resistless daring of the army to which he was soon to belong. With the long-coveted commission, dated July 1, 1847,― the dream of his boyhood and the stimulus of his youth,― came an order to proceed to the city of Mexico, by the way of New Orleans, and there join his regiment, the Second Artillery.

Joining a classmate at Baltimore, the two embryo officers started across the mountains to descend the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. But a short distance of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad had been completed, and the Alleghanies were crossed in a stage-coach. The back seat of the vehicle was occupied by two Sisters of Charity on the way from the "Maison Mere," at Paris, to the Convent of the Sacred Heart, at St. Louis, and on the front seat were three western jewelers who had been making