Minutes of the Board of Visitors of The Citadel, 1856

Minutes of the Board of Visitors of The Citadel, 1856

Official minutes of the governing body of The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina.

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The Citadel Board of Visitor Meeting Minutes

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English

Text

https://citadeldigitalarchives.omeka.net/items/show/371

Charleston (S.C.)

21 pages ; 32 cm

[Page 1]
Columbia June 27th 1856

At a special meeting of the Board of Visitors at the call of the Chairman this day at Columbia, present James Jones Chairman Genl. D. F. Jamison Genl. J. H. Means and Genl. R. G. M. Dunovant the following resolutions were unanimously adopted viz.

Resolved 1st That the Board have heard, with heart felt sorrow, of the death of Capt. Joseph Matthews, late Superintendent of the Arsenal Academy, who by his high & unparalleled qualities as an officer, commanded our admiration & respect, and by his amiable deportment as a gentleman, had won our cordial love & esteem.

2nd That the Arsenal Academy owes much of its success to the devoted attention and judicious management of Capt. Matthews, and that in his death it has sustained an inceparable loss.

3rd That we hereby tender to the widow of the deceased, our kindest sympathy in her sad bereavement.

4th That we invite Mrs. Matthews to retain her present residence at the Arsenal until the 1st January next, and that as a slight token of our appreciation of the distinguished services rendered for the Arsenal Academy by Capt. Matthews, we tender to her the privilege of educating his eldest son at the State Military Academies, free of charge.

5th That a copy of the above resolutions be sent to Mrs. Matthews & be published in the papers of the city.

[Page 2]
The following orders were also agreed to & passed viz.

1st That Capt. C. C. Tew be transferred to the command of the Arsenal Academy as Superintendent Professor and Bursar and appointed Arsenal Keeper and Powder Receiver at Columbia

2nd That Lieutenant P. F. Stevens be promoted to the rank of Captain to start from this day.

3rd That the salary of the senior First Lieutenant J. B. White Prof. of Mathematics be increased to sixteen hundred dollars per annum, and that he be retained at the Arsenal Academy in conformity with his request.

4th That Second Lieutenant J. P. Thomas be promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant to start from this day: and that he be transferred to the Citadel Academy as Professor of Belles Lettres Ethics and French with a salary of sixteen hundred dollars per annum from the time of such transfer.

5th That the Board will forthwith proceed so an election of a Professor of Belles Lettres History and French for the Arsenal Academy with the rank of Second Lieutenant, who shall be ordered to report for only on the 1st of July next & take start of rank from that day.

6th That the transfers above ordered in the 1st & 4th paragraphs be made on the first of January next and that Lieutenant J. B. White remain in command at the Arsenal Academy, as Superintendent and Bursar of the Academy and Arsenal Keeper and Powder Receiver at Columbia ad interim

The Board then proceeded to an election for

[Page 3]
Professor ordered in paragraph 5th and Henry D. Kennedy was unanimously elected.

[Page 4]
At the annual meeting of the Board of Visitors held at the office of Gen Jones on Friday Nov 28th 1856 and continued by adjournment until

Present Nov 28th 1856

Gen James Jones Chairman
His Excellency Gov J. H. Adams
Generals D. F. Jamison, Means, Wallace and Col I. D. Wilson and Gen Dunovant Adjt Gen

The report of the Superintendent of the Arsenal Academy was read when it was

Resolved

That the suspension of cadets

Burns (beneficiary Anderson Dist)
Black (pay – Richland Dist)
Cannon (beneficiary Charleston Dist)
Cotchett (pay Charleston)

be confirmed and that they be dismissed and that the case of cadet Scott lie over for consideration.

That Cadets Mills (pay) Harris Snow Meetze and Sitgreaves (ben) be retained in the 4th class for another year.

That Cadets Ashley Ragsdale and Klinck be discharged

[Page 5]
Resolved

That the following cadets be transferred from the Arsenal Academy to the Citadel Academy to constitute the 3rd class 1st January 1857

Pay
1 Caine
2 Coleman
3 Crawford
4 Creswell
5 Davant
6 Dwight
7 Erwin
8 Farley
9 Gaillard
10 Gillam
11 Hamilton
12 Harleston
13 Heriot
14 Heyward
15 Hunter
16 Law
17 Lewis
18 Macbeth
19 Muirhead
20 Nesbit
21 Ramsey J.
22 Ramsay W.
23 Reynolds
24 Stoney
25 Strohecker
26 Tennent
27 Ward
28 White
29 Yates

Benf
1 Alison
2 Burrows
3 Connor
4 Crum
5 Green
6 Hart
7 Hutchinson
8 Kerby
9 Norris
10 Palmer
11 Stevens
12 Sutherland
13 Vardell
14 Webb B.
15 Webb L.
16 Wilson
17 Wright

Resolved

That Cadets Heriot & Nesbit be allowed to report on the 1st of January next at the Arsenal or Citadel at the option of their parents or guardians

That the applications of Cadets Harper, W. Adams, Huguenin and

[Page 6]
Calhoun for furlough until the 1st January next, be not granted.

That Cadet Bryan’s application to be continued with his class be granted on condition that he pass his examination at the Citadel on the 1st of January 1857.

Resolved

That the surgeons of the Military Academies shall attend to their duties in person and not by deputy.

The Board then proceeded to an election to fill the vacancy in the office of surgeon of the Arsenal Academy, occasioned by the death of Dr. A. H. Nagel, whereupon Dr. A. W. Kennedy was duly elected.

The accounts of the Bursars of the Arsenal and Citadel Academies were then reported by Col. I. D. Wilson to have been examined & found correct except an error in addition by Capt Matthews in voucher 57 of ten (10) dollars.

[Page 7]
Saturday Nov 29 1856

Present

Generals Jones, Jamison, Means, Gov. Adams, Col. Wilson and Gen. Dunovant

The Report of the Superintendent of the Citadel Academy was taken up & read, when it was

Resolved

That the suspension of Cadet W. D. Douglas be approved and that he be expelled from the Citadel Academy.

That the suspension of Cadet J. L. Coker be approved and that he be expelled from the Academy for his conduct subsequent to his suspension.

That Cadets Strohecker, DuBose and Whetstone and Parker be retained in the 3rd class.

That the applications of Cadets J. Adams & Mangum for furloughs until the 1st of January be not granted.

That Cadet McDowell be retained in the 2nd class.

That Cadet Hemingway’s application to become a beneficiary cadet be not granted.

Resolved that Cadet W. G. Wilson’s name be transferred from the Colleton to the Charleston list.

[Page 8]
That Robert Mayraut’s application to be re-admitted into the Arsenal Academy be refused.

That hereafter the term “Beneficiary Cadet” be substituted by the term “State Cadet.”

Resolved That the 26th Art of the Regulations which was repealed at the last annual meeting of the Board, be and it is hereby restored.

Resolved

That so much of the 4th clause of the order of the 27th June 1856 as transfers Prof. J. P. Thomas to the Citadel Academy be rescinded and that Prof. J. B. White be transferred to the Citadel Academy to the charge of the department of mathematics etc.

That Prof. P. F. Stevens be transferred to the department of Belles Lettres, Ethics, French, etc. and that Prof. Kennedy shall take charge of the department of mathematics made vacant by the transfer of Prof. White to the Citadel Academy.

Resolved

That the following named persons be appointed to the Arsenal Academy to report on 1st January 1857 as State Cadets, viz

[Page 9]
State Pupils for 1857

James M. Duke – Anderson
James Wooten – Beaufort
Philip P. Murray – Beaufort
Fred W. Miller – Charleston
Wm. H. Bartless – Charleston
M. V. Ross – Charleston
H. M. Lofton – Charleston
T. R. Malone – Charleston
M. Scott – Charleston
Nicholas Wilson – Chester
Wm. G. Green – Colleton
J. Brockman – Edgefield
Nat Cox – Edgefield
Jas. H. Burns – Kershaw
Wm. W. Patterson – Lancaster
R. D. Cooper – Marion
David Bray – Spartanburg
Wm. G. Richardson – Williamsburg

[Page 10]
And that the following named persons be appointed pay pupils at the Arsenal Academy for the year 1857 – viz

Pay Pupils for 1857

W. C. Vance – Abbeville
H. Belcher – Abbeville
Clark Wardlaw – Abbeville
T. C. White – Abbeville
S. V. Pickens – Anderson
Colin Campbell – Anderson
A. C. Earle – Anderson
M. P. Simkins – Barnwell
C. E. Lartigue – Barnwell
W. M. Steedman – Barnwell
W. F. Ewbanks – Barnwell
J. W. Rice – Barnwell
S. S. Dunbar – Barnwell
G. F. L. Hartzog – Barnwell
W. B. Guerard – Beaufort
Stewart Simkins – Beaufort
J. C. Davant – Beaufort
T. F. Nichols – Beaufort
Francis Porcher – Beaufort
J. P. Morrison – Beaufort
H. T. Sams – Beaufort
P. H. Tison – Beaufort
Wilson Smith – Beaufort
Robert Sams – Beaufort
C. P. Besselleu – Beaufort
R. F. Bostick – Beaufort
E.L. Tillinghast – Beaufort
Thos. Palmer – Charleston
S. P. Chisolm – Charleston
J. C. Palmer – Charleston
J. S. Bee – Charleston
Jas. Thurston – Charleston
S. C. Boylston – Charleston
T. B. Hayne – Charleston
W. J. Barker – Charleston
B. W. Norton – Charleston
J. J. Coward – Charleston
M. V. Bancroft– Charleston
R. G. Shoolbred – Charleston
Eben Coffin – Charleston
J. B. Legare – Charleston
J. A. Keith – Charleston
D. C. Joye – Charleston
Ed. Ravenel – Charleston
H. S. Inglesby – Charleston
Mitchell King – Charleston
T. Mikell – Charleston
Chas. Ragsdale – Chester
L. S. Douglass – Chester
H. A. Blue – Chesterfield
R. C. Richardson – Clarendon
R. L. Billups – Clarendon

[Page 11]
Thos. M. Rembert – Claremont
Priestly Colclough – Claremont
Alex. Colclough – Claremont
Geo. E. Haynesworth – Claremont
T. E. Raysor – Colleton
E. W. Fraser – Colleton
Henry Boineau – Colleton
T. J. Dargan – Darlington
J. Ferguson – Darlington
J. L. S. Dove – Darlington
R. K. Charles – Darlington
Randall Croft – Edgefield
J. A. C. Jones – Edgefield
J. M. Jones – Edgefield
J. T. Norris – Edgefield
Waldo Smith – Edgefield
J. R. Carwile – Edgefield
J. T. Hall – Fairfield
N. P. Lyles – Fairfield
E. R. Anderson – Fairfield
Wm. E. June – Fairfield
W. P. Thorn – Fairfield
Wm. Strother – Fairfield
J. S. Austin – Greenville
W. M. Prior – Georgetown
Wm. S. Lee – Kershaw
J. J. Workman – Kershaw
T. M. Wylie – Lancaster
H. L. Garlington – Laurens
John Watts – Laurens
W. F. Irby – Laurens
J. H. Irby Jr. – Laurens
J. Quattlebum – Lexington
R. B. Geiger – Lexington
W. H. Geiger – Lexington
D. J. Hentz – Newberry
Washington Glover – Orangeburg
Robert Bryce – Richland
Wm F. Roath – Richland
William Watson – Richland
Walker Vinson – Richland
S. H. Sheldon – Spartanburg
Wm. M. Tucker – Union
R. A. Flagler – Williamsburg
S. P. Matthews – Williamsburg
J. H. Witherspoon – York

[Page 12]
And that the following named persons be appointed pay pupils at the Citadel Academy for the 3rd class of 1857 viz.

J. L. Wardlaw – Abbeville
Frank de Caradeue – Barnwell
J. L. Moses – Claremont
J. M. Chisolm – Charleston
Jenkins Lachicotte – Charleston
J. M. Whilden – Charleston
Seabrook Jenkins – Colleton

Resolved that diplomas of the institution be conferred upon the following named cadets –

J. F. Lanneau
W. R. Erwin
J. G. Steedman
E. M. Law
E. Croft
H. S. Thompson
J. D. Nance
J. A. Evans
G. A. Ross
L. F. Dozier
R. M. Simms
R. Y. Dwight
A. M. McAllister
J. A. Finch
A. Y. Lee

[Page 13]
Monday Dec. 1 1856

Present

Generals Jones, Jamison, Means & Col. Wilson –

Ordered that the Chairman be empowered to light the Military Academies with gas and to make all arrangements necessary to that end.

Ordered – That the Chairman of the Board be allowed to draw one hundred dollars ($100) to be expended for repairs of Lieut. White’s quarters, Citadel.

Ordered – That the furlough of Cadet T. H. Law be extended to January 1st 1857.

Ordered that the list of distinguished cadets be published in both the papers of the city of Columbia.

Ordered that Capt. Tew take charge of the department of French in the Arsenal Academy.

Ordered

That Cadets Tennent, Davis, Manget, Thomas, Walpole, Black, Moore, D’Oyley, Mangum, Hemingway, Adams, Bedon, McCreary, Harper, Gaillard, Hart, Garmany, Garden, Campbell & Capers be advanced to the First Class.

That Cadets Law, Layton, Litchfield, Shooter, Huguenin, Youmans, Adams, Lythgoe, Weatherly, Calhoun, Cothran, Ramsay, Ray, Young, White, McDowell, McCaslan, Mitchell, Spears, Farley, Garvin, Smith, Marshall be advanced to the Second Class.

The Board then proceeded

[Page 14]
to fill the vacancy in the office of Secretary of the Board of Visitors occasioned by the death of Capt. Matthews and Henry Kennedy was elected his term of office to date from July 1st 1856.

The case of Cadet Scott – suspended for having received two hundred demerits – the consideration of which was postponed on the 28th Nov. was then later taken up & his suspension confirmed and he was dismissed.

The annual report of the Board was then read and it was resolved that it be adopted and sent to the House of the Legislature.

[Page 15]
Report of the Board of Visitors of the State Military Academies – 1856

To the Honorable the General Assembly of South Carolina

The Board of Visitors of the State Military Academies beg leave to submit the following report

Since their last annual meeting, they have been called on to deplore the loss of two of the officers of the Arsenal Academy, in the death of Capt. Joseph Matthews, the Superintendent, and of Dr. A. H. Nagel, the surgeon. Capt. Matthews was connected with that institution since its commencement; and the high state of discipline which has been maintained there, and much of the success which has attended it, may be attributed to his ability as an instructor, and the great fidelity and zeal with which he discharged all his duties.

The Board have just concluded their annual examinations at the two Academies, and the results gave very satisfactory evidence of the manner in which the Faculty in both institutions had discharged their duties during the past year.

The Board regret that the recurrence of yellow fever in the city of Charleston, during the past summer, forced them to remove the cadets from the Citadel to the Arsenal Academy until all danger from that cause had been removed. While the Citadel

[Page 16]
Academy is in its present flourishing condition the Board would be unwilling to recommend any change; but they apprehend that it may be necessary, if the causes of removal shall become of frequent occurrence, to provide for the consolidation of the two Academies, either at Columbia or at some other place, to be fixed on by the Legislature.

It was found, upon the removal of the Cadets from the Citadel, that the quarters assigned them at the Arsenal were wholly insufficient for their comfortable accommodation; and as the Cadet quarters at the latter post will be equally crowded at the commencement of the next term, by the unusually large number of admissions made this year, the Board have thought proper to refer it to your honorable body to inquire into the expediency of enlarging the quarters for the Cadets, by an appropriation for one additional wing to be erected at the Arsenal.

The present graduating class consisted of sixteen – fifteen of whom received the diplomas conferred by the institution.

At the annual meeting of the Board on the 28th Nov. last, there were thirty three pay and seventeen state cadets remaining at the Citadel Academy; twenty nine pay and seventeen state cadets were ordered to be transferred from the Arsenal to the Citadel Academy;

[Page 17]
one pay and four state cadets were retained at the Arsenal – making at present in the institutions sixty three pay and thirty eight state cadets. There were appointed at the same time ninety nine pay and eighteen state applicants to enter the Arsenal Academy and six pay cadets to enter the third class at the Citadel Academy; so that on the first of January next, there will be in the Citadel Academy, sixty eight pay and thirty four state cadets, and at the Arsenal one hundred pay and twenty two state cadets – making in the aggregate two hundred and twenty four cadets in the Military Academies.

Two years ago the Board represented to your honorable body the necessity of making a small appropriation for the purchase of a library for the use of the cadets of the Military Academies, and the sum of five hundred dollars was recommended and agreed to, by your honorable body, but by some means it failed to be put in the appropriation bill, and of course it could not be drawn. The Board would reiterate the necessity for a library, and ask your honorable body to make an appropriation for that purpose.

The Legislature appropriated at its last session the sum of six thousand dollars for the erection of a building at the Arsenal for the accommodation of the professors of that institution and which sum was to be expended

[Page 18]
under the direction of the Board. The building has been completed – it is now occupied by the professors, and it has increased to some extent the accommodations of the cadets.

The Board make the following report of the receipts and expenditures for the fiscal year from October 1 1855 to September 30th 1856, for a more specific account of which they refer to the annual accounts of the Bursars of the two Academies, herewith transmitted, accompanied by the proper vouchers.

Assets
Balance unexpended Oct 1 1855 - $3445.10 Received from appropriations for support of Academies – 30010.00
Received from pay cadets from Oct 1 1855 to Sept 30 1856 – 18625.00
Received from sale of clothing and old iron – 39.06 Received from appropriation for “additional building’ – 6000.00
[Total] – 58119.16

Disbursements
Paid for salaries of officers – 11363.30
Paid for subsistence of cadets – 11827.22
Paid for clothing of cadets – 9155.82
Paid for washing – 2094.10
Paid for hire of servants – 1951.44
Paid for music – 323.06
Paid for contingencies including fuel, lights, books, stationery, medicines, chemicals, etc. – 9015.85
Paid for permanent improvements including additional building at the Arsenal – 9517.30
Paid for repairs to old building – 1036.20

[Page 19]
Paid for meteorological instruments – 98.50
Paid for Magazine Guard near Charleston – 1038.71 Unexpended balance – 2697.66
[Total] $58119.16

The balance as appears by the above statement is $2697.66 but there are outstanding claims which will absorb the greater portion of the amount.

An abstract from the reports of the Arsenal Keepers at Charleston and Columbia is herewith submitted: also exhibit (B) which gives the number of cadets appointed: of those who failed to report; of those rejected, honorably discharged, discharged for deficiency. Re, from January 1 1843 to Nov 27th 1856.

Respectfully submitted
James Jones Chairman

Columbia December 1856

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[See chart on original copy.]

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[See chart on original copy.]