The encampment (my last) is now over, and we are once more
in barracks and to-morrow will commence our studies, commencing with Civil
Engineering. This year's course of study is by far the most important of the
four, as well as the most interesting, embracing as it does Engineering both
Civil and Military, the construction of fortifications as well as the manner of
attacking and defending them, Mineralogy and Geology, Rhetoric, Moral
Philosophy, International and Common Law, Artillery and Infantry Tactics, as
well as many other minor studies, which the scientific officer requires. When
these shall have been completed, and the next nine months shall have passed
away, we will receive diplomas and commissions in the army, and I hope a
furlough along with them. Of course we look forward with no common pleasure to
so fruitful a time as that; indeed, every circumstance which marks its approach
is duly celebrated and remembered; instance, the last night of our last
encampment.
SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, pp. 8-9
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