* * *
Bright are the moments link'd with thee,
Boast of a glory-hallowed land!
Hope of the valiant and the free,
Home of our youthful soldier band!
_Anonymous._
* * *
While Fort Putnam was being built Washington was advised that Dubois's
regiment was unfit to be ordered on duty, there being "not one blanket
in the regiment. Very few have either a shoe or a shirt, and most of
them have neither stockings, breeches, or overalls. Several companies
of inlisted artificers are in the same situation, and unable to work
in the field."
What privations were here endured to establish our priceless liberty!
It makes better Americans of us all to turn and re-turn the pages of
the real Hudson, the most picturesque volume of the world's history.
West Point during the Revolution was the Gibraltar of the Hudson
and her forts were regarded almost impregnable. Fort Putnam will be
rebuilt as an enduring monument to the bravery of American soldiers.
The best way to study West Point, however, is not in voluminous
histories or in the condensed pages of a guide book, but to visit it
and see its real life, to wander amid its old associations, and
ask, when necessary, intelligent questions, which are everywhere
courteously answered.
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