Enlisted men of good character, and belonging to batteries not stationed at the post where the Artillery School is established, are also permitted to enjoy the benefits of one year's course of instruction at the school. Such men, on their own application, are nominated by their battery commanders to their regimental commanders, on whose approval they are detached from their batteries, by orders from the head-quarters of the Army, and directed to report themselves in person to the commanding officer of the school. Of this last-named class of men twenty-two have undergone or are now undergoing instruction at the school. The course of instruction for the non-commissioned officers is both practical and theoretical. The practical course is pursued pari passu with that of the commissioned officers, but is not carried to the same extent, being restricted to the scope of the necessary duties and requirements of non-commissioned officers of artillery, and to the average capacity of enlisted men of that grade in our Army. The theoretical course of instruction for the non-commissioned officers embraces mathematics, history of the United States, geography, reading, and writing. The subject of mathematics includes the entire field of arithmetic, and, for the more advanced scholars, it is carried as far as equations of the second degree in algebra. The instruction in most of the branches is conducted as in the school for commissioned officers, by recitations at the blackboard, and by questions. Since the commencement of the duties of the Artillery School one hundred and three enlisted men (chiefly non-commissioned officers) have gone through the entire course of practical and theoretical instruction for one year, and have been awarded by the staff of the school engraved certificates, signed by each of its members, setting forth that fact. The following-named officers constitute the staff and instructors at the school at the present date, and, with the above-stated exceptions, have been thus on duty since its first establishment: Commandant-Colonel W. F. Barry, Second Artillery. Superintendent of Theoretical Instruction.-Lieutenant-Colonel I. Roberts, Fourth Artillery. Superintendent of Practical Instruction.-Major G. A. De Russy, Third Artil lery. Member of Staff.-Major T. G. Baylor, Ordnance Department. Adjutant of School and Secretary of Staff.-First Lieutenant I. C. Breckinridge, Second Artillery. Instructor in Mathematics, Ordnance, and Gunnery.—Captain R. Lodor, Fourth Artillery. Instructor in Military, International, and Constitutional Law, and in Tactics.— Captain S. S. Elder, First Artillery. Instructor in Mathematics and Military Engineering.-Captain S. N. Benjamin, Second Artillery. Instructor in Mathematics and Military History.-Captain E. R. Warner, Third Artillery. Instructor in Tactics.-Captain J. W. Piper, Fifth Artillery. A library of books of reference, professional instruction and general reading, to the number of 2,050 volumes, belongs to the school, made up of duplicates from the libraries of the War Department and the Military Academy, and a bequest of Col. Archer. A museum of field, siege, and sea-coast artillery; specimens of primers, fuses, and projectiles; different varieties of small arms of this and other countries; instruments for inspecting cannon and projectiles, has been commenced by the Superintendent, as a useful aid to the course of practical and theoretical instruction in the school. It now numbers over 4,000 articles. The Artillery School has been organized and conducted thus far to the satisfaction of the Department, and favor, with this arm of the service, without any special pecuniary expense to the Govern 'ment by the present Commandant, Col. William F. Barry-who closes his annual Report with the remarkable paragraph:-" No special appropriation (beyond the ordinary requirements of this Military Post) for the maintenance of this school are now needed, and none are required." VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE AT LEXINGTON. HISTORICAL NOTICE. THE VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE at Lexington, was established in 1839, and was organized and conducted from the start on the plan of the Military Academy at West Point, by Col. Francis H. Smith, a graduate of that institution of the class of 1833, and professor there from 1834 to 1836. The State makes an annual appropriation of $15,000 for its support, on the basis of which a certain number (usually 36) cadets are admitted without charge; in consideration of which they are required to teach in some school of the State for two years after graduation. In the selection of State cadets regard is had to their capacity to profit, and inability to pay the expenses of tuition and board, and an equal representation of each senatorial district. Any commissioned officer of the militia of the State can become a student for a period not exceeding ten months, and receive instruction in any or all departments of military science taught therein, without charge for tuition. The course of instruction was from the start distinctly scientific, and since its return [from Richmond where it was removed after the destruction of its building and library, when Lexington was taken possession of by Gen. Hunter] in 1866, and its reorganization on its present basis of a general School of Applied Science, it has become even technic in reference to all the chief industries and natural resources of Virginia. The origin and military character of the Institute are thus set forth by the Superintendent in an address to the Corps of Cadets, Sept. 10, 1866: ter. Peculiar circumstances gave to this Institution its distinctive military charac Here the State had a deposit of arms, in an arsenal, which had been established for many years before the organization of the Institution, and the annuity which had been formerly given to the public guard by the State, was transferred to the Virginia Military Institute, as the basis of its support. Upon this foundation the Virginia Military Institute was established, and as the duty imposed upon the cadet was military, so military discipline and military instruction became an essential and distinctive feature in the education it supplied. Besides daily exercises in the school of the soldier, company, and battalion in infantry, and of the piece and battery in artillery tactics, minute instruction is given in the class-room, upon all the theoretic branches of the military art, embracing, in addition to those enumerated, ordnance and gunnery, military strategy and military history, and the principles and practice of field and permanent fortifications. It is not necessary that I should say any thing, at this time, to vindicate the completeness of the arrangements made in this institution for theoretical and practical military education. The sanguinary conflict which has just closed has fully tested its efficiency. One-tenth of the Confederate Armies was commanded by the éléves of this school, embracing three major generals, thirty brigadier generals, sixty colonels, fifty lieutenant colonels, thirty majors, one hundred and twenty-five captains, between two and three hundred lieutenants; and the terrible results of the battles, in numbering one hundred and twenty-five of these among the killed, and three hundred and fifty among the wounded, show that the éléves of this institution met the call of their country with an earnestness of devotion which places them in most honorable distinction for their heroic defense of what they believed to be right.* We give the organization and course of instruction from the latest Circular, issued by the Superintendent. Academic Staff. Superintendent, and Professor of Mathematics and Moral Philosophy-General Francis H. Smith, A. M. Professor of Latin, and English Literature-Col. John T. L. Preston, A. M. Professor of Practical Engineering, Architecture, and Drawing-Col. Thomas H. Williamson. Professor of Agriculture-Col. Wm. Gilham, A.M., (Philip St. George Cocke).† Professor of Animal and Vegetable Physiology applied to Agriculture-Col Robert L. Madison, M. D. (Mercer).‡ Commandant of Cadets, Instructor of Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery Tactics, and Professor of Military History and Strategy-Col. Scott Ship. Professor of Mathematics-Col. James W. Massie. Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy-Col. William B. Blair, (Jackson). Professor of Civil and Military Engineering and Applied Mechanics—General G. W. C. Lee. Professor of Practical Astronomy, Geology, Descriptive and Physical Geog raphy and Meteorology-Col. John M. Brooke. Professor of Geology, Mineralogy, and Metallurgy-Col. Marshall McDonald. Professor of Physics and Superintendent of Physical Survey of Virginia Commodore M. E. Maury, LL D. Professor of Fine Arts-Col. William D. Washington. Assistant Professors. Assistant in Physics-Col. W. E. Cutshaw. Assistant Professor of French Language-Capt. O. C. Henderson. Assistant Prof. of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology-Capt. J. H. Morrison. Assistant Prof. of Geography, Drawing and Tactics-Capt. Wm. B. Pritchard. Although no one institution contributed so large a number of officers to the Confederate Armies, the Military Institute at Frankfort, Ky., the Cadet Corps connected with the arsenals in Norfolk, Richmond, and other Southern cities, and the State Military Institutes in Alabama and Louisiana, furnished a large number of subordinate officers, which facilitated the early organization of the armed forces of the South. † Gen. Cocke, in 1866, gave $20,000 to endow this professorship. Assistant Professor of Mineralogy, Latin, and Tactics-Capt. W. H. Butler. Assistant Professor of Mathematics, &c.,-Capt. G. K. Macon. Surgeon-Col. R. L. Madison, Military Staff. Ass't Surgeon II. T. Barton, M.D. | Act'g Treasurer-Capt. W. A. Deas. Adjutant-Capt. F. H. Smith, Jr. III. SCHOOLS AND COURSES OF INSTRUCTION. Academic Schools. First Year-Fourth Class.-Arithmetic (Smith and Duke's); Algebra (Smith's); Geometry (Smith's Legendre); Plane and Spherical Trigonometry (Smith's); French (Levizac and La Porte's Grammar, Gil Blas, Pinney No. 5, Fasquelle); Geography (Maury); Pencil and Pen Drawing: Composition and Declamation; Latin (Cæsar, Virgil, Cicero, Horace). Second Year-Third Class.-Descriptive Geometry (Smith's); Analytical Geometry (Smith's Biot): Shades, Shadows and Perspective (Lectures); Differential and Integral Calculus (Courtenay and La Croix); Surveying (Field Exercise); French (Noel and Chapsal, Laporte and Collot, French Classics); Latin (Cæsar, Virgil, Livy, and Cicero); Mechanical Drawing, Composition, and Declamation; Physics (Ganot). Third Year-Second Class.-Natural Philosophy (Bartlett and Bouchalat's Mechanics, Bartlett's Optics and Acoustics, Bartlett and Gummere's Astronomy); Latin (Terence and Horace); Chemistry (Fownes, and Practical Instruction in Laboratory); Physical Geography (Somerville); Infantry Tactics. Fourth Year-First Class.-Civil Engineering (Mahan, Rankine, and Lectures); Military Engineering (Laisne, aide memoire); Architecture (Lectures and Drawing); Human Physiology (Kirke); Military History and Strategy (Jomini); Rhetoric (Blair); Intellectual Philosophy (Wayland); Logic (Whately); Moral Philosophy (Paley and Butler); Constitution of United States (Kent); Mineralogy (Dana); Geology (Gray and Adams); Infantry tactics (Hardee); Artillery and Orduance (Benton and United States Tactics). Special School of Applied Science. The Special School of Applied Science, in the Virginia Military Institute, is arranged in seven Courses, which may be prosecuted separately or in combination: 1. Architecture; 2. Civil Engineering; 3. Machines; 4. Mining; 5. Analytical and Applied Chemistry: 6. Metallurgy; 7. Agriculture. I. ARCHITECTURE.-1. Drawing-Including pen and colored topography, mechanical lettering and coloring. 2. Materials-Stone, brick, wood, mortar, mastics, glue, paints, &c. 3. Masonry-Retaining walls, walls of inclosure, edifices, ornaments, arches, stone-cutting. 4. Carpentry-Timbers, framing, beams, joints, floors, partitions, roofs, domes, centres, windows, stairways. 5. Foundations-In water, on land. 6. Classical Architecture-Orders, Egypt, Rome, Greece. 7. Design. 8. Romanesque. 9. Gothic. II. CIVIL ENGINEERING.-1. Drawing-Pen and colored topography, mechanical, etc. 2. Materials-Same as in Course of Architecture. 4. Carpentry— Same as in Course of Architecture. 5. Foundation-Same as in Course of Architecture. 6. Surveying-Running lines and curves for common and railroads, canals, leveling profiles, estimates, &c. 7. Bridges-Stone, Wooden, Iron. 8. Common Roads. 9. Railroads. 10. Tunnels. 11. Locomotives. 12. Canals. 13. Rivers, Docks, Harbors. 14. Mining. III.-MACHINES-GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MACHINES.-Muscular PowerPower of men, Power of horses, etc. Water Power and Wind Power-Sources of water for Power. Water-Power Engines in general. Water-Bucket En |