Where Did Cadets Live, Pt 1

This is a summary of a series that first appeared on my Instagram account.

A fan of the site asked about where cadets lived over the years. Over a series of posts, we’ll explore the first century of cadet living. From 1801 until 1815, the main cadet housing was the wooden Long Barracks, aka the Yellow Barracks, on Trophy Point near the current Battle Monument. It was definitely painted a yellow ochre color at times. It predated the Academy & may have been built during the Revolution, but that’s a topic for another day.

The Long Barracks, as shown in an 1820s engraving by Milbert. Source: New York Public Library

The location of the Long Barracks in relation to current buildings. Base Map: Google Earth.

The Long Barracks was two stories with external stairs & stoops. On the western end was an addition used as a jail. The barracks had large basic rooms with open fireplaces. Cadets had to saw their own wood & retrieve water down the hill over the edge of the Plain in the vicinity of the band shell. Cadets occupied the upper floor & soldiers the lower. In 1815 cadets moved to new barracks & the Long Barracks were thereafter often called the Bombardier Barracks because artillery soldiers occupied it. Some families lived in it as well.

The Long Barracks based on an 1818 map. Source” Author

The Long Barracks burned early on the morning of 20 February 1826. Some histories get the date really wrong and say that the fire was in December or in 1825 or 1827, but the day is supported by multiple sources. For example, on the day of the blaze, the post Quartermaster Aeneas Mackay sent a letter to Quartermaster General Thomas Jessup:

I have the honor to report to you that about 5 O’Clock this morning the Barracks occupied by Company A of the 2° Reg of Artillery stationed at this post and the Military Academy Band, took fire and in the course of two hours was burnt to the ground.- February 20, 1826

There are also cadet accounts of the fire. The conflagration may have started in the guard room when a soldier fell asleep. The old wooden building was engulfed before a bucket brigade could even be formed. Cadets rushed to the scene & helped save the soldiers & families living there. No lives were reported lost! Cadet Albert Church recalled the following in his memoirs, and this is my favorite West Point quote of all time:

I think before a single pail of water was thrown upon it, the whole building was in flames, and with nearly all its contents, save the men, their families, and the largest and most confused collection of large rats that I ever saw, was consumed, even the guns of the soldiers in the guard-rooms.

A view of the Long Barracks in the 1822-1825 time frame. Artist: John Hill. Source: NYPL

Next in the series will be the old South Barracks!

Selected Sources:

Church, Albert E. Personal reminiscences of the Military Academy from 1824 to 1831 : a paper read to the U.S. Military Service Institute, West Point, March 28, 1878. United States Military Academy Library Special Collections.

Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. "West Point at the Moment of Exercise" New York Public Library Digital Collections.