Delaware Military Academy, 1859 – 1862

By B. Franklin Cooling, III *

The PMC Colleges in Chester, Pennsylvania celebrates its sesquicentennial in 1971. It numbers among its antecedents several institutions closely tied to the history of educational development in Delaware. One such institution, a small military academy, sprang up in Wilmington in an era when martial enthusiasm generated other well-known military schools in the nation including the Virginia Military Institute, The Citadel, and Norwich University. Delaware Military Academy, founded by Colonel Theodore Hyatt in 1859, was spawned amidst the political tensions which stirred in slaveholding Delaware just prior to the Civil War.  It survived long enough to send a small coterie of alumni to the bloody battlegrounds of that conflict.

An old chestnut has it that Americans are a martial but unmilitary people. Certainly ante-bellum America was not unsympathetic to martial practices. An idea took root that education of young men could be conducted profitably along lines resembling those of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Military schools tended to be established in periods when war was either a recent phenomenon or a future possibility. 1 And, so it was with Delaware Military Academy.

Neither the idea of a military academy nor the personage of Theodore Hyatt were strangers to Wilmingtonians in 1859. Several earlier attempts to establish a military institution, while failing to reach fruition, had laid the groundwork for the Hyatt endeavor.

As early as 1846 the Reverend Corry Chambers had sought to convert his Wilmington Literary Institute into a military academy with collegiate powers. The new endeavor was to be called the American Literary, Scientific and Military Institute. Persuasive help for the clergyman’s efforts had come from Captain Alden Partridge, sometime controversial Superintendent of West Point, the founder of the future Norwich University, and intellectual godfather to numerous military schools in various sections of the country. Chambers’ efforts foundered upon the very ill health which eventually claimed the clergy man’s life in 1847. 2

Partridge persisted in his efforts to establish a military in Delaware. He set up the National Scientific and College at Brandywine Springs (near Wilmington) in 1853. This endeavor ended in a fire which destroyed the school building on December 8 of that year. Partridge himself died a month later. 3

Elsewhere in Wilmington another private boys school had ben in operation since 1851 under the tutelage of Theodore Hyatt, a graduate of the College of New Jersey at Princeton. Hyatt had emigrated to Wilmington in 1849 when he assumed the principalship of a private school under the auspices of the First Presbyterian Church. The young educator then established his own school, the Educational Institute, located at Tenth and Market streets in Wilmington, in 1851. 4

Hyatt espoused an educational philosophy which stressed parental cooperation, strong Christian influence and severe discipline. By 1853 he had purchased the well-established Quaker school begun in 1820 or 1821 by John Bullock. Hyatt set up quarters in the Bullock building at Ninth and Tatnall streets, and after 1855 the new institution became known as Theodore Hyatt’s Select School for Boys. 5

The Hyatt school prospered and increased in popularity from 1855 to 1858. Then, in the latter year, the young headmaster decided to include military drill and uniforms as a required part of the curriculum. The reasons for his action are by no means clear. Legend would have it that Hyatt wandered into the school gymnasium one day to discover his pupils drilling with broomsticks, and at that time he struck upon the idea of introducing military training. Possibly Hyatt’s pupils did drill with broomsticks in the autumn of 1858, but more from necessity than accident. The principal had announced the inclusion of infantry drill and uniforms in a circular printed in the summer of that year, for the fall term. Thus, if Hyatt’s students drilled with makeshift weapons, it was because their headmaster had not yet discovered a source for real arms. 6

Hyatt’s true reasons for the military instruction will probably remain elusive. Perhaps he was an opportunist taking advantage of the slowly emerging martial fever in Delaware in this decade. Developments at another private school in Wilmington may have led Hyatt to fear competition. One local newspaper noted in the spring of 1858: “The students at St. Mary’s College have formed a military company, and intend to make formal application on the government of the Stat for arms ….” 7

Then, too, Hyatt had   been a New York State militiaman before coming to Delaware. He was probably acquainted with the efforts of both the Reverend Chambers and Captain Partridge to deve1op a military institution in the Blue Hen   state. Opportunism, glamor of innovative programs, or belief in the educational value of military instruction may have all appealed to the dynamic Theodore Hyatt.

Whatever the motive, the school’s circular in 1858 clarified the situation:

Infantry drill has been introduced into the School for the purpose of cleanly and systematic exercise which it affords.  This is practiced upon the ample play-grounds of the school, and is of vast benefit to the students, after confinement to the school room for several hours.

The Infantry Drill, in which all the students are expected to participate, is part of the regular school exercises. It has been introduced to impart systematic physical exercise to the students. This especially develops the muscles, expands the chest, imparts an erect gentlemanly carriage, and inculcates ha bits of order and neatness.

It is not intended, however, to supersede the freer exercise which boys always find when left at the gymnasium or upon the playground, and which is essential to vivacity of spirits. But, it is designed to add the carriage of a gentleman to a well-developed physical constitution. 8

Hyatt’s “cadets” cut quite a martial air in their new uniforms of dark blue with gilt buttons and black cap. By 1858 some 83 students attended the institution from such distant states as Nebraska, Georgia, Mississippi, Ohio, and Texas as well as from the Middle Atlantic states.” 9

Confident of his new endeavor, Hyatt sought legislative sanction for his military school in 1859.  He especially wished to secure collegiate powers for the institution, and his efforts met with success when the legislature of Delaware convened in January of that year. An act of the legislature incorporated the Delaware Military Academy on February 16, 1859, as a further supplement to an act which had incorporated the Wilmington Literary Institute in 1843.  All the franchises, rights, powers, and privileges were allowed to continue for 20 years from 1859. 10

The adoption of such incorporation appeared to be little more than a name change reflecting the changes of the previous fall at Hyatt’s institution. But it was more than just that in the eyes of   Theodore Hyatt. It marked the beginning of an entirely new aspect of education. While the Delaware Military Academy was the physical offspring of the Hyatt academy, it was the descendant of the Reverend Corry  Chabers’ Wilmington Literary Institute.  As such it possessed much larger powers and privileges than it had enjoyed as the Hyatt School. It received incorporation from the state legislature, not as a new institution, but as ne whose corporate structure started in 1843, and not as an academy, but as an institute of higher learning with collegiate powers.

Hyatt was elected president of the new institution. His new board of trustees numbered some 15 prominent citizens of Wilmington, eight of whom had been in some measure connected with previous attempts to found a military school. 11 Two of the members were to become the center of an arms controversy with Hyatt which  undoubtedly contributed to Delaware Military Academy’s leaving the state several years later.

Hyatt wasted no time in applying to the state for arms once incorporation had been accomplished. On April 19, 1859, Governor William Burton gave the order issuing the arms. The state arsenal provided 80 sword bayonets, 80 cartridge boxes, 14 light artillery sabres, 40 rifles, and two pieces of field artillery. 12

The military organization of the school proceeded rapidly. On April 25, Burton appointed and commissioned Theodore Hyatt as an additional aide-de-camp on his staff with the rank of colonel. By summer Governor Burton had dispatched additional arms, not only for infantry but also for artillery drill. 13

The catalog of 1859 focused upon an educational philosophy which emphasized punctuality, diligence, and depth of perception on the part of the students. There seemed to be little thought that military training lowered the academic standing of the academy in any way. Five and a half hours each day were to be devoted to study and three hours to recitation. The eight faculty members (including Hyatt who taught mathematics as well as military subjects) imparted Latin, Greek, chemistry, modern languages, music, English, and penmanship to the youthful students. 14 Hyatt also emphasized strict moral and religious training in the Calvinist mode as well as firm and unrelenting discipline.

The change to a military academy brought changes in uniform and calendar. Hyatt adopted the cadet gray of West Point rather than the blue of the Hyatt School.  Then, too, the academic year changed from four l 0 week quarters to a standard of two 21 week sessions. Tuition charges were also revised with boarding cadets paying $250 per year, plus extras, and “day” cadets paying only $48 or $60 depending upon the program. Charges at the Hyatt school had been $208 and either $44 or $52 respectively for boarders and day students.

Delaware Military Academy in its short span of existence acquired a very favorable public image with Wiimingtonians. The Delaware State Journal and Statesman expounded:

The city seems to be alive with miniature ‘boom-a-laddies.’ Col. Hyatt must have a perfect beehive of young patriots in his popular academy at the ‘West End, and if he succeeds in making them all good soldiers and true American liberty-loving citizens, it will be more than is expected from an able preceptor. 15

The Delaware Republican chimed in with praises for commencement exercises at the Odd Fellow’s hall ” .  .  .  as nothing else so attracts the people of this city.” 16

The academy’s success and popularity were   linked to the energetic Hyatt. But the pro-Unionist president ran afoul of the political tensions which gripped Delaware at the time. The state might have been economically closer to neighboring Pennsylvania, but politically a large part of her population entertained southern sympathies.     Wilmington seemed pro-Union, but other parts of Delaware ‘were not.    There were numerous secessionists in Wilmington. One leading southern sympathizer was Senator James A. Bayard. More than just a few sons of the Blue Hen state agreed with the aging statesman when he told his son, Thomas: “The South is right in this contest, and they will triumph for they do not watt war, but merely to be left under their own government.” 17

Indeed, Delaware citizen voted largely for southern candidates John C. Breckinridge and John Bell in the national elections of 1860. 18 Theodore Hyatt  apparently was a Republican although evidence is lacking that he took any active part in the campaign. More important, as proprietor of a military academy, he was in possession of state arms. After the election of Lincoln and the secession of several southern states, military companies of both persuasions began to organize within the state. Hyatt was caught in an unenviable position.

Fear developed between Unionist and secessionist groups as to who had possession of arms. Thomas F. Bayard, the senator’s son and also a southern sympathizer, was one of those firebrands who organized a military company, Hyatt had already shown his hand by being elected vice-president of a Union meeting. 19 To obtain arms for his unit, the younger Bayard prevailed upon the governor to have the state arms of Delaware Military Academy delivered to him. The sheriff of New Castle County gave Bayard an order on Hyatt for 70 rifles with bayonets and accoutrements on January 21, 1861. 20

Hyatt remained undaunted and hesitated to deliver the arms to Bayard. Republican friends of the young educator rallied behind him at the state house. As one of Bayard’s irritated compatriots noted: “These Republicans have been raising the very old devil about Gov. Burton’s recalling the arms from Hyatt and giving them to your company and this morning Appleton introduced a resolution into the House making inquiry of the Governor – why he recalled them, and in whose possession they now are.” 21 The resolution was adopted.

Then followed a series of pleasantries involving Hyatt, Bayard, William G. Whiteley (another pro-southern   trustee), the newspapers, and the state legislature. Hyatt went to Dover on January 29 seeking to obtain passage of an act securing the arms to Dela1vare Military Academy. When   Bayard brought pressure to bear so that he and his colleagues would not “. . . become the laughing stock of . . . Republicans of the city,” Hyatt became disgusted with the whole affair. 22  He told  Bayard on January 30: “l am sick about the matter, [if] I have to lose the arms, I may as ·well do it at once, the thing is seriously injuring my school, as it keeps me so much out of  it.” 23

The two protagonists in the arms debate signed an agreement the following day. Both the academy and Bayard’s company were to utilize the arms.   According to this bargain, Hyatt might utilize the arms for educational purposes, but he was to be responsible for their care and cleaning. Furthermore, the arms were to be deposited in the drill room or armory of Bayard’s “Delaware Guard” at six o’clock in the evening on the drill days. The president of the academy was none to pleased about the whole arrangement. 24

Exchanges between Hyatt and Bayard did not cease here, and considerable pressure was brought to bear by the latter to kill Hyatt’s bill in the state legislature. But, in spite of strong opposition from the governor’s friends and other parties favorable to the Bayard interests, the bill passed the House by a 13 to 9 vote. The success proved short-lived, for the Senate defeated the measure. As Whiteley prophetically informed Bayard at tis time: “We can take care in Burton’s time that he (H.) [Hyatt] gets not more [arms]. A cord wood stick mounted will do him as well, if he is no better at shooting than he is at teaching.” 25

Hyatt’s strong opposition to the Bayard faction prompted members of that group to attempt to besmirch the young educator’s reputation. 26 Yet, the colonel continued to serve the city   of Wilmington as teacher and militia officer in the Home Guards and City Guards during the period when the city feared invasion by outside agitators from Baltimore. At the same time Hyatt began to seek another location for his academy.

Delaware Military Academy, although an incorporated school, lacked property or assets other than its instructional equipment, which was owned by Theodore Hyatt himself. Its financial support came solely from tuition income. Its headquarters in the old Bullock School had become quite inadequate by 1860 when enrollment reached 100 students. Just when the arms furor captured local attention, A. Bolmar of West Chester, Pennsylvania, offered to lease his property to Colonel Hyatt. Bolmar had conducted one of the most popular and flourishing boarding schools in southeastern Pennsylvania. Hyatt hesitated for the moment, but, in the course of the next year, he made arrangements to lease the Bolmar estate for his military school. 27

The years 1860 and 1861 proved to be the most prosperous ones in the short history of the academy. Enrollment reached 100 cadets, of whom 40 boarded at the school. The Merit Roll, which became a long established tradition in both Pennsylvania Military Academy and Pennsylvania Military College (successor institutions to the Delaware Military Academy) was first instituted in this period. Grades were based on the comprehensive standing of the cadet in five areas. The normal grade became 100 in each department of study and conduct. This grade was diminished by violation of rule, neglect of duty, or deficiency in scholarship, in proportion to the gravity of the offense. Should the cadet’s grade fall to zero in any department, he was dismissed from the academy. Neatness, order, and attendance received a weight of one each in calculating the grade; a weight of two when given deportment; and scholarship counted three points. The grade of honor went to students who retained an average of 95 for the year. 28

The presence of both northern and southern cadets at the academy naturally provoked fish fights and other altercations. The fall of Fort Sumter in April, 1861, and President Abraham Lincoln’s call for troops the next day led to the departure of the southern students for home. Northern boys also became restless, and enlistments among the latter were not uncommon. 29 Meanwhile the school’s president drilled every Thursday evening with his home guard unit.

Commencement exercises in June, 1862, concluded the short but eventful life of the Delaware Military Academy. Success of the venture had become assured by its inception during a period of tension It had survived the “arms struggle” of 1861, and its president had gained stature as a staunch Unionist. The school was ready to climb to new heights as a military institution.

Colonel Hyatt leased the Bolmar property and together with a group of prominent Pennsylvania citizens, petitioned the legislature in Harrisburg for a charter to open a military college in West Chester. Governor Andrew Curtin signed the act chartering the Chester County Military Academy as a military university on April 8, 1862. The Court of Quarter Sessions of Chester County changed the name to Pennsylvania Military Academy on June 26, upon petition of the school’s board of trustees. The first session of the new academy opened September 3, 1862. Transition from Delaware Military Academy to Pennsylvania Military Academy became complete with this event.

The life span of Delaware Military Academy and its lineal predecessors in Delaware covered a total of 41 years. The academy itself passed but briefly upon the educational stage of the Blue Hen state. Yet among its alumni were several prominent participants in the tragic war of the era. David Vickers of Camden, New Jersey, served in the cavalry and emerged from his army service as a brigadier general. Zadoc Aydelotte, a second lieutenant of the Eighty-First Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, fell mortally wounded at Fredericksburg. At least two graduates, Harry Root of Tennessee and William Bragdon of Georgia, served the Confederacy. Perhaps the most famous alumnus in the Civil War was Lieutenant Harry Robinette, born in Virginia and appointed to command in the 1t U.S. Infantry Regiment from Delaware, whose gallant conduct in the Federal defense of Corinth, Mississippi, in October, 1862, earned him many accolades. The battle also gave young Robinette a wound which later contributed to his death by suicide in 1868. 30

Behind the academy, its youthful students, and alumni stood the commanding figure of Colonel Theodore Hyatt. One Hyatt School graduate, Ignatius C. Grubb, who completed his education at Yale, observed: “The Colonel was a man of staunch character, and of splendid ability. He was conscientious, earnest and progressive, and always an inspiring and elevating influence upon his students.” 31 Yet another form pupil, Edward L. Rice stated:

Delaware Military Academy had a very high standing. Colonel Theodore Hyatt was a boys’ man – all boys honored and respected him. He was a strict disciplinarian during recitations and drills, but when at ease was a charming gentleman with a keen appreciation of all of the problems of boydom. He had a sense of humor, too, and I will wager that many a time when no one was looking he had a good laugh over some of the pranks that were played at his school. 32

The spirit of Theodore Hyatt’s Delaware Military Academy continued to pervade the thin gray lines that marched across subsequent parade grounds at West Chester and more recently at Cheater. The institution, best known to later generations by its sobriquet PMC, has continued to contribute its share of young graduates to the nation’s military and civilian professions. But the whole process began over a century ago in Delaware. It took a giant stride forward in a small academy in Wilmington, perhaps, when a young visionary educator was enraptured by his student’s avid interest in exercising with brooms.

* Dr. Cooling was Assistant Professor of History at PMC Colleges.  Currently he is the Chairman of the Grand Strategy Department Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. He has graciously granted his permission for the re-publication of his work.

 

ENDNOTES

  1. Marcus Cunliffe, Soldiers and Civilians: The Martial Spirit in America 1775-1865 (Boston, 1968), 80.
  2. Clarence Russell Moll, “History of Pennsylvania Military College, 1821-1954” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1954), passim., chap, iii.
  3. C.A.  Weslager, Brandywine Springs: The Rise and Fall of a Delaware Resort (Wilmington, 1949) 50-51.
  4. Theodore Hyatt was born on April 28, 1826, on a farm at Yorktown (near Peekskill), New York, the second son of Elijah Lee Hyatt and Sarah Minthorn Hyatt. His boyhood passed on the farm, and his early education came at the district school. He taught at the Peekskill Academy, entered the sophomore class at Union College. Schenectady, in September, 1846, and transferred to the College of New Jersey in April of the following year.  Upon graduation in June, 1849, he accepted his first teaching job in Wilmington, Delaware, with the First Presbyterian Church.  His subsequent associations in the field of education included the organization and ownership  of  the Hyatt School, the Delaware Military Academy, and the Pennsylvania  Military  Academy. He died on December 31, 1887.  Biographical Encyclopedia. of Pennsylvania of the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia, 1874), 389.
  5. Delaware Gazette (Wilmington), Aug. 31,1855.
  6. Moll, 37.
  7. Delaware Gazette (Wilmington), Aug. 31,1855.
  8. Circular, Theodore Hyatt’s Select School for Boys, 1858, 5, 18, Institutional Records (Widener University,  Chester,  Pa.).
  9. Delaware Gazette, Mar. 16,1858.
  10. Laws of Delaware, Enrolled Bills, 1859, 219-220, as cited in Moll, Appendix F.
  11. Henry Latimer, Hon. John Wales and David C> Wilson numbered among the original incorporators of the Wilmington Literary Institute in 1843 and Dr. George Baker had been a member of its board when it petitioned the legislature to become a military institution in 1847. Hon. William G. Whiteley, Dr. F. Askew, T. Jennifer Adams and William H. Rogers had served with the above on the board of the Chambers-Partridge endeavor, the American Literary, Scientific and Military Institute, and Edward G. Bradford had signed the petition for its incorporation. New members included Rev. William Aikman, Thomas Bayard, Jesse Sharp, D.M. Bates and Hamilton Easter, Moll 80-81.
  12. Governor’s Register, State of Delaware, Jan. 18, 1859 – Nov. 21, 1869, William Burton, Governor, 24 as quoted, ibid., 61.
  13. Ibid., 62: also Delaware Gazette, Mar. 25, 1859.
  14. Catalog, Delaware Military Academy, 1859, 7, 13-15.  Widener University.
  15. Delaware State Journal and Statesman (Wilmington), Oct. 18, 1859.
  16. Delaware Republican (Wilmington), July 5,1860.
  17. Jan. 22, 1861; Thomas Bayard Papers, Volume 5 (Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.).
  18. Harold Bell Hancock, Delaware During the Civil War: Political History (Wilmington, 1961), 35, 111in.
  19. Delaware Republican, Dec. 20, 1860.
  20. From Sheriff Levi B. Moore, Jan. 21, 1861, Bayard Papers.
  21. John Dale to Thomas F. Bayard, Jan. 29, 1861, Bayard Papers
  22. Evidence points to the fact that Hyatt may have been playing for time in hope that his friends in Dover would successfully block the Bayard interests.    See for example T. Hyatt to Thomas F. Bayard, Jan. 25, 1861, Bayard Papers.
  23. Jan. 30, 1861, Bayard Papers.
  24. Agreement, Theodore Hyatt and Thomas Bayard, Jan. 30, 1861, Bayard Papers.
  25. Feb. 13, 1861, Bayard Papers.
  26. The Village Record (West Chester, Pa), Apr. l, 1862, noted such accusations, but Hyatt received strong endorsements from prominent citizens an even the mayor of Wilmington.
  27. Delaware State Journal, Jan. 9, 1862.
  28. Catalog, Delaware Military Academy, 1861, 14, Widener University.
  29. Henry Buxton, Pennsylvania Military College, The Story of One Hundred Years, !821-1921 (Chester, 1921), 17, 26.
  30. Pension file, Lieutenant Harry C. Robinette, Records of Veterans Administration (National Archives  and Records Service, Washington, D. C.).
  31. Grubb, quoted in Buxton, 21-22.
  32. Rice, quoted in ibid., 25.