was in session when the news was received. He at once arose, and,
addressing the board of visitors and academic staff, said:
"Ex-President Jackson died at the Hermitage on the 8th inst. The
information is not official, but sufficiently authentic to prompt the
step I am about to take. An event of much moment to the nation has
occurred. A great man has fallen. General Jackson is dead--a great
general, and a great patriot who had filled the highest political
stations in the gift of his countrymen. He is dead. This is not the
place, nor am I the individual, to pronounce a fit eulogy on the
illustrious deceased. National honors will doubtless be prescribed by
the President of the United States; but in the meantime, and in
harmony with the feelings of all who hear me, and particularly with
those of the authorities of this institution, I deem it proper to
suspend the examination of the cadets for the day, and to await the
orders of the Executive of the United States on the subject."

General Scott in his early training had studied the science of war,
using the works of the greatest and best-known authors. He was in his
early life a close student, and when he entered the army was, better
equipped, in the knowledge of the standard authors on the science of
war than most men in the army. In 1821 he prepared a work entitled
General Regulations for the Army, or Military Institutes. This was
the first book published in the United States which could be accepted
as a manual for both the regular troops of the army and the militia.
He had formerly, in 1814-'15, been president of a board of army
officers which compiled a system of infantry tactics, a copy of the
system which he had used in the camp of instruction at Buffalo in
1814. This was revised by another board, of which he was president,
and was published in 1825.

In 1826 a board of army and militia officers was convened by order of
the Secretary of War, of which he was made president, for the purpose
of reporting a plan for the organization and instruction of the
militia of the United States, a system of tactics for the artillery, a
system of cavalry tactics, and a system of infantry and rifle tactics.
The reports on the plan for the organization and instruction of the
militia and that on the system of infantry and rifle tactics were
written wholly by General Scott, and adopted by the board. Under a
resolution of Congress in 1835 there was published a new edition of
infantry ta