The course in Field Artillery has been vastly improved in recent years. All of the instruction is given by Field Artillery officers, and non-commissioned officers who are specialists along certain lines, instead of as in former days by a stray Infantry, Cavalry, or Coast Artillery Tactical officer. All the plebe drill period at that time seemed to be consumed in jumping up on the caisson and off again. I always felt like a squirrel in a cage going round and round without getting anywhere. Sometimes, too, the instructions that the officer gave us were a little mixed to say the least. I remember once an instructor to whom Field Artillery was an alien art giving us at drill the following order much to the merriment of the plebes: “The cadets will now be divided into three squads: those that have fired, those that have not fired, and those that have done neither.” There are other drills in the cadet’s military calendar besides those of the three main branches of the mobile army. No little attention is given to Practical Military Engineering. In camp one third of the class spends four hours of the day practicing the various methods of signaling, how to make knots and lashes, how to construct gabions and fascines, how to use tackle, and how to construct bridges. The First Class make position and road sketches, they lay out field fortifications, and dig trenches. They learn the use of explosives, the placing of mines, and the dynamiting of trees, buildings, and railroads. During the Academic year the Department of Practical Military Engineering gives the Fourth Class a thorough course in surveying that embraces both theory and practical work with the instruments in the field. The Tactical Department is charged with the instruction of the Coast Artillery. Several modern batteries, both rifles and mortars, are installed at West Point so that the cadets may have every facility for learning the technique of this arm. The Yearlings act as gunners, performing the same duties that are required of privates in the Regular Army. The Second Classmen act as gun pointers, range and azimuth setters, do the plotting and observing, or, in other words, perform the duties of non-commissioned officers in the Regular Service. The First Classmen act as battery officers or as range officers, so that upon graduation they may join their commands fully acquainted with their prospective duties.