A broad, liberal education did not have to stop with the classics in the opinion Captain Alden Partridge. It needed an emphasis on military training and physical fitness as much as the academic subjects. A graduate of the West Point military academy himself, he was set up as a profession of mathematics and the superintendent of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The dual emphasis became his trademark, as Patridge frequently trained his charges in military drilling and took them on long hikes into neighboring states.

On this day, August 6, in 1819, Patridge followed his philosophy to its logical end, opening up the first private military academy in the United States. The fundamental goal, in his statement, was to train students “to discharge, in the best possible manner, the duties they owe to themselves, to their fellow-men, and to their country.”

On the idea of combining military training with academic pursuits, Patridge was influenced a widely-held opinion, perhaps best summed up by philosopher John Milton: “I call therefore a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully and magnanimously all the offices both private and public, of peace and of war.”