The land occupied by the old part of the reservation belonged to the British crown. The first settlement probably dates from 1723, when a royal grant was made to Charles Congreve. Another portion of the reservation was patented to John Moore in 1747. Although West Point had been occupied continuously by troops since 1779, it did not become government property until 1790, when at the request of its owner, Stephen Moore, congress appropriated the money for its purchase. Subsequent acquisitions were made from time to time until by 1943 the reservation comprised approximately 14,000 ac.
At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, both the colonists and the British realized the importance of gaining possession of the Hudson river valley, and West Point became the strategic key to its defense. General Washington established his headquarters there in 1779. In I780 Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold, who was then in command at West Point, attempted to betray it to the British; but his treason was discovered and he fled to the enemy.
The founding of a military school had been proposed by Gen. Henry Knox in 1776, and Washington and Alexander Hamilton had repeatedly urged adoption of the plan, but it was not until March 16, 1802, that congress passed the act establishing the United States Military academy at West Point. During its early years the institution suffered from lack of proper organization and discipline.
Finally, in I817, Maj. Sylvanus Thayer, who had been sent to Europe to study military schools there, assumed the superintendency and reorganized the academy so effectively that the fundamental features of its instruction and discipline remained essentially the same at the time of World War II.
In 1952 the Military academy observed the sesquicennial of its founding.
