t are not portions of some one of
the States; and if they have been the scene of incidents sufficient in
number and importance to furnish material for an historical monograph,
or so-called _local_ history, it will probably derive its special
interest and coloring mainly from events of the Colonial period and the
development of the material prosperity of the particular State or
section. The associations of West Point, the seat of the United States
Military Academy, are in this respect remarkable, that they derive their
interest exclusively from circumstances incidental to the birth and
progress of the nation. The history of the place is an important part of
the nation's history. Compared with more comprehensive annals, wherein
minute description of places and persons is impossible from the breadth
of view, local histories leave on the reader more vivid impressions by
affording a more microscopic and personal inspection. Where the minor
history, as we may call it, is thus connected with the greater story of
the body politic, it always enables the mind to combine, in the sequence
of cause and effect, a certain series of events in the course of the
nation's life, leaving a more distinct apprehension of the reality of
that life in the past, by giving a rapid glance, under strong light,
over a part, than usually remains after the perusal of larger works
which attempt the survey of the whole.

From the beginning of the history of the United States, the
administrative power of the National Government has been continuously
exercised at West Point, to the exclusion of all other authority. It was
occupied by the Continental forces at the commencement of the
Revolutionary contest, as a place of the greatest strategic importance.
It was the objective point in that drama of Arnold's treason, which, by
involving the fate of Andre, is remembered as one of the most romantic
incidents in the story of the war. In Captain Boynton's new "History of
West Point," the aspect of the place, in connection with the events of
that time, is given by that method of description which always leaves
the sense of historic verity. The maps, plans, reports, letters, and
accounts, with the spelling and types, though by no means with the
printing or the paper of past days, are reproduced; and the actors on
the scene, not only those of high position, whose names are household
words, but those also whose part was humbler and whose memory is
obscure, are allowe