author
Edward C. (Edward Carlisle) Boynton
1824–1893
A West Point graduate, soldier, teacher, and historian, he lived a remarkably varied 19th-century life. His best-known writing turns military history into a vivid story, especially in his history of West Point and the early United States Military Academy.
1 Audiobook
Guide to West Point, and the U.S. Military Academy
by Edward C. (Edward Carlisle) Boynton
About the author
Born in Vermont in 1824, Edward Carlisle Boynton graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1846 and served in the Mexican-American War, where he was seriously wounded. He later returned to West Point as an instructor and went on to teach chemistry, mineralogy, and geology at the University of Mississippi before the Civil War.
Boynton wrote as someone who had seen military life from the inside. His best-known book, History of West Point, and its Military Importance During the American Revolution: and the Origin and Progress of the United States Military Academy, reflects both his historical interest and his long connection to the academy. He also left behind a notable visual record of antebellum campus life through photographs associated with his time at the University of Mississippi.
He retired from the U.S. Army in 1872 and died in Newburgh, New York, in 1893. Today he is remembered not only as an officer and educator, but also as a writer who helped preserve the early story of West Point for later generations.