Russell Military Academy
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The New Haven Collegiate and Commercial Institute (later to be popularly known as the Russell Military Academy) was founded by Stiles French in 1834 and is a defunct military academy and college preparatory school that "fitted" students to apply for entrance to nearby
Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
or
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, as well as offering classes in business skills like book-keeping. The school was located at Wooster Square in
New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...
, United States, about a mile from the Yale campus. Founded by Stiles French after the break-up of
Round Hill School The Round Hill School for Boys was a short-lived experimental school in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was founded by George Bancroft and Joseph Cogswell in 1823. Though it failed as a viable venture — it closed in 1834 — it was an early effor ...
, where he had been a faculty member, the school took over the large building formerly occupied by the Young Ladies Institute, opened in 1830 by Ray Palmer and E. A. Andrews, on the east side of Wooster Square, where Sarah Porter (later to found
Miss Porter's School Miss Porter's School (MPS) is a private college preparatory school for girls founded in 1843 in Farmington, Connecticut. The school draws students from many of the 50 U.S. states, as well as from abroad. International students comprised 14% i ...
), and General Russell's future wife were students. Although Stiles French and his son Truman French continued to be involved with the school for many years, it was taken over in September 1836 by William Huntington Russell, a recent Yale graduate and school teacher who later became a well-known citizen of
Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
as a non-practicing graduate of the
Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
Medical School and as a representative of
New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...
in the state legislature of Connecticut. Russell at first leased the school from the Frenches and eventually bought it outright. Charles Ray Palmer, writing in 1908 when the school was long closed and the derelict and decrepit main building, constructed in 1829 for the use of the Young Ladies Institute, was still standing, gives the following description. "The structure was of brick and consisted of a main building of three or three and one-half stories with two wings of two stories, the whole frontage being about one hundred feet. The interior arrangements were on a liberal scale, and well adapted to the purpose for which they were designed." The lot was deep and over time Russell added additional buildings and a chapel, while he lived in a house on an adjoining lot. The boys drilled in Wooster Park across the street. Most of the school's students were local New Haven residents, but as the number of boarding students increased Russell rented a nearby house and converted it into a dormitory, and some students found accommodations in New Haven boarding houses. It was difficult for Russell to enforce school discipline on the boys who lived off campus in boarding houses and some boys took to smoking, drinking and carousing at night with Yale students. In the mid-1850s the school's population was 130 students and 12 instructors, the majority of the instructors being recent Yale graduates. Although the school was opened as a family school for older boys, both day students and boarding, under the leadership of Russell it gradually assumed the character of a military school while continuing to offer both a traditional classical curriculum in Latin and Greek and a modern English language curriculum including courses in natural science, mathematics, history, and modern languages. The school's curriculum centered on a three-year course for older boys preparing for college. Not all of the boys were prepping for college and there were classes in practical skills like surveying, and courses for students preparing for a business career, but all students participated in daily military drill wearing cadet uniforms. The school eventually became known familiarly as the Russell Military Academy. In 1862 Russell, who was active in the recruitment and organizing of Connecticut regiments, received a political appointment to the post of adjutant-general of the Connecticut state militia, with the rank of major general, and was thenceforth popularly known as "General Russell," and the school as "General Russell's school" or "General Russell's military academy." By about 1840, Russell introduced a very thorough military drill and discipline into his school. He foresaw the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
in the future and wanted to make sure his boys were prepared to fight for the Union. During the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, the school of 130 to 160 pupils furnished more than one hundred officers for the Union Army, as well as many drill masters and volunteers. A small number of the school's graduates chose to fight for the South, including William Eugene Webster, the grandson of
Noah Webster Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education" ...
, who joined Lee's army in Virginia as a lieutenant, while his brother, his classmate at the Collegiate and Commercial Institute, served on the opposite side of the battlefield as a lieutenant in McClellan's Union army. Although the Websters were a New Haven family loyal to the Northern cause, the boys' mother, a grand-daughter of Martha Washington, was a proud Virginia belle loyal to the South. Their parents quarreled and separated over the war, the older boy siding with his mother and the younger sticking with his father. Lt. William E. Webster was killed in the fighting at the epic Seven Days Battle east of Richmond in 1862, and his brother, after heroic labors as the acting head of a company of engineers on the Union side in the same battle, fell mortally ill of exposure and died 43 days later. By the time of Russell's death in 1885, the school had become well known and had graduated around 4,000 boys. Since the Collegiate and Commercial Institute, inspired by the example of Round Hill, was one of the first schools in the United States to introduce physical training in a school and to start a gymnasium, these features attracted many boys from every part of the country. A detailed account of the gymnasium, with a floor plan and drawings of the equipment, appeared in ''The American Journal of Education'' in 1860."School Architecture", ''The American Journal of Education'', December 1860, p. 487 ''et seq.'' The school closed for good, without fanfare, shortly after Russell's death. On May 30, 1879, Society of Kappa Psi, which later became Kappa Psi pharmaceutical fraternity, was started on the campus of Russell Military Academy by F. Harvey Smith.


Notable alumni

* Leonard Woolsey Bacon, Congregationalist clergyman *Thomas Gray Bennett, president of the
Winchester Repeating Arms Company The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American manufacturer of repeating firearms and ammunition. The firm was established in 1866 by Oliver Winchester and was located in New Haven, Connecticut. The firm went into receivership ...
* Frank Howe Bradley, geologist * E. Warren Clark, American educator in Meiji Japan * Ira Davenport, New York congressman * Charles DeKay, author, editor, critic * William Wade Dudley, politician * Daniel Cady Eaton, botanist * Carlos French, Connecticut congressman * Bertram Goodhue, architect * William Henry Goodyear, first curator of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
* Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior * Henry Holt, publisher * Bronson Howard, dramatist *
Brayton Ives Brayton Ives (August 23, 1840 – October 22, 1914) was president of Northern Pacific Railway from 1893 to 1896 and was president of the New York Stock Exchange and the Western National Bank of New York. He also served as an officer in the Union ...
, financier * Charles D. Lanier, financier * Fred Ewing Lewis, Pennsylvania congressman * Victor H. Metcalf, Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of Commerce and Labor * William Chester Minor, lexicographer * Frederic Courtland Penfield, diplomat * Morton F. Plant, financier *
John Addison Porter John Addison Porter (March 15, 1822 – August 25, 1866) was an American professor of chemistry and physician. He is the namesake of the John Addison Porter Prize and was a founder of the Scroll and Key senior society of Yale University. Acad ...
, secretary to president
William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until Assassination of William McKinley, his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...
* Raphael Pumpelly, geologist and explorer *Col. Thomas E. Rose, Union officer and mastermind of the Libby Prison Escape *
Eugene Schuyler Eugene Schuyler (February 26, 1840 – July 16, 1890) was a nineteenth-century United States, American scholar, writer, explorer and diplomat. Schuyler was one of the first three Americans to earn a Ph.D. from an American university; and the firs ...
, diplomat, scholar, writer, explorer * Charlemagne Tower Jr., diplomat * William Wirt Winchester, treasurer and chief shareholder in the
Winchester Repeating Arms Company The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American manufacturer of repeating firearms and ammunition. The firm was established in 1866 by Oliver Winchester and was located in New Haven, Connecticut. The firm went into receivership ...


Notable faculty

* Franklin Bowditch Dexter * Charles Pomeroy Otis


References

{{reflist *Whitlock, Reverdy. "William Huntington Russell and the Collegiate and Commercial Institute," ''Journal of the New Haven Colony Historical Society'' 18, no. 4 (December 1969): 83–89. *Manning, Josephine. "Some Foreign Boys at School," ''The Chautauquan'' 12, no. 3 (December 1890): 379. *Preston, Annie A. "The Doctor's Little Story," ''The Advance'' 16, no. 710 (April 28, 1881): 262. Defunct United States military academies Educational institutions established in 1833 Education in New Haven, Connecticut Defunct schools in Connecticut Military in Connecticut 1833 establishments in Connecticut