Though acquitted of serious wrongdoing, he chose to resign his commission in 1818, after having served his entire Army career at the academy. He received a pension for his service at West Point during the War of 1812, and after his death his wife received a pension as the widow of an 1812 veteran. Citizen soldier In the summer of 1818 Partridge was engaged in New York City to drill and instruct a volunteer infantry company, and he gave a series of lectures on the subjects of military science, fortifications, and military education. In these lectures, Partridge advocated a new program of regional military instruction and began a lifelong campaign in opposition to the existing national military academy system which would shape the rest of his life. Partridge argued that the national academies produced a professional officer class, and was creating a new military elite, which was at odds with examples of the country's great generals, such as George Washington and Andrew Jackson. Partridge proposed the nation be divided into state-based military departments, local citizen soldiers organized into militias and officers appointed by department, and units mustered on a regular basis for instruction and drill, much like the Minutemen of the well-remembered American Revolution. Further, he suggested military colleges for officer instruction be established in each department. Partridge was appointed chief of the surveying expedition to establish boundaries between the U.S. and Canada as required under the Treaty of Ghent. He mapped the natural watersheds of the Saint Lawrence River and Hudson River. Still consumed with plans for a military college based on his program, he decided to resign from the expedition in 1820, and retired to Norwich. Private military educator Norwich University In 1819, Partridge founded the "American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy" in Norwich, Vermont (now known as Norwich University and located in Northfield, Vermont). Norwich is the nation's oldest private military college, based on Partridge's model of training citizen soldiers, it became the basis for the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). In its first four years, the nascent academy was attended by 480 students representing 21 of the 24 states, and Partridge's program seemed successful enough to attract the attention of Middletown, Connecticut, which undertook a financial subscription of local residents as an inducement to relocate his academy. Partridge moved the school, and in Middletown, it drew nearly 1,200 students in three years, but the academy was