MAKING HISTORY COME ALIVE THE EARLY YEARS OF WEST POINT In starting our conversation about the Civil War, the history of West Point becomes a very important topic
In starting our conversation about the Civil War, the history of West Point becomes a very important topic especially in understanding the curriculum. I have included a short biography of both Grant and Lee.
Early Development
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As far back as the time of the French and Indian Wars both the Americans and British recognized the great value of the control of the Hudson River, that when the Revolution broke out both sides would take every means to seize and fortify the most strategic points along its banks. Strange to say, the Americans were as indifferent about its control as the British, so that the Revolution was in progress for three years before West Point, the natural key to the river’s defense, was fortified.
General George Washington considered West Point to be the most important strategic position in America. Nearly every Revolutionary commander visited the Post at one time or another during the war, and while Washington was here, Count de Luzerne, the French minister, was his guest. West Point had many advantages for being selected as a site to build fortifications on the Hudson River. Vessels passing by West Point had to make a sharp, ninety-degree turn to the west, sail a quarter of a mile, then make another right-angle turn to the north as they continued upriver. These bends were sharper than any point along the Hudson, creating hazards for ships passing through. In addition to the turns in the river, the river was also very narrow, the tidal effects were the greatest, and the current was the swiftest at this location. The treacherous winds also created difficulties for ships trying to navigate through this section of the Hudson.
American soldiers first occupied West Point on January 27, 1778. When the harsh winter from late 1777 to early 1778 froze the Hudson River, a Connecticut militia unit marched across the river and set up camp at what is now West Point. Between 1778 and 1780 Polish engineer Tadeusz Kościuszko (show image) designed and oversaw garrison defenses. During the Revolutionary War, West Point was known as Fort Arnold, but after Benedict Arnold’s betrayal, it became known as Fort Clinton. Though the location was used for training cadets in engineering starting in 1794, it officially became the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1802. President Thomas Jefferson created the academy with the intention of creating a national university founded on science. He made Jonathan Adams, a prominent scientist and relative of Ben Franklin president of the university. Adams had no previous experience in the military. Nevertheless, he accepted the position of colonel and reported to West Point.
Construction of forts and batteries in the area of West Point began in the summer of 1775. However, the original location was not the site of the future military academy, but across the Hudson River on Constitution Island (then called Martelaer’s Rock).
Other fortifications were built along the Hudson River including twin forts to the south of West Point at the confluence of Popolopen Creek and the Hudson River. Fort Montgomery was constructed on the north shoreView-of-West-Point-by-Seth-Eastman,-c.gif of Popolopen Creek, and Fort Clinton was located on the south shore. Many of these fortifications were destroyed by the British in October 1777.
Until January 1778, West Point was not occupied by the military. On January 27, 1778, Brigadier General Samuel Holden Parsons and his brigade crossed the ice on the Hudson River and climbed to the plain on West Point and from that day to the present, West Point has been occupied by the United States Army. To reinforce the defenses at West Point, Washington personally selected Kosciuszko, to design the fortifications for West Point in 1778. Washington himself transferred his headquarters to West Point in 1779.
George Washington first proposed a military academy in 1783, but critics opposed this relatively new idea of a special school to train army officers as too European. They deemed it incompatible with democratic institutions, fearing the creation of a military aristocracy.
“A Peace Establishment for the United States of America may in my opinion . . . [include] Academies, one or more for the Instruction of the Art Military; particularly those Branches of it which respect Engineering and Artillery, which are highly essential, and the knowledge of which is most difficult to obtain.”
—George Washington, “Sentiments on a Peace Establishment,” May 1783
The topography of West Point and the adjacent country lent itself most admirably to the plan of obstructing the river. The Hudson, as it comes down from Newburgh a straight course of nine miles, strikes West Point, where it is deflected eastward for a quarter of a mile, flowing between Constitution Island and the steep cliffs of the Point before again turning south. Any British sailing vessel coming up the river from New York would, upon rounding Gee’s Point, lose a great deal of its speed on account of the swift current, and if stopped by some obstruction could be held under the fire of the batteries on both shores. General Putnam, therefore, through his Quartermaster- General, contracted with the Sterling Iron Works of Noble, Townsend and Co., for an iron chain 500 feet long, each link about two feet long, to be made of the best Sterling iron 2 ¼ inches square, with a swivel to every hundred feet and a clevis to every thousand feet. Americans knew the mportance of the Hudson River in the war against the British. Afraid that British ships could travel up the river and essentially split colonial forces, the Continental Congress devised a plan to string large chains across the Hudson, to stop British ships traveling down the Hudson. Smaller chains were placed north and south of West Point, but in 1778 Americans constructed the largest and most important obstruction to British ships potentially traveling the Hudson, the Great Chain, or the Hudson River Chain, from West Point to Constitution Island. The Great Chain consisted of iron links each two feet long, totally 600 yards in full. The British never attempted to run the chain, despite Benedict Arnold pressuring that “a well-loaded ship could break the chain.” After the war, the chain was decommissioned and melted down for iron. However, a small portion of the chain is still on display at Trophy Point at the academy.
The stage was therefore set for the most dramatic event of the Revolution, the treason of Benedict Arnold (image). Had Arnold succeeded at this period of the Revolution, the hour of darkness and depression, in selling West Point to the British, we would probably still be English colonies.
For more than a year previous to his assumption of the command of West Point, Arnold had been hatching nefarious schemes to betray the Americans. He needed money badly, due to his extravagances while in Philadelphia. His conduct had not been entirely satisfactory while in that city and open resentment was expressed on account of his preference for the British faction, but because of his military capacity he was held in high esteem by Washington. His abilities led Washington to offer him the command of the left wing of the army then in the field, but he pleaded that he was unfit for field duty by reason of the wound that he had received at Saratoga and requested the command of West Point. His desires were respected and on August 5, 1780, he assumed command of his new post with headquarters at the Robinson House. Once at West Point, Arnold saw his chance to gain rank and pay from the British. He immediately entered into a lively correspondence with Major André, the Adjutant-General of the British forces in America, who was addressed as “Mr. John Anderson, Merchant.” Arnold’s communications were all signed “Gustavus.” When negotiations for the betrayal of West Point had reached a crisis, Arnold requested a personal interview with a representative of the British. General Clinton then sent Major André up the river on the sloop Vulture which anchored near Haverstraw. An agent of Arnold’s, one Joshua Hett Smith, returned at midnight, September 21, with Major André in full uniform, a landing being made a short distance north of the West Shore Railroad tunnel south of Haverstraw. Arnold and André then went to Smith’s house in West Haverstraw. They were challenged by an American sentinel, and it was here that André entered the American lines. he was very reluctant to take off his uniform but at Arnold’s advice he changed into civilian clothing, thereby foolishly placing himself in the light of a spy, if caught within the American lines. Arnold also gave André important papers regarding the strength of West Point defenses. It is not difficult to imagine the state of André’s mind at finding himself in a false position and at the same time disobeying General Clinton’s orders, which were not to change his uniform under any circumstances nor receive any papers from Arnold. Under the guidance of Joshua Smith, he crossed the river at King’s Ferry (near Stony Point of today) and proceeded south toward New York. Although furnished with a pass by Arnold, he was detained by three American patriots near Tarrytown, searched, and turned over to Colonel Jameson at North Castle
Meanwhile, Arnold was at his Headquarters at the Robinson House awaiting events, and Washington was on his way from Hartford to West Point. Had Arnold succeeded it is probable that Washington would have fallen into the enemy’s hands at this time, an accident that would have ruined the Revolution. When Washington was opposite West Point he sent two aides to inform Arnold of his arrival. They proceeded to the Robinson House and were enjoying Arnold’s hospitality at breakfast when Jameson’s messenger arrived with a note announcing André’s capture. The news must have fallen upon Arnold like a thunderbolt, but with perfect sangfroid he excused himself, rushed upstairs to tell his wife of the danger, ordered his horse, sent for the coxswain of his barge, and then calmly returned to his guests whom he told it was necessary for him to cross to West Point to prepare for the reception of General Washington. Instead, he rapidly made his way down the river and boarded the Vulture which took him to New York. Major André was tried by court- martial, found guilty of being a spy, and sentenced to be hanged. Numerous letters were written to Washington begging that André’s life be spared.
André accepted his fate like a brave soldier, but he revolted from the ignominy of being hanged. When all efforts to change the mode of his death failed, he personally appealed to Washington.
His request, however, was not granted and in the early afternoon of October 2, 1780, arrayed in full dress uniform he paid the penalty on the scaffold. His body was buried beneath his gibbet but removed to England in 1831 where it rests in Westminster Abbey. West Point and the Revolutionary cause were saved to the Americans!
By reaching out to the British, Arnold gave his enemies the exquisite satisfaction of having been right all along. Like Robert E. Lee at the beginning of the American Civil War, Arnold could have declared his change of heart and simply shifted sides. But as he was about to make clear, he was doing this first and foremost for the money.
A School for the Nation, Curriculum Over the Ages
The military training took place at the strategic Revolutionary War fort at West Point, on the Hudson River, fifty miles north of New York City. Located at a tight S-curve in the river, West Point was essential to the revolutionary forces. If the British occupied West Point, they gained control of the Hudson River, thus effectively cutting the colonies in half. The Commanding General of West Point became infamous when he tried to deliver the plans for West Point into British hands as noted above. The General in question? —Benedict Arnold. Besides studying mathematics, the officers were also obliged to contribute one day’s pay per month to procure a regimental library. Thus began the oldest government library in the country (the Library of Congress was not founded until 1800). It is unclear what became of this library. Perhaps a few of its volumes survive in the present USMA library, but no evidence for this has yet been found.
Between 1784 and 1794, West Point was occupied by a single company of soldiers whose primary activity was maintaining the decaying fortifications. Then, in 1794, a Corps of Artillerymen and Engineers was created at West Point. In March of 1796, fire claimed the only structure suitable for indoor instruction and classes were suspended. They did not resume on a regular basis until July 2, 1801, with the of cadets to West Point by Secretary of War, Henry Dearborn.
In May of 1802, plans were drawn for the Academy, which was to cost $1,500 for the construction of a mathematics room, a drafting room, quarters for the cadets, two mess rooms, and quarters for the officers, teachers, surgeon and their families. The early curriculum consisted of the rudiments of mathematics and military fortification. Some newly arriving cadets could not read or write, while most had only a basic knowledge of arithmetic and grammar. Unlike the French and English military, Jefferson’s view of the Academy was in keeping with his strong republican (the Republican Party of that time was more akin to the current Democratic Party) leanings, the Academy should be open to young men of all backgrounds, not just the affluent. Thus, the admission requirements had to be at a level to allow those from rural backgrounds admission. The admissions requirements were kept at a low level for most of the 19th century. In addition, it was only required that officers of the day have the most basic, practical understanding of mathematics to lay artillery correctly, to construct simple fortifications and to draw rough maps.
Five weeks after Thomas Jefferson became president, his Secretary of War, Henry Dearborn, wrote to George Baron, a friend from the District of Maine, to ask if he was interested in a position as teacher of mathematics at an annual salary of about $700. “West Point on the Hudson,” Dearborn wrote, “will probably be the position for the school.” For the first decade or so of the Academy’s existence, there was strong lobbying, both in Washington and by some of the early Superintendents, to move the Academy to the Capital, Washington City (later Washington D.C.). Baron bickered over the salary, but after Dearborn pointed out that it was fixed by Congress, and offered several perks including a house, twelve to eighteen cords of firewood, and a place to summer his cow, they came to agreement. On June 6, 1801, Dearborn sent Baron his commission as "Teacher of the Arts and Sciences to the Artillerists and Engineers.” Dearborn also requested that Baron purchase “any number of copies not exceeding fifteen or twenty" of Charles Hutton's A Course in Mathematics for use at West Point. It is interesting that the choice of the first textbook at West Point was not left to the “Gentleman well skilled in the mathematics” but was dictated by those in Washington City.
An uncertain mission, internal conflicts, and inadequate staff plagued the military academy’s first fifteen years.
In 1817, Colonel Sylvanus Thayer became the Superintendent and established the curriculum still in use to this day. Thayer instilled strict disciplinary standards, set a standard course of academic study, and emphasized honorable conduct. Known as the "Father of the Military Academy," he is honored with a monument on campus for the profound impact he left upon the academy's history. Founded to be a school of engineering, for the first half of the nineteenth century, USMA graduates gained recognition for engineering the bulk of the nation's initial railway lines, bridges, harbors, and roads. The academy was the only engineering school in the country until the founding of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1824. It was so successful in its engineering curriculum that it significantly influenced every American engineering school founded prior to the Civil War.
Mathematics is the study which forms the foundation of the course [of study at the United States Military Academy]. This is necessary, both to impart to the mind that combined strength and versatility, that peculiar vigor and rapidity of comparison necessary for military action, and to pave the way for progress in the higher military sciences. All experience shows that the mind, in order that it may act with efficiency, must be accustomed to exertion. It should be taught gradually to develop its own powers, and as it slowly learns their capacity and the manner of employing them, the increasing lights which are thrown upon its course will enable it to go on for an unlimited extent in the path of improvement. - Committee on Military Affairs, US Military Academy, May 17, 1834.
As the first engineering school in the United States, the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point had a uniquely technical curriculum for its time. The first two years of the curriculum was dominated by mathematics. The first superintendent of the Academy, Jonathan Williams, was aware of the superiority of French mathematics, engineering, and military science textbooks. However, because he was unable to procure enough books to supply the cadets, and because they could not read French, the first mathematics textbook used was Charles Hutton's A Course in Mathematics. When Sylvanus Thayer became superintendent in 1817, he began to wean the cadets and faculty away from Hutton, and French language mathematics texts began to be used, including Lacroix's Algebra, Legendre's Geometry and Boucharlet's Calculus. Soon the entire first year curriculum consisted of mathematics in the mornings and French in the afternoons (in part so that the cadets could read their mathematics). All agreed that this was the kind of education that engineers needed, especially military engineers.
West Point influenced the young nation in many ways. The infrastructure of the nation (roads, railroads, bridges) were designed and constructed by the Corps of Engineers, trained at West Point. The Academy also had a profound influence on education. Many of its faculty went on to instruct at, and even head, many colleges and schools across the land. A third manner in which the Academy influenced education was through textbooks. A few years after Charles Davies became professor of mathematics in 1823, he began publishing mathematics textbooks in English. These began as translations, but in later editions the names of the original authors disappeared from the books. By mid-century, Davies was the most popular author of upper-level mathematics textbooks in the United States, and there were colleges where his were the only mathematics textbooks used. Davies was succeeded in 1837 by Professor Albert E. Church, who also wrote a series of textbooks. These texts were not so widely used across the country, but they dominated the mathematics curriculum at West Point for the remainder of the century. These texts, as well as the men who wrote and used them, helped lay the groundwork for technical education in the United States.
West Point grads designed almost all early American railways, roads, and bridges as it was the only engineering college in the country until 1824. However, even after 1824, West Point engineers were highly sought after. The chief executive of the Panama Canal, George Washington Goethals, was a West Point Grad.
The Mexican–American War brought the academy to prominence as graduates proved themselves in battle for the first time. Future Civil War commanders Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee first distinguished themselves in battle in Mexico. In all, 452 of 523 graduates who served in the war received battlefield promotions or awards for bravery.
The school experienced a rapid modernization during the 1850s, often romanticized by the graduates who led both sides of the Civil War as the "end of the Old West Point era." New barracks brought better heat and gas lighting, while new ordinance and tactics training incorporated new rifle and musket technology and advances such as the steam engine. At the outbreak of the Civil War, West Point graduates filled the general officer ranks of the rapidly expanding Union and Confederate armies. Two hundred and ninety-four graduates served as general officers for the Union, and 151 served as general officers for the Confederacy. Of all living graduates at the time of the war, 105 (10 percent) were killed, and another 151 (15 percent) were wounded. Nearly every general officer of note from either army during the Civil War was a graduate of West Point.
Life of a Soldier in the Early years
It did not get much easier anytime soon for the young plebes putting in at the West Point landing. They were thrust immediately into the academic and physical screening process. An empty blackboard at their front, a battery of frowning faculty at their rear, they were told to demonstrate ability in rudimentary arithmetic. For some the ordeal brought gut-wrenching terror. Fellow cadets watched with mixed amusement and sympathy as Andrew Jackson suffered through it. Single-mindedly intent on passing, but as much at sea in arithmetic as his classmate George McClellan wrote he was in the surroundings, Jackson labored at the board, sweat streaming down his face. As he labored, he swiped at the perspiration with the cuff of his coat, first the right sleeve, then the left. Tension mounted in the room as he struggled to come to terms with vulgar and decimal fractions. His anguish, and the examining boards, ended only when he was allowed at last to sit down. He thankfully did so, and the examiners turned aside to hide the smiles they could no longer suppress.
At the hospital, on its quiet knoll overlooking the Hudson, the would-be cadets ran the gauntlet of three doctors, where their limbs were probed for ringbone and spavin, chests thumped for soundness, teeth examined for decay, feet inspected for bunions, and apparent deformities clucked over. To test their vision, a dime was held up at the far end of the examining room, and the cadets were asked whether it was showing heads or tails.
The survivors marched immediately onto the Plain to the summer encampment, where they began to learn to be soldiers. The Plain on which they marched is the same as today’s Plain only in configuration. It is still a 40-acre terrace in a rock cradle high above the Hudson. But it was not pancake flat, grass-covered, sleekly manicured, and bordered by sidewalks as it is today. Rather, it was unlevel, dusty in summer, muddy or frozen in winter, and pitted in all seasons.
Every cadet soon learned that demerits dictated behavior at West Point and that they were parceled out with maddening liberality for a wide assortment of offenses. Two hundred demerits in one year bought irreversible dismissal. Many cadets nearing that fatal barrier found they had to ‘bone,’ or work at, behavior as hard as they boned mathematics. To go demerit-free for a year, as Jackson did once, was exemplary. To go demerit-free for the entire four years, as did Robert E. Lee, the great commander-to-be of the Army of Northern Virginia, was a miracle.
They moved, for most of the antebellum years, into two barracks on the south rim of the Plain, gray stone structures with 96 rooms to house up to 250 cadets. Light came from malodorous whale-oil lamps that emitted a dim yellow glow. In winter, the barracks were fearfully exposed to the icy wind that whistled down the river. Unheated but by fireplaces, the rooms were sometimes numbingly cold.
The mess hall would be remembered chiefly as the source for food smuggled out under hats and under jackets and cooked surreptitiously in rooms late in the evenings and called ‘hash.’ The practice was blatantly illegal but harmless depravity whose preeminent practitioner was William Tecumseh Sherman, the future Union conqueror of Atlanta and marcher to the sea. The mess hall is also remembered in West Point lore as the venue where Lewis Armistead, one of the Confederate generals killed in Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, broke a plate over the head of Jubal Early, another Confederate general-to-be, and was dismissed from the academy.
A few steps from the barracks buildings in another direction was the cadet chapel, centrally situated between the two academic halls and the library. Attendance on Sunday mornings was mandatory for every cadet — and every member of the academic staff. It still stands today but was moved to the cemetery in 1911.
The first two years at West Point were consumed by mathematics in all of its heinous incarnations: algebra, geometry, trigonometry, mensuration (measurement of geometric quantities), descriptive geometry, analytical geometry, fluxions (rate of continuous change in variable quantities), calculus. Mathematics made up 70 percent of the curriculum, and it was the grim reaper.
Other subjects followed well behind math in importance. In the first two years, cadets took French, so they would be able to read, if not speak, the language of Napoleon, the world’s great military exemplar. In the second year, drawing was added, because engineers must know how to render. Ethics — a catchall for English grammar, rhetoric, geography, ancient and modern history, moral philosophy, and political science — was taught by the chaplain and made mere cameo appearances in the last year. Infantry tactics, use of the sword, and horseback riding (the one thing that Ulysses S. Grant, thought to be the finest horseman ever to pass through West Point, excelled in) eventually found their way into the curriculum. In the third year the sciences kicked in. It was then time to apply all that mathematics. And in the fourth and final year, civil and military engineering — the arts of field and permanent fortifications — and the science of war climaxed the cadets’ West Point years. It was what everything before had been leading up to, the end reason for it all.
GRANT AND LEE AT WEST POINT CASE STUDIES
ULYSSES S. GRANT
Ulysses S. Grant 1822-1885 All his life, Ulysses S. Grant thought of himself as a Westerner. He was born in Ohio when this was America’s frontier. He grew up loving horses, and he had a skill and connection with them that everyone noticed. He was shy, something of a loner. Around his hometown, people did not think he would ever amount to much. West Point was his father’s idea. Grant did not want to go, had no interest in military life, and expected to flunk out. Maybe this is why he did not speak up during his application process when his birth name, Hiram Ulysses, was mistakenly written as Ulysses Simpson; he just accepted the name. On September 22, 1839, four months after he arrived at West Point, he wrote to a cousin and made fun of his new life,” My pants sit as tight to my skin as the bark to a tree and if I do not walk military. that is if I bend over quickly or run. they are very apt to crack with a report as loud as a pistol. my coat must always be buttoned up tight to the chin…. If you were to see me at a distance “. The first question you would ask would be. “is that a Fish or an animal?” Ulysses S. Grant never did like Army uniforms, or the endless regulations of the military. A so-so student, he was recognized mostly for his extraordinary horsemanship and his perseverance: he stuck with tasks until they were done. A classmate later recalled that all the cadets had considered Grant a good mathematician, and that everyone had liked him. But Grant was reserved, and the social life at West Point made him even more reserved. Many cadets were wealthy young Southerners whom Grant did not feel comfortable with, although James Longstreet, a nonaristocrat from rural Georgia, became a lifelong friend. Because he finished things he started, Grant made it to Cold Harbor, 1864, New-York graduation in 1843, ranking 21st in a class of 39. He hoped to return to West Point to teach math, so he remained in the Army. Despite his skill with horses, his low-class rank earned him a place in the infantry, not the cavalry. During these years, young officers were posted to far-flung parts of the country as the nation extended its reach toward the south and west. Grant’s regiment was sent to Jefferson Barracks, just south of St. Louis. This post was the Army’s major headquarters on the Mississippi River. Settlers were heading further west toward the Great Plains, and the Army’s job was to protect them from Indian raiders.
Surviving drawings and paintings (show images in Grant folder) from Grant’s West Point years show early signs of what the Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz called a “special gift” common to successful painters and generals alike: namely, a remarkable visual memory. After Grant studied a map, his staff officer Horace Porter recalled, “it seemed to become photographed indelibly upon his brain.”
In his memoirs, Grant makes no secret of his lack of engagement with military training and academics. He describes the former as “wearisome and uninteresting” while noting of the latter, “I rarely ever read over a lesson the second time during my entire cadetship.” Instead, he spent much of his time “devoted to novels, but not those of a trashy sort.” Plunging himself into the imagined worlds of Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper and other popular 19th- century authors, Grant learned, as his biographer Jean Edward Smith suggests, an “appreciation for linguistic precision.” Yet he did not absorb the romantic view of war common to period fiction. About war, he was a hard realist. Commentators, as Smith points out, tend to exaggerate the significance of the relationships forged by West Pointers to their later careers. It wasn’t always easy to predict a peer’s eventual military success or failure. A number of the cadets who showed the greatest military promise in the years before the Civil War disappointed, while the less noteworthy, Grant among them, sometimes achieved beyond all expectation. But life at the academy was extremely isolated, furloughs rare and the corps quite small. Cadets would have been thrown into each other’s company in ways that would likely have exposed their response to adversity. In many cases, early impressions were cemented by service together in the Mexican War of 1846-1848. (The small size of the regular army all but guaranteed that perceptions—deserved or otherwise—would dog officers throughout the General Simon Bolivar Buckner was an American soldier and politician who fought in the United States Army in the Mexican American War and in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Perhaps no relationship reveals the ways in which West Point connections informed Grant’s experience in the Civil War more clearly than does his acquaintance with Buckner. On Saturday, October 29, 1842, Grant’s name appears in the library circulation records next to a volume of Livy’s history of Rome. In the next column, Buckner’s is inscribed by a book about Napoleon. Neither could have predicted the ways their paths would intersect in the ensuing decades: on a hiking expedition up a volcano while on R&R in Mexico; in New York City, when Buckner lent Grant money to get home; on opposite sides of a battle for the Confederate-held Fort Donelson, Tennessee, in February 1862.
Buckner had been left in an impossible situation at Donelson by the departure of his two superiors and the escape of a cavalry detachment. But when he wrote to Grant to discuss surrender terms, the reply came: “No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.” Clearly disappointed, Buckner responded: “The distribution of the forces under my command…and the overwhelming force under your command, compel me…to accept the ungenerous and unchivalrous terms which you propose.”
Grant described their meeting after the surrender with typical frankness and a touch of humor: “I had been at West Point three years with Buckner and afterwards served with him in the army, so that we were quite well acquainted. In the course of our conversation, which was very friendly, he said to me that if he had been in command I would not have got up to Donelson as easily as I did. I told him that if he had been in command, I should not have tried in the way I did.”
ROBERT E. LEE
Robert E. Lee 1807-1870 In some ways, was born with everything. His slave-holding family had wealth and prestige. They lived in one of Virginia’s grandest estates and traced their roots back to the Jamestown colony. They were the American version of aristocracy. Among his ancestors were governors, diplomats, and signers of the Declaration of Independence. His father, nicknamed “Light Horse Harry” Lee, was the best cavalry officer in the American Revolution and had fought at George Washington’s side. All was far from perfect, though. The celebrated “Light Horse Harry” had ambitions for even greater wealth, but no skill with money. He lost a fortune on bad investments, even wrote bad checks. Lee was two when his father went to debtors’ prison, four when the family had to leave the estate, and six when his father ran off to escape his creditors. Lee grew up with little memory of him. Lee’s mother was able to support her children with a small inheritance and help from relatives, but she was humiliated by her husband’s actions. She raised Robert to make up for this disgrace – to practice self-control, to be frugal with money, and to always behave with dignity. When Robert E. Lee was admitted to West Point on July 1, 1825, he had become the young man his mother wanted, and he stood out. At 17, he was tall, powerfully built, extremely handsome. He was friendly, charming, smart, and he had gone to good schools. From the start, he was a success. He won awards for mathematics and French, but he was good at everything, including drawing. In his third year he was named corps adjutant, the highest rank among cadets. He followed the rules to a T, earning no demerits at all in four years at West Point. Every cadet probably knew who he was. One, fellow-Virginian Joe Johnston, became and remained a close friend. In 1829, Lee graduated second in his class. His high ranking gave him the right to choose the Army department he joined. Like most top graduates, he chose the Corps of Engineers, the elite part of the Army. Engineers were critical at this time in American history, when the country was growing so fast. They had the skills to survey land, map out roads, oversee the construction of bridges, dams, and buildings. There was an urgent need to improve the defenses of the American coastline, so Lee’s first assignment was in Georgia, where he worked on the building of a fort. In 1831, Lee married Mary Custis, the great granddaughter of Martha Washington. His marriage gave him a direct link to George Washington, the man he admired most. For the next three years he worked on the building of a fort in Virginia. Then he went to St. Louis to design a plan for redirecting the Mississippi River to keep this vital harbor clear and free of silt. He was considered a first-rate engineer and was brought to New York in the 1840s to serve as the resident engineer of the new Fort Hamilton. A respected family man in his 30s, Lee was an Army captain who had never been to war. That was about to change. From 1852 to 1855, Lee served as superintendent of West Point, and was therefore responsible for educating many of the men who would later serve under him - and those who would oppose him - on the battlefields of the Civil War. In 1855 he left the academy to take a position in the cavalry and in 1859 was called upon to put down abolitionist John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry.
Since 1843, the mission of the West Point Museum has been to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret historically significant artifacts and stimulate interest in the United States Military Academy at West Point, the United States Army and the Profession of Arms. The West Point Museum also supplements academic, cultural and military instruction and provides educational programs and services for Cadets, the military and civilian personnel.
The museum offers a taste of the over 60,000 Army historical artifacts that inspire and educate the U.S. Corps of Cadets on a daily basis. The holdings of the West Point Museum are displayed not only within the Museum’s walls at Pershing Center, but throughout the United States Military Academy at West Point’s buildings and grounds. We invite you to explore these webpages and then visit the museum to learn more about the displays and galleries of America’s oldest and finest military museum. The holdings span the history of the United States Military Academy at West Point, the military history of the United States Army, the history of warfare and the profession of arms.
NOTABLE EARLY GRADUATES
CLASS OF 1861
George A. Custer, after establishing a reputation of daring and brilliance in battle, Custer served as an aide to Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, Class of 1846, during the Peninsular Campaign and was commissioned a brigadier general at the age of 23. After conducting several successful operations in 1864, he was placed at the head of the 3rd Division, Calvary Corps, and was brevetted major general of volunteers. In 1876, he and his regiment of 655 men were defeated at the Battle of Little Big Horn.
CLASS OF 1854
Oliver O. Howard, Founder and president of Howard University.
James E. B. Stuart, as a cavalry officer and later as commanding general of cavalry in the Confederate Army, Stuart distinguished himself and his cavalry brigade for acts of valor and gallantry. He fought in many fierce battles, including the Battle of Seven Pines; he led multiple raids on Gen. Ewell's depots; he protected the Confederate retreat from Gettysburg. He was killed during a battle against forces commanded by Sheridan.
CLASS OF 1847
Ambrose P. Hill, Hill is best known for his performance as an aggressive Confederate division commander who could move his troops at astonishing speeds. His finest hour was the forced march from Harper's Ferry to Antietam, which saved Lee's Army during the Civil War. In May of 1863, Lee described Hill as “the best soldier of his grade with me.” Fort A. P. Hill, Va., was named in his honor.
CLASS OF 1846
George B. McClellen, graduating second in his class, McClellan served as Commanding General of the Army from 1861-62. He was nominated for President in 1864 and served as governor of his home state of N.J., from 1878-1881. Fort McClellan, Ala., was named in his honor.
George E. Pickett, At Gettysburg, Pa., in 1863, Pickett led more than 4,500 Confederate troops over half a mile of broken ground against withering artillery and musket fire. With parade drill precision they descended one slope, ascended the next, and assaulted the formidable Union line only to be forced back in defeat. Less than one fourth of the troops returned from the charge. The event, which was later called "Pickett's Charge," proved to be a turning point in the war. He continued to serve the Confederacy with great devotion throughout 1864 and 1865. Fort Pickett, Va., was named in his honor.
Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Lieutenant general and a corps commander of the Confederate Army; killed at Chancellorsville.
CLASS OF 1843
Ulysses S. Grant, General in Chief, Armies of the United States; President of the United States, 1869-
CLASS OF 1840
George Henry Thomas, The "Rock of Chickamauga."
William Tecumseh Sherman, President of Louisiana State University; "March to the Sea" Civil War campaign; commander of the Armies of the United States.
CLASS OF 1837
John Sedgwick, Sedgwick was the Commander of the Union VI Corps during the Civil War and was killed at the Battle of Spotsylvania.
CLASS OF 1835
George G. Meade, Commander of the Army of the Potomac; victorious in the Battle of Gettysburg.
CLASS OF 1832
Benjamin S. Ewell, President of the College of William & Mary 1854-88.
CLASS OF 1829
Robert E. Lee, Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy 1852-55; General in Chief, Confederate Armies; president of Washington & Lee University 1865-70.
CLASS OF 1828
Jefferson Davis, Member of Congress from Mississippi 1845-461; senator from Mississippi 1847-51, 1857-61; Secretary of War from 1853-57; President of the Confederate States of America.
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