United States Military Academy West Point - Howitzer Yearbook (West Point, NY)

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.,j'x,I ' Ll V i J: V El.. n I 11.11 11111111 . . ,. . ., .. ,, ..1.,,. gf X .1 ,. . ,1 . .., . . f 1: 'A Y ' ' . . 55513 iii! ' ' Y 'A ' 1' .Z 1 f f, wp: g. .1.i ' ae1iv' 1 1 ' - 1 . -1 if ' .17 12 '-' ei' 'fi' '- 'L fiJ. i'3 ': 'gf . 3,5 J .ff ra , 44 ' -- pilfi in.-, an ..,.. - .s- ....,. f .it X , l -' A 'l third classman of course did nothing but lie in his tent. Kipp and I got a wheel- barrow, shovel and broom, collected a quantity of cigar-butts, tobacco quids, and other trash, and asked the yearling what to do with it. I-Ie told use to take it to the quartermastefs tent, dump it there, and go -back to our tents, which we did, proudly conscious of duty well done. A few minutes later the ofhcer of the day U. E. B. Stuart, afterward the famous Confederate cavalry generalj, sent a corporal and patrol into camp to arrest Cadets Kimmel and Kipp for dumping trash in front of the quartermasteids tent, in violation of good order and military discipline. We were prisoners the rest of the day, and marched to supper with the guard, where we were objects of kindly attention. I vividly recall marching at lockstep behind an upper classman who crossed his feet while he walked, trampling mine horribly. The joke of the matter was that our yearling informant-a Sep who had never been through plebe camp-had given us the directions through ignorance, not malice, and at the subsequent investigation he was reported, and received a number of de- merits. ' We had no football nor baseball in my day. no athletics of any kind, nor even a gymnasium. But there were plenty of drills, which gave us a sufficiency of exer- cise-a good deal more than we wanted. Wfe had guard-mounting daily, immediately after breakfast. Parade Cweather permittingl occurred every day of the year, includ- ing Saturdays. There were also extra tours of guard duty tsimilar to your punish- ment tours.of to-dayl, walked in front of Barracks for two hours, on Saturday after- noons. Real vacations, except furlough, occurred only twice a year, on',Christmas and New Year's Days. There were no duties on these dates, and leaves were some- times given at Christmas. There was always uncertainty about this, however. I have seen a letter written home by a cadet of '59, on Christmas Eve, saying that he was uncertain about coming home, as the orders granting leaves were not yet out. ,Our food-except on the above-mentioned feast-days, when we had an oyster supper and a turkey dinner-was very simple. VVe could hardly' have afforded any luxuries, for our pay when I entered, was S2-1 a month. S2 of this went ,to equip- ment fund, and about S10 tothe mess. The 'Winter before I graduated, Congress increased the pay to S30 monthly, where it remained until 186-L. At no time during my stay did any of us leave the Point Cexcept on legitimate leavej for instruction or any other purpose. Such trips as the first class now makes to Fort Hancock, Springfield or W'atervliet, or the battlefield of Gettysburg, were quite unknown. I believe .that you are much the gainers thereby. Visits, especially, to the great battlefields of the Civil Wa1', in my opinion give an invaluable oppor- tunity for practical military instruction. , I do not recall any serious friction or misunderstandings with the Tactical Depart- ment. Such a thing as expressing disapprobation of an officer by a public demonstra- tion was simply unheard of. I am told, however, that there was such an occurrence in ,64, when an officer was hissed at drill. But in the Summer camp of the year after my graduation, I believe it was, there was a mutinous disturbance of some proportions. The hrst captain, a rather autocratic and unpopular man, had several times directed the first class privates in ranks to stop swinging their arms excessively. Apparently it had no effect. So one evening, marching to supper, he gave the battalion 'Ito the rear, and reversed it by two abouts, so that the first classmen were in the rear rank. When ranks broke after supper, three first classmen snatched swords from nearby file-closers, and attacked the hrst captain. He drew his own sword, and a lively ight ensued until the Commandant rushed up and quelled the disturbance. The three privates were afterward dismissed. This is said to be,the nearest approach to actualmutiny that the Point has ever seen. 15 '

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i Eau in I ,Q-.r. .'f2x'?Sit? ..:. we Q xr ' f's...f4f:r .:, , V.,, ,V ,L st:-gifg'.:Qa-is Piss -, mfs,-,ew , .J 5,1 .ga Q n ' f 'f,.:'.-:Uv 4 , 'Q A t-3545? at 1. Wigs' i iii: . .1 ' i , F ,, :rf - ,,s::,,.. .,..... ...f:..f31?'r W7 X, Maha mamma , . ,,f , eu-,........,,,. ..,....,. 5 1 I-1f5m1yA...r::-:F-V ---- --6, - l H j ..,...,,,,,. 1-H 'fit.aEMng4, .-M..- A -J ii ii-he '.,.t.'. , 'fsii .. iii I ?,f5i-mlgfs a . -6 21.2 ff' 52.4 ,,.,,,3.3.3.V if -' ' . , ,531 Y ,. , b,-.ge , 5. -.,.1, 7. in ' 4: jig: ' :jd-1 v..-,1.N5.r, A2.3:'4 ,el-t5,,.g5.? sg., ,A L, 1,-.3,: zphygsw- ltl west 1Buint in the Sixties By CHARLES KING CMajor-General, U. S. A., Retired, Class of '66D HAD often visited the Academy as a boyg was steeped in its legends and tradi- tions, had no higher ambition than to follow in the footsteps of my father and be like him, a VVest Pointer. I studied with adoring eyes the many officers and cadets. Northern and Southern both, who were made welcome at my grandfather's home. He was then President of Columbia College in New York City, and was educating me for Columbia, and anything but a military career. Then came the thunder clap-the guns of Sumter-and We who had refused to listen to the rumblings of the coming storm, were caught in its vortex. Even as a sixteen-year-old boy I had a share at the frontg and then, armed with an appointment at large from the Unknown Westerner, I stood attention to a cadet officer-of-the- day with whom I had shaken hands a few months previous, and was turned over to a brace of cadet corporals for the expected initiation to West Point. Morris Schaff and his few comrades had just received their diplomas, had come in from their last parade, and were 'fchanging the gray for the blue. It was the 11th of June, and I sometimes think the romance and poetry of the ante-bellum period lasted in some measure until Schaff and l1is classmates left us. I know it vanished with them, and we who entered in their stead began a Ugrad-grind -as sombre, as unsentimental a four years' sojourn as was ever there endured. In previous years at West Point the Plebe Class outnumbered the yearlings. In '62 the yearlings outnumbered the plebes, and-never mind the details, I, at least knew just what to expect and got no less than was expected+perhaps no less than I deserved, but from June the 15th to the fag end of August, our immortal seventy had the time of our lives. One way to escape the incessant Work and nagging by day, and Uyankingf' ditching and deviling by night, was to get on guard. My regular tour came about once in seven days, but some upper classman was ever ready to let a plebe take his place on what he considered a bore, and I a blessing. So it often happened that I could 'fmarch on every other day, thanks to the pre-occupation in the Commandant's tent, and walking a cool sentry post the long hours of the night was far better than being snaked out by the heels every live minutes, and slid by scampering, sniggering, light-heeled, light-hearted yearlings all over the camp and sometimes far beyond. I mind me of one occasion, in the starlight and dew of mid- August, when a future major-general and two of his cronies whisked me clear out to Execution I-Iollow and then scurried home. It was a riotous night in camp. Every time a plebe was launched from the tent floor to the hard beaten company street the dust would Hy in clouds. I hated dust and didn't mind dew, so rolled in my grimy blanket and slept sweetly for nearly two hours, till my abductors grew anxious lest the exile shouldn't return in time for reveille, and so came in search. It was fun to see our Commandant next morning curiously studying that long trail from A Company I6 . ,nun I x