CHAPTER II.
THE PREPARATION.
After examining the papers received from the War Department, I found one that required my father’s signature before I myself could accept the appointment. My parents both objected to my leaving home, and therefore did not wish me to go to West Point. I argued that I wanted to go to college somewhere, and why not let me go where Uncle Sam paid the bills. At last I won my mother on my side, and then my father, seeing that my heart was so fixed, signed the paper requiring his signature, and mailed it to the Honorable Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. This done, I let the secret out, and all of my boy friends wanted to know how I had gotten the appointment. I told part, but I did not tell just how I did get it.
After seeing the kind of examination[5] I would have to pass at West Point the next year, my father decided to send me to the High School at Ann Arbor, Mich., and to send my brother Charley there with me to prepare him for the University of Michigan. We entered the High School early in September. About two weeks afterward the University of Michigan (also at Ann Arbor) opened, and we observed that many of the candidates for the freshman class seemed no farther advanced than we thought ourselves, so we applied, were examined, and admitted to the University. I thought that if I failed at West Point I could return and graduate at the University in three instead of four years.
There was a tall young man from Tennessee, who entered the High School with us, and afterward entered the University, too. He, like myself, had an appointment to West Point, and was going there the next June, so we became friends at once, and he and I agreed to study after Christmas for the West Point examination. After the sophomores quit hazing, all went well with us, and the year soon passed. I left Ann Arbor on the last day of April to return home via Lakes Huron and Michigan, and went to Detroit to take the first steamer of the season around the lakes to Chicago. Upon arriving in Detroit, I heard that there was to be a muster and inspection of a regiment of United States troops out at Fort Wayne, a short ride from Detroit, and as I was to be a soldier, I went to see the sight. As I looked at the troops (the First U. S. Infantry), I thought that I would like to be an officer of that regiment when I graduated from West Point, and singularly enough my wish was gratified. I remained so long at Fort Wayne that the boat had departed when I returned to Detroit, so I took train and overtook the boat at Port Huron. While there I went to see Fort Gratiot, and strange to say, that was subsequently my first army station. When the steamer stopped at Mackinaw I visited the fort that was there at that time.
After my return home I reviewed the studies I was to be examined on in a few weeks, and then started east. I promised my father if I failed to pass the examination that I would return home at once. Arriving in the great city of New York, I took passage on the day steamer “Mary Powell,” and was charmed with the scenery along the Hudson. The first stop was at the south landing at West Point. I was on the upper deck at the time, and after seeing my trunk put ashore, I walked leisurely downstairs to disembark and to my great surprise the boat was fifty feet or more from shore when I got down. I thought that all steamers made long stops, for the only other boat that I had ever been on stopped for many hours every time she landed. The captain would not let me off, and said that I could get off at Cornwall and take a down boat the same evening. I was satisfied and went on the upper deck again and saw the passengers who had landed get into the West Point Hotel ’bus. All the trunks except mine were put on the top of the ’bus, and it was then driven up the hill, leaving my trunk all alone on the dock.
When the steamer stopped at Cornwall I this time promptly stepped ashore. It was about sunset. There were not more than half a dozen buildings in sight, and not a soul at the dock, and I was the only passenger landing at that point. I went to one of the houses and inquired the location of the hotel, and I was informed that it was not open, as it was too early for summer visitors. I then asked what time the down boat was due, and was informed that it would be along soon, but that it would not stop. The West Shore Railroad was not built at that time, and as there was no stage line over the mountains nor ferry on the river, I began to fear that I could not get away by the tenth of June, the last day for me to report. This bothered me more than the hotel accommodations, but I soon found obliging people and arranged for my lodging and breakfast, and also to be rowed to my destination the next day.
