Cadet Life at West Point

by Hugh T. Reed

During furlough some of my classmates visited me, and I visited some of them, and we had a jolly good time of course, for all college men enjoy their vacations. While students of other colleges usually have several months’ vacation every year, West Point cadets have but one vacation in their four years. With many pleasures and not a care the summer soon passed, and as usual most of the furloughmen met in New York to return together from there.

A warm welcome awaited us in “Camp Belknap,” that being the name of the camp at the Point this year. Mustaches and side whiskers that we had grown during the summer all had to come off before we reported our return to the Adjutant. We soon shaved, visited the trunk rooms, donned our uniforms and reported for duty. After a gay time on the “color line” that evening we turned in with the first classmen, who had long been our friends, although they were once the yearlings who had deviled us in our plebe camp; so quickly is the deviling forgiven and yet never forgotten. The next day we “broke camp” and returned to barracks, this time to begin on the hardest studies[51] of the four years. It did not take us long to get down to hard study and drill again and to become interested once more in the few things that afford pleasure to cadets during the Academic year.

After arriving at the Point and before reporting the return from furlough, it has long been a custom to have a class picture taken upon the chapel steps, and when sitting for this picture furloughmen generally look as “tough” as possible, as may be seen from the picture of the group of furloughmen.

When marching to and from meals, long before I myself became a second classman, I observed four members of the then second class who did not march with the battalion, but who strolled leisurely to and from the Mess Hall. My first thought was that they had been excused by the Post Surgeon from marching to and from meals, but upon inquiry I learned that these four were “Company Clerks,” and that they were detailed on special duty upon the recommendations of the first sergeants. Hence I promptly secured the promise of D⸺t that if he obtained the first sergeancy of C Company I should be the company clerk. He was made the first sergeant and kept his promise to me, and for more than a year I made out the muster rolls and guard details of C Company. From that day I have not walked post as a sentinel; the first year because I was company clerk, and the next year because first classmen do not do guard duty after the plebes begin to go on guard. Neither did I march to and from meals any more; the first year because I was company clerk and the next because I was one of twelve first classmen who, at that time, took their meals at a private house in Professor’s Row.

Professor K⸺k was an old bachelor, but he kept open house on Saturday afternoons, and it was a great pleasure to him to welcome cadet callers. He always treated them to waffles and maple syrup or to something else equally as delicious and not found on the Mess Hall bill of fare.

In my day the gas tips in cadet rooms did not give a very good light, so some of the cadets bought better tips and when caught using them they were of course reported for tampering with public property. G⸺r, of my class, had an “Argand burner,” and at first he was very careful to take it off for inspection of quarters, but one evening he was caught unawares and reported. For this serious offense he was confined to “light prison” for several months. Light prisons at that time were rooms in the angle of barracks, and they were off limits for cadets not there in confinement. The cadet officer of the day carried the prison keys, and at certain hours, such as for recitations and drills, he would let out the prisoners. G⸺r got so tired of being alone that he removed a panel of his prison door and then often went visiting after taps. But he got out through the panel once too often, for he was caught and then his prison door was barred and his stay in prison lengthened many weeks.

One day when Captain B⸺s had my cavalry platoon out for a long ride in the country, just before passing an orchard filled with luscious ripe apples, the Captain rode from the head to the rear of the column and said to the rear guide: “Mr. H⸺s, don’t let anyone go into that orchard,” and then returned to the head of the column. H⸺s saw to it that none of us “fell out” of ranks, but he himself treated to apples from that orchard.

Cadets are taught the use of the pencil, pen and brush, the latter in water colors only. In this work we painted from models of landscapes, figures, ships, etc., and, as may be expected, some cadets were more skillful than others. Those near the foot of the class in drawing had hard work to keep from being found deficient in it. To get better results in water color work the professor occasionally directed a cadet to wash out a part of his drawing and begin that part over again. In looking at Cadet G⸺e’s work one day, Professor W⸺r directed him to wash out the “hull” of the ship he was at work on. After a while the professor returned and began to scold, when G⸺e “innocently” said: “Why, professor, you told me to wash out the ‘whole’ of it.” The topographical sketch of the most interesting part of West Point given on another page is a reproduction of a specimen of cadet pen and ink work.

We were kept so busy during this year that the time passed rapidly, notwithstanding many privileges that we had enjoyed were taken away from us. For instance, this year we were not allowed to go on Christmas leave, nor to receive Christmas boxes, nor to give an entertainment on New Year’s Eve. The fact is a new superintendent had taken charge of affairs and it did not take us long to find it out. Still we soon became accustomed to the new order of things and all went well.