America’s Civil War Comes to West Point

The firing on Fort Sumter changed everything. Northern cadets who had been indifferent to or even sympathized with secession suddenly realized what was at stake. A meeting was arranged by word of mouth, and that night all the Northern cadets met in the room of William Harris, where they sang ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ so that it could be heard across the river. It was, Morris Schaff remembered, ‘the first time I ever saw the Southern contingent cowed. All of their Northern allies had deserted them and they were stunned.’ The next day all the professors, including Virginia-born Dennis H. Mahan, made patriotic speeches, and Dr. John French offered all the money he had to strengthen the government exchequer. A few days later, when an officer who had been at Fort Sumter visited West Point, he was joyously serenaded.

By this time Southerners were leaving nearly every day, including two instructors, Lieutenants Fitzhugh Lee and Charles W. Field. But the old ties were still there: one cadet remembered later that ‘between the men of the several sections of the country there was no bitterness manifest, nothing but expressions of sorrow and disappointment.’ This was especially true in the case of Lee who, like his famous uncle, left only after his native Virginia had seceded and then with great regret. A big, cheerful, smiling man who had almost been dismissed on several occasions during his cadet career because of his pranks, Fitz Lee was probably the most popular officer at the Academy. On the night of his departure the officers of the post serenaded him and the entire corps of cadets stood, hats in hand, in front of the barracks as he went past.

By May 1861, most of the Southern cadets were gone. Out of a total Corps of 278, there were 86 Southerners, of whom 65 resigned. The new superintendent, Major Bowman, noted that the remaining 21 were discontented, restless, and neglecting their studies-but, for that matter, so were the Yankees, the excitement being what it was. Bowman was convinced most of the 21 were merely waiting for permission from their parents to resign, and to force them out before they could ’cause a commotion’ he ordered all cadets to sign an oath of allegiance. Some of the Southerners from border states hesitated, causing New Yorker Upton to remark, ‘The Government will know who are loyal and who are traitors.’ Eventually all signed and fought for the Union. In August Bowman held another oath-signing ceremony, this time with the words, ‘I will maintain and defend the sovereignty of the United States, paramount to any and all allegiance, sovereignty, or fealty I may owe to any State, county, or country whatsoever.’ Two Kentuckians refused to sign, including plebe John C. Singleton, who was thereupon dismissed. Singleton went home, joined the Union Army, and was killed in action.

In the first weeks of the war the cadets felt an acute sense of isolation. ‘I suppose there is a great deal of stir and preparation for war going on in the country,’ Cullen Bryant wrote his father, ‘though I have as yet seen but very few evidences of it. We are almost completely secluded and shut out from the rest of the world.’ The war news from all over the country was tremendously exciting, but at West Point, now that the Southerners had left, all was quiet and normal-maddeningly so. All over the North Volunteer companies and regiments were being formed, men were marching off to war to stirring martial tunes, with pretty girls’ kisses on their cheeks, and the great crusade was underway. But at West Point, nothing. The young heroes, eager to save their nation, were ignored. In retaliation they ridiculed the more fortunate. Cadet Bryant sneeringly told his father he did not expect the Volunteer companies at home were much to look at, and he supposed the officers were ‘rather poor specimens.’ Bryant, who had been at the Academy for ten months, pontificated, ‘experience only can make an efficient officer. I am afraid our volunteer companies would make a rather poor show in a fight with disciplined troops.’

The Cadets often announced their contempt for civilians-turned-soldiers, so they were dismayed when they saw high rank in the Volunteer regiments going to untrained men when the best they had to look forward to was a second lieutenancy in a Regular regiment, and that would probably be a brevet rank. They watched with envious eyes as their Southern classmates became captains or more in the state forces, ranks a Regular Army officer could hardly hope to reach before he was forty. And they were absolutely furious when they discovered that the Secretary of War, in expanding the Regular Army, was giving commissions in it to mere civilians. Those who received the appointments would permanently rank ahead of the first classmen, who would not graduate and receive their commissions until June, for in the Army a man’s position and thus his promotions, depended upon the date of appointment. The system of cadet rankings had taught the students they were expected to fight for higher rank, and they learned the lesson well. Many, including William Harris, whose father was a United States Senator, wrote complaining letters on the subject to their Congressmen, but it did no good.

Some cadets listened closely to the enticing offers of the state governors, politicians who realized that their Volunteer forces needed at least a smattering of professionalism. The governors offered a captaincy or a majority or in a few cases even a colonelcy to home-state cadets. For the young men the temptation was great, but so were the drawbacks. They would be commanding citizen soldiers, and they had an ingrained prejudice against such warriors. They would have to resign from the Academy which first and second classmen found difficult, especially since General in Chief Scott had made it clear he did not want any Regular officers joining the Volunteer forces. Scott argued that this would so weaken the Regular Army that it would never recover, and he forced officers to resign their commissions before they could join the Volunteers. Later in the war, after Henry Halleck replaced Scott, he encouraged Regulars to join the Volunteers, hoping thereby to improve the citizen-soldiers’ efficiency, and many did so. Under the Halleck system they retained their grade and position in the Regular Army, while rising as far as their abilities could take them in the Volunteers. For example, Emory Upton, an 1861 graduate of the Academy who in late 1862 joined the New York volunteers, was still a lieutenant in the Regulars when he was a brevet major general in the Volunteers. Others who rose to gain their stars included George Custer and James H. Wilson, while those who remained in the Regular Army, including Morris Schaff and Henry du Pont, remained junior officers.