West Point: US Military Academy

By Tiffany Amber Stockton

Last month, I shared about Buffalo Bill Cody and his famous Wild West Show. If you missed that post, you can read it here: https://www.hhhistory.com/2018/05/buffalo-bill-vaudeville.html.

Today, I'm focusing a bit on our amazing military here in the US and paying tribute to the 116th anniversary of the US Military Academy at West Point. I live surrounded by six (6) military installations here in Colorado Springs: Fort Carson (army), NORAD, Cheyenne Mtn. Air Force Station, Peterson Air Force Base, Schriever Air Force Base, US Air Force Academy. Even though I can only claim military connections through my father and grandfathers, I am immersed in the military world. With the recent graduation season and our celebration of Memorial Day, I thought it fitting to honor the oldest established military installation in the country.

* * * * *

West Point: U.S. Military Academy (USMA)!

Academy in 1828. All structures
depicted here are now gone.

The history of the United States Military Academy can be traced to buildings constructed on the West Point of the Hudson River during the American Revolutionary War in 1778. I featured this general area in my second book, Quills & Promises, which took place during the French & Indian War. Following the Revolutionary War, President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation establishing the United States Military Academy (USMA) on that very site in 1802.

Dean's House and Professor Row
in background, circa 1870

The Connecticut militia first occupied West Point on January 27, 1778, making it the longest continually occupied post in the United States. The Continental Army occupied the land for twelve years until Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton authorized the purchase of the land for $11,085 in 1790. It was as commander of the fortifications at West Point that Benedict Arnold committed his infamous act of treason when he attempted to sell the fort to the British.

George Washington realized a need for a national military academy to teach the art and science of war, but his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson argued there was no provision in the Constitution that allowed for such a thing. Many in the Congress also feared establishing a Military Academy as too aristocratic. American military failures in frontier-fighting motivated Congress to improve the instruction at West Point, but little resulted due to a lack of qualified instructors.

By the time John Adams left office in 1801, the Corps consisted of only twelve cadets and one instructor. Despite his earlier misgivings, when Jefferson became president, he called for and signed legislation establishing a "Corps of Engineers" which "shall be stationed at West Point and constitute a Military Academy" on June 9, 1802.

Thayer statue

The early years of the academy were a tumultuous time, with few standards for admission or length of study. Cadets ranged in age from 10 to 37 and attended between 6 months to 6 years. In 1817, Sylvanus Thayer became the Superintendent of the Academy. He is known as the "Father of the Military Academy." He upgraded academic standards, instilled military discipline, and emphasized honorable conduct. He also created a teaching method known today as the Thayer Method, which emphasizes self study and daily homework, as well as small class size. This method of instruction is still used today.

Hayes Gym built in 1910, still in use

For the first half century, USMA graduates were largely responsible for the construction of the bulk of the nation's initial railway lines, bridges, harbors and roads. This tradition continues today in the hands of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Although no graduate of the Academy has made general officer rank at the start of the War with Mexico, by the time of the Civil War, nearly every general officer of note from either side was a graduate of West Point.

Some famous graduates of the Academy are: Robert E. Lee (1829), Ulysses S. Grant (), Willard Young (1875), George Washington Goethals (1880), John J. Pershin (1886), Douglas MacArthur (1903), Joseph Stilwell (1904), Henry "Hap" Arnold (1907), George S. Patton (1909), Dwight D. Eisenhower & Omar Bradley (both 1915).

Although the challenge of wars and changing education in America caused West Point to struggle at times, the Academy managed to rise above by adapting its curriculum to include a greater emphasis on history and humanities, and by expanding its infrastructure on the grounds, tearing down most of the old buildings and rebuilding. By 1933, the title of Bachelor of Science was given to all graduates.

Academy Coat of Arms

Following the creation of the U.S. Air Force as a separate service in 1947 and until the graduation of the first United States Air Force Academy class in 1959, West Point cadets who met the eligibility standards could apply to be commissioned as Air Force officers.

To this day, West Point remains one of the most prestigious military academies in the United States. I have no doubt this will continue.

* * * * *

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Do you know anyone who has attended and/or graduated from West Point?

* Has anyone in your family ever served in any branch of the military at any time? Which branch and when did they serve?

* Have you ever attended an Army/Navy game, the biggest sports rivalry in the military?

* What did you like most about today's post?

---

BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those childhood skills to become an author and speaker who works in the health & wellness and personal development industry, helping others become their best from the inside out. She is also an educational consultant with Usborne Books.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children and Nova, their Shiba Inu mix, in Colorado. She has sold twenty (21) books so far and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, and LinkedIn.

Class Rings—The Start of a Tradition

High School and College. There are so many important moments in those seasons of a young person’s life. First dates, dances, yearbooks, first jobs, getting a driver’s license and/or first car. And getting a class ring.

I personally never got a class ring, either in high school or college. Not that I didn’t want one. I did. Not that we couldn’t afford one. My family could. I just…didn’t. I don’t even know why. So when my own son reached high school, I made sure we offered. He said he would love one, and he wears that ring proudly now as he goes through college. I will assume we might get him a college ring as well, but that decision is another year or more off.

For my most recently published story, The Brigand and The Bride, found in The Mail-Order Brides Collection, a ring plays an important part of the story. I needed a distinctive ring, something few others would have. I immediately thought of a class ring, since they’d likely be inscribed with a name and a year, and because only the students from that school would have one. But I quickly realized it would have to be from a prestigious school, since it didn’t seem likely that most one-room schoolhouses would be the types of places you’d find class rings. No, in that age, it would have to be an Ivy-league school or the like. Of course, I immediately had to wonder if class rings were even a thing back in the mid-1800s. The ring in my story was worn by my hero’s father, which means it would’ve been from around 1850, give or take a couple of years. Did class rings exist in those days?

West Point emblem

Why yes! Yes they did!

The tradition of class rings goes back to 1835, started by the graduating class from the United States Military Academy, or West Point. Interestingly, this was the first school to dream up the idea of each member of the graduating class having a memento to commemorate their time at the school—and as a symbol of shared camaraderie and pride. At first, the rings were all styled the same, and the only customization was what might be engraved on the underside of the ring. But as time passed, the schools were able to begin offering customization of slight changes to the basic ring being offered for that year, like the graduating senior’s name or other details to personalize the jewelry.

West Point Ring Weekends hold a lot of great moments. The “Firsties,” or seniors, have their official ring ceremony where the students receive their rings, followed by a formal dinner and a dance (which they call a “hop”). And from that point forward, the underclassmen mob the Firsties, asking to see their rings. However, they don’t just say, “May I see your ring?” They have a a special way of asking. They’ll repeat:

“Oh my gosh, Sir/Ma’am! What a beautiful ring! What a crass mass of brass and glass. What a bold mold of rolled gold! What a cool jewel you got from your school! See how it sparkles and shines? It must have cost you a fortune! May I touch it? May I touch it, sir/ma’am?”

I dare say that school is all about tradition, and the “ring poop” as it is called, is a fun one.

So what might a class ring from circa-1850 look like? I was excited to discover that J.E.B. “Jeb” Stuart, the famed Confederate general, was a graduate of West Point in 1854, and I was able to find pictures of his class ring. It was well worn, but in great shape for its age.

The stone was green, and when the ring was new, it had the West Point crest engraved in the stone’s surface. Jeb Stuart was a cavalry officer, and over the years between his graduation and his death in 1864, the engraving was word down, perhaps by the rubbing of the reins of his horse. As you can see on the underside of the ring, there is engraving including his name, along with the month and year of his graduation.

J.E.B. Stuart's West Point class ring

With the details of West Point being the first school to start the tradition of class rings and with a picture in mind of what such a ring might look like, I knew I could safely incorporate such a ring into my novella. Of course, you’ll have to read the story to find out how and why it’s important!

Interior of J.E.B. Stuart's class ring, showing
inscription and date/year.

It’s your turn: I’ll give away a copy of The Mail-Order Brides Collection to one reader, so you can see just how that ring plays into the story. To enter, please tell me whether you got a class ring in high school and/or college. If so, do you still wear the ring(s)? If not, did you want one, and what kept you from having one?

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list numerous times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.

Available now: The Mail-Order Brides Collection

What kind of woman would answer an advertisement and marry a stranger?

Escape into the history of the American West along with nine couples whose relationships begin with advertisements for mail-order brides. Placing their dreams for new beginnings in the hands of a stranger, will each bride be disappointed, or will some find true love?

The Brigand And The Bride by Jennifer Uhlarik

1876, Arizona
Jolie Hilliard weds a stranger to flee her outlaw family but discovers her groom is an escaped prisoner. Will she ever find happiness on the right side of the law?

Miss Warner's Boys - The West Point Cadets

By Marilyn Turk

West Point Cadets - 1800's

Susan Warner and her younger sister Anna were teenagers when their widowed father Henry Warner bought Constitution Island across the Hudson River from West Point. The year was 1836, and their uncle, Thomas Warner, was the West Point chaplain. While visiting him, Henry first saw the island, which still contained remnants of fortifications from the Revolutionary War. At the time, Henry Warner was a successful New York City lawyer and planned to build a mansion on the desolate island. 

Original Cadet Chapel

However, after a series of financial setbacks, Henry Warner was forced to give up his city town home and move his family to the island where he built a farmhouse instead of a mansion. Life changed dramatically for the sisters, who not only had to adapt to country living, but also learn how to work the land to grow food for their survival.

Warner Home on Constitution Island, photo by Ahodges7

As Susan and Anna grew older, they began to write for income to help support the family. Susan was the first published, and her book The Wide, Wide World, became the country’s first best-seller, selling a million copies in 1850. The devout Christian sisters wrote hymns, nonfiction religious works, novels, and children’s stories, sometimes under the pseudonyms, Elizabeth Wetherell and Amy Lothrop, respectively. Together they published over seventy pieces of work.

In 1875, the sisters were asked by some West Point cadets to teach a Sunday School class. Initially, Susan taught the class in the Cadet Chapel on campus. During the summer months, cadets who had earned the special privilege were rowed across the river to attend the class in the Warner orchard. These cadets became known as “Miss Warner’s boys.”

In a biography of the sisters published in 1925 by Olivia Phelps Stokes, one of the cadets tells this story about the experience. “Miss Warner awaited her guests in the orchard. She always sat in the same big chair, supported by many cushions. She was a frail little woman with a long face deeply lined with thought and care, lighted with large, dark, very brilliant eyes. As she sat in her chair with the boys in a semi-circle around her on the grass, she looked like a print from Godey’s Lady’s Book of half a century before…

Miss Susan and her "boys"

After each of the boys had read a Bible verse, Miss Warner, choosing her subject from some New Testament text, talked to them for perhaps half an hour until her enthusiasm and interest had obviously almost exhausted her small strength…she always gave to the boys the brightest and most optimistic side of the faith she loved so well. When she had finished and lay back pale and weary against her cushions, her sister, Miss Anna, came down from the house with the rarest treat of the whole week, tea and homemade gingerbread.” In 1885, Susan Warner died and Anna took over teaching the class.

Despite economic hardship, Anna refused many offers to sell the island. But shortly before Anna’s death in 1915, Mrs. Russell Sage, a generous benefactor bought the island, and together, she and Anna deeded the property to West Point to be maintained for its historic preservation.

Anna Warner

Many years have gone by since the sisters passed away, as have the cadets they taught. But Susan and Anna’s most important lesson has lived on, reaching millions.

Perhaps you never heard of Susan or Anna Warner. Yet you may have sung a song they wrote. You see, in 1860, Susan penned the novel “Say and Sea,” which contained a poem written by Anna, called “Jesus Loves Me.” Two years later, musician William Bradbury found the poem and set it to music.

Jesus loves me, this I know.

For the Bible tells me so.

Little ones to Him belong,

They are weak, but He is strong.