Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1905-04-30

puug vi SttUclS Ill lOOU vi WHICH Tic
writer was a member; and Fits"
parting words, as. with tears In his eyes
| and voice tremulOus with emotion,
he babe us farewell, left an impression
| that will not be cffaccd SO long as
memory lasts. '
The remaining tactical officers, as
well as Lee himself, then serving on
| the Plains, had engaged in many In
dian contests and had done good serv-
Ice, though not rcqufted by brevets
The law distinctly requires that brew
| cts shall not be bestowed except in
| time of war; ami the contests i'll which
our little army was engaged In on the
| Frontier for so many long years, the
most hazardous of all warfare, were,
as determined by revised statutes, not
| TO he so classed. Those who fell in
conflicts with the Indians were men
who passed quietly from their classes
at the academy to the Western wilds,
returning-if ever again-to their Al
/ ma Mater, for final intcrment in the
West Point cemetery
| Although no sculptured marble
should rise to their memory. no en-
graved stone bear record of their
deeds, yet will their remembrance be
as lasting as the land they honored"-
1 Daniel Webster
Reynolds, Griffin. McCooll, Williams,
Field and last. but not least. Lee. ali
the TAGS" departed from the AGA
deny for active service. REYNOLDS.
F., Griffin and McCooli became distin-
guishcd leaders in the Union army,
and Field and Lee IN tho Confederate
States army. Williams, although a
| Virginian by birth and afillation, re.
manned loyal to the Union and COM
I, mandcd The First Massachusetts cav
airy. with the same energy and zeal
that he had ever displayed Mt the Mill
!tary Academy as instructor of cav
airy tactics. Later he became adju-
tant general of the United States
army.
1t cannot always he told what a
mans future will be from his standing
at school. Robert e. Lee was sec
cnd In the class of 1929 at West
Point. class whose members In after
years were among the most brilliant
men of their time in the military
service. Brig.-Gen. T.. p. Alexander.
I, G. S. A.. class 1857, states that "In
conversation with Colonel Ives, of
/ President Davis staff, during a ride
along the lines, ! asked, his estimate
pressive; stopping his horse and turn
/ ing his face to me, he said: Ice is
| the most audacious officer In either ar
my, Confederate or Federal; he will
| fight quicker and longer and take more
| desperate chances than any general
this country has ever seen and you
| Will live to see it,"
Tho truth was-as still is-FitZ Lee
was a man of action rather than a
student and in horscmanship and all
physical exercises he greatly excelled.
| U. s.. Grant and jefferson Davis,
graduates of exactly the same grading
anu in classes of nearly the same
strength, furnish good illustrations of
the capabilities Of the "midlle-man" of
| the class.
Longstreet. Lees lieutenant and
corps commander, who as a scholar
was considerably below the average, Is
another instance of the middle-man of
,, a class.
To those of us who were close OBJ
servers (as cadets ever are) of our
oiiicer-instructors at the academy
! men who In earlier years had led the
columns OF assault mp the Heights of
Chapultepec, and drawn swords on
! the field of Beuna Vista, and Palo
Alto-evidonce of their distress was
not wanting In the hour of our coun-
try's peril
The class of 1861, which reported at
the Academy in 1857, one hundred and
eight strong, musters on the army list
today but five. OF the missing through
forty years or more, the record is In
complete; of the others we here shall
speak
O'1ouke the leader of the class, and
Custer, the last of scholastic file.clos-
ers, each was killed at the head of his
regiment upon the field of battle-the
former cut down In carly youth at
Gettysburg. and the latter massacrcd,
together. with seven hundred of his
whlte-horsc troopers, at Little Big
Horn river Montana.
Custer. ever at the head of his regi-
ment," and Custer fwithout disparagc-
menO ever at ting foot of his! class"
or O'Roule, more anon But let MS
for moment examine into this phcfio-
menal scholastic performance of Cadet
Custer, leading the .immortas' In d
class of one hundred--again of eighty,
Of sixty, then fifty, and finally marker
OF a class graduating with but thirty.
four members.
Glorious old boy! Daredevil of tho
class! How we'll did you hang on to,
the itail,end-always ahead of the de-
ficient-foot3 of a class OF thlrty-four
m. H. . - n