Last in Their Class
Subtitle: Custer, Pickett and the Goats of West Point
Publisher: Encounter Books
Published: March 25, 2006
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 500
ISBN-13: 9781594031410
Subjects: American history: c 1800 to c 1900; Civil war; c 1800 to c 1900; United States - Civil War; Military History - U.S. Civil War; U.S. History - Civil War And Reconstruction (1860-1877); History; History - Military / War; History: American; USA; Military - United States; History / General; 19th century; Biography; Military education; Soldiers; United States
Description: Today's Goat, the West Point cadet finishing at the bottom of his class, is temporary celebrity among his classmates. But in the 19th century, he was something of a cult figure. Custer's contemporaries at the Academy believed that the same spirit of adventure that led him to carouse at local taverns motivated his dramatic cavalry attacks in the Civil War and afterwards. And the same willingness to accept punishment from Academy authorities also sent George Pickett into the teeth of the Union guns at Gettsyburg. The story James S. Robbins tells goes from the beginnings of West Point through the carnage of the Civil War to the grassy bluffs over the Little Big Horn. The Goats he profiles tell us much about the soul of the American solider, his daring, imagination, and desire to prove himself against high odds.