F W1C3 West Point in Literature BY GENERAL WILLIAM H. CARTER UNITED STATES ARMY Iass_ Fl2.f , ir^C 3 Pki:sKNTi;i) iiY z^- West Point in Literature GENERAL WILLIAM H. CARTER UNITED STATES ARMY %eprinted from Journal of the Military Service Institution LORD BALTIMORE PRESS BALTIMORE, MD., U.S.A. 1909 MlC3 09 o WEST POINT IN LITERATURE. By Brigadikr-General WILLIAM H. CAETER, U. S. Army. "The moon looks down on Old Cro' Nest; She mellows the shades on his shaggy breast, And seems his huge gray form to throw In a silver cone on the wave below." EST POINT, seated in the ro- mantic Highlands, in the shadow of Cro' Nest, and guarding, as it were, the very throat of the majestic Hudson where it breaks through the mountain barriers on its way to the sea, has been the scene of many historic incidents which have left an impress upon all who have lingered there. There is an old West Point tradition that the talented young author, Joseph Rodman Drake, conceived the quaint idea of '' The Culprit Fay," as a result of a bantering wager at The Mess, that no tale of love without the human element could be made of interest. Whether this tradition be wholly true, the fact remains that yomig Drake received his inspiration under the shadow of Cro' Nest, and his West Point elfins, goblins, sprites and fairies mil live as long as American verse re- ceives the honor that is its due. 3 The literary instinct is inborn, but environment, intellectual associations and well-directed study serve to broaden and perfect the gift which makes so much for the world's entertainment and happiness. Under a rigorous analytical system of education, intended to develop logical methods of reasoning out essential facts and of clearly presenting proper conclusions, a simple and direct style of expression naturally re- sults. When to this general training is added a per- sonal quality, derived from a literary temperament, a happy combination ensues, the results of which may be observed in a long array of historical and purely literary work of a high type from the pens of men who have imbibed the inspiration of West Point. ) This influence of tradition and environment has been / beautifully expressed by Schaff in " The Spirit of Old West Point": " Very soon the monuments, the captured guns and dreaming colors — which, at the outset, are mere interesting, historic relics — beckon to him; he feels that they have something to say. Before he leaves West Point they have given him their message, revealing from time to time to his vision that field from which lifts the radiant mist called glory." Too much science may have had a chilling eifect or have entirely drowned out the literary instinct in some; it is certain that it has curtailed the army careers of many. And yet, amongst these latter are men whom the nation loves to honor with garlands of success. Whistler did not acquire all his knowledge of art during his few years at West Point, nor did he necessarily learn there " The Gentle Art of Making Enemies," but it is certain that he looked back with interest and pleasure on the years he spent in prepar- 4 y ing for a military career, cut short, as lie believed, by a silly answer to a scientific question. Edgar Allan Poe, after serving in the ranks as a soldier and hav- ing received an honorable discharge, entered West Point and remained for a brief career, resembling a p^^-otechnic display rather than the life of a sober- minded student. He then returned to civil life and to the field of literature, where he won success through the magnetic quality of his ^A^'itings which abomid in pathos, weird fancy and dramatic narrative. Every great crisis of modern history develops its multitude of A\Titers, but their productions seldom find any permanent abiding place in the hearts of book-lovers. Here and there a quality which is not to be measured by any fixed rules of literary criticism seals the reputation of an author and differentiates his work from that of his contemporaries. This ap- plies not only to fiction and essays, but also to his- torical writings. Every war — yes, every campaign and important expedition — has found a capable chronicler, and these writings form no small part of the original sources from which truthful history will be evolved. " Scenes and Adventures in the Army in 1859," by Philip St. George Cooke, who took a prominent part in the Utah Expedition as well as the Kansas troubles, will have equal value with his '' Conquest of New Mexico and California." James Donaldson's " Ser- geant Atkins," a tale of the Florida War, will be valuable as an historical side-light. John Bourke's description of Indians, their folklore, religious rites 5 and superstitions will ever be a treasure-house to students of the vanishing race, particularly as re- gards their old order of life. " My Life on the Plains," by Custer, will find appreciative readers so long as lives the melancholy story of that sad June day on the Little Big Horn when, woefully outniunbered, his troopers stood in a circle of fire until not a soul was left to tell the story of how brave men died. Richard Dodge wrote of The Plains from personal knowledge. The life described by him in a notable book, " Our Wild Indians," comes within the span of the present generation, yet is as completely gone as that expe- rienced by his prototype, Bonneville, another West Pointer, whose '' Adventures in the Far West " were told in a fascinating volume edited by Washington Irving. These memoirs and recitals of personal ex- periences by flood and field constitute the natural medium for those not content with mere formal offi- cial narratives, too often lost in the dusty archives of a paper-ridden government. The personal memoirs of West Pointers constitute a vast storehouse of history of exploration, Indian lore, frontier settlement and military campaigns. The history of the advance of civilization from the Tide Water Colonies is inextricably intertwined with that of the Regular Army which cleared the pathway and held back the savage during the swaddling clothes age of upbuilding of numerous and now pros- perous commonwealths. In the field of essays, historical monographs and history itself, West Point has played a distinguished part. The bibliography of writings of her alunmi fills a large and important portion of her records of accomplishment. Her essayists have covered a wide, field of effort in the pages of dignified reviews and literary magazines of acknowledged repute, as Avell as in scientific and special publications of recognized value in the professional world. The influence of West Point has been signally demonstrated in the writings of her graduates, who, while trained to be men of action rather than scholars and students, have left large accumulations of historical and literary work of marked vitality and visefulness. Even to name all those who have come under the spell of West Point and later earned approval as authors would require a volume. Writers of acknowl- edged repute in the field of history, such as William Tecumseh Sherman, Randolph B. Marcy, George W. Cullum, Edward D. Mansfield, Roswell S. Ripley, James H. Wilson, Henry Coppee, Emory Upton, Oliver O. Howard, Horace Porter, and a host of other West Pointers, are too well known to require extended mention of their individual merits. And of the later generation there follow many of excep- tional literary and historical ability, eminently quali- fied to carry forward the work so auspiciously begun by those who have gone before. Amongst American humorous writers none have excelled that brilliant scholar and erratic genius, Capt. George H. Derby, who, under the name of John Phoenix, gave to the world The Squibob Papers and 7 his inimitable volume of Phoenixiana, which has re- cently been reprinted by the Caxton Club. Among recent novelists Richard H. Savage, Arthur Sherburne Hardy and Charles King have found a generous recognition, each in his own peculiar field. Savage, a brilliant soldier, mathematician and all- around scholar, joined the army upon graduation, but found that his restless soul had heard the call of other lands; and although following his professional bent, he was soon sowing the seeds that ripened later into a remarkable harvest of books, probably the best known of his novels being ^' My Official Wife." Arthur Sherburne Hardy, quitting the army to accept the chair of mathematics of Dartmouth Col- lege, found time to give to the public such classic works as " Francesca di Rimini," " But Yet a Woman," " The Wind of Destiny," '^ Passe Rose " and other novels. He received public recognition by appointment to the Diplomatic Corps as Minister to Persia, and later to Greece and Roimiania, Switzer- land, and finally to Spain, where he represented his country with the dignity and prestige generously ac- corded to scholarly worth. Charles King, born soldier, of martial spirit and with much professional pride, has the inborn gift of the story-teller, and has pictured the service he knows and loves so well, in a long series of volumes. It is a far cry from " The Colonel's Daughter " to the " Rock of Chickamauga, " but whether the scenes are laid under the burning sun of Arizona, in the Indian villages of the Great Plains, amid the bitter strife of 8 Civil War, or in the tropical jungles of the Orient, King writes with knowledge born of personal expe- rience. One of the most accomplished scholars and writers of to-day is no less a personage than the Dean of West Point, Charles W. Larned. His numerous essays are distinguished for excellence of diction. It became the duty of this official to prepare the historical sketch of the Battle Monument erected at West Point by con- tributions from the regulars serving in the field dur- ing the Civil War. To the thousands who annually gaze upon that graceful shaft, a selection from the sketch may prove interesting : " The polished monolith of granite that faces on the terreplein of West Point, the gateway of the Hudson Highlands, guarding like a giant sen- tinel the memory of two thousand heroes of the mighty struggle for principle, which freed a race and welded a nation, was dedicated to its sacred function on a day of mingled cloud mists and sunbursts — fit type of the dark years of battle and of the glory of the victory which it commemorates. " This is a monument to the Regular Army of the United States, erected by brothers to brothers, not in an invidious or vaunting spirit, but with a just pride in the great work wrought by the soul that went forth from this army into the leaderless masses of noble men who left the walks of peace for the hard field of fight. The Regular Army is justified in this pride, and rightly glories in this rock-hewn witness to a work well and faithfully done, not only in the War of the Rebellion, but by these same men in exile, hardships and peril on remote frontiers amidst savage foes — the advance-guard of our civilization, the protec- tors of a land which they did not possess, and the promoters of a great industrial development whose fruit was not theirs. This memorial was not built by a grateful country, but by voluntary offerings from the hard-won pay of comrades in the field within hearing of the roar of battle, and in sight of the dead, whose memory it preserves." Here and there a fleeting poem appears, but West Point can lay no claim to a B}T.'on or a Longfellow. 9 There is a poem entitled " West Point," written by one of those who, in the fateful days of the Civil War, when men's hearts and minds were torn with distress to determine the right, went forth to follow the path of duty as he saw it. Aside from its pathetic refer- ence to those who had followed the Lost Cause, there is a rhythm and sentiment about the poem which entitles it to endure. 'Tis the old, old story of a col- lege love which, in part, runs thus : " It was commencement eve, and the ball-room belle In her dazzling beauty was mine that night, As the music dreamily rose and fell. And the waltzers whirled in a blaze of light. In the splendor there of her queenly smile. Through her two bright eyes, I could see the glow Of cathedral windows, as up the aisle We marched to a music's ebb and flow. A short flirtation — that's all, you know, Some faded flowers, a silken tress. The letters I burned up long ago When I heard from her last in the Wilderness. I suppose could she see I am maimed and old, She would soften the scorn that was turned to hate When I chose the bars of gray and gold. And followed the South to its bitter fate. But here's to the lad of the Union blue, And here's to the boy of the Southern gray. And I would that the Northern Star but knew How the Southern Cross is borne to-day." The simplicity of language which so generally characterizes the writings of West Pointers may be attributed to their martial training. Those who really possess the literary instinct, however, are not hampered in expression, except in official writings, 10 where brevity is encouraged. When a man of recog- nized personal merit has a message for the public, it is not the less appreciated because written in terse, forceful English. Possibly there is not a carefully rounded, high-sounding " literary " paragraph in General Grant's Memoirs, yet Americans would not, for the world, have had his book written in any other style, for they had grown familiar with his simple and direct method of expression. West Point has no apology to offer for its most successful general, when he enters the field of literature, if he may be judged by a paragraph taken at random from his memoirs : " I would not have the anniversaries of our victories celebrated, nor those of our defeats made fast days and spent in humiliation and prayer; but I would like to see truthful history written. Such his- tory will do full credit to the courage, endurance and soldierly ability of the American citizen, no matter what section of the country he hailed from, or in what ranks he fought. The justice of the cause which in the end prevailed will, I doubt not, come to be acknowledged by every citizen of the land, in time." The literature and recorded history of a nation, perpetuating heroic ideals and lofty purposes, will endure when the triumphal arches of all time have crumbled to dust and mingled with the ashes of by- gone centuries. With every ripple of the beautiful Hudson, as it flows silently by West Point, fitting monmnent to Washington's patriotism and sagacity, there goes a message to that tomb at Riverside that " All's Well." The victories of peace, while less re- nowned than those of war, are of far-reaching con- sequences to the happiness and prosperity of a peo- ple. In the shadow of the sacred memories of those 11 who have gone before, the rising generation press eagerly forward as standard bearers of the honorable name and fame of their predecessors. " Here, where resistlessly the river runs Between majestic mountains to the sea. The patriots' watchfires burned; their constancy Won freedom as an heritage for their sons. To keep that freedom pure, inviolate, Here are the nation's children schooled in arts Of peace, in disciplines of war; their hearts Made resolute, their wills subordinate, To do their utmost duty at the call Of this, their country, whatso'er befall. Broadcast upon our history's ample page The records of their valiant deeds are strown. Proudly their alma mater claims her own. May she have sons like these from age to age! " — Holden. 12 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS II III I il 014 205 914 9 ■^"^i^^y