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| ISBN-13: | 9781574416251 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of North Texas Press |
| Publication date: | 12/15/2015 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 9 MB |
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Against the Grain
Colonel Henry M. Lazelle and the U.S. Army
By James O. Carson
University of North Texas Press
Copyright © 2015 James O. CarsonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-57441-625-1
CHAPTER 1
A Five-Year Man
On a warm afternoon in early June 1850, Henry M. Lazell arrived at the Hudson River's West Point landing on a steamboat from New York City. His first view of the Academy was from Highland Gorge. Some years earlier, another newly arrived cadet, Horatio G. Wright, remembered that he felt as if "the rugged granite walls of the Highland gorge frowned down upon my eager eyes with that cold, hard frown which they have worn through the last four ages. Break-Neck Hill, Bull Hill, Butter Hill and Crow's Nest, brood in silent quaternion over the peaceful Hudson, as if in some mnemonic reveries of those Titans whose giant strength clave asunder their native union 'in the old time before.'"
As Henry stared up at the imposing fortress-like walls of the United States Military Academy, he wondered nervously whether this really was his destiny. Close to six feet tall, lean but solidly built, with deep blue eyes and sharp features, Henry knew he could handle the physical rigors of cadet life. But could the orphaned son of a poor Massachusetts farmer compete with the cream of society and really become an officer of the United States Army?
Like so many New Englanders in the early nineteenth century, Henry came from "fighting" stock. His great-grandfather, William Lazell, had served in the French and Indian War in the 1750s. And his grandfather, Jacob Lazell, a tenant farmer, was a private during the Revolutionary War in Col. David Brewer's 9th Continental Regiment, mustered in Ware in 1775. Still, Henry questioned this next step in what had already been a somewhat turbulent first 17 years.
Henry and his twin brother, George, were born in Enfield, Massachusetts, on September 8, 1832. Four years later, their father died at the age of 43, followed soon after by their mother. At the time of his parents' deaths, Henry's brothers and sisters ranged in age from 19 to two. The youngest orphans were sent to be raised by older siblings, relatives, or family friends. Henry initially went to his 19-year-old sister, Mary Ann, newly married to John Hurlburt. Later, he moved in with another older sister, Priscilla, and her husband Calvin Brooks, and then, for 15 months while in high school, with the Newton family of Worcester, Massachusetts. At the time of Henry's appointment to the Military Academy, Calvin Brooks served as his legal guardian.
Henry had limited formal schooling in his early years, instead helping out with family businesses. Well before high school, while living with another older sister, Martha, he worked in the Worcester rope factory owned by her husband, Luther Slater. Luther's father, Captain Peter Slater, said to have been, at 13, the youngest participant in the Boston Tea Party, had moved to Worcester in 1775 and established the factory on Main Street in 1806.
The factory — or rope walk — was a long, alley-like place, like a bowling alley, in which the child workers stretched out strands of roping and twisted them at the end of the alley, feeding them onto a roller which rolled the rope into a finished strand. As he walked onto the landing at West Point, Henry remembered how tired he had been after long hours in the factory and guessed he could probably handle cadet life as well.
Henry also had worked for an Irishman in a machine shop. He remembered making fun of the Irishman's pronunciation and trying to teach him to say "hair," which came out as "here." While teaching him to pronounce this correctly, something they were turning on a lathe went haywire, and the Irishman was furious. Henry later told his sons, "Never again was there any kidding about pronunciation." Henry doubted there would be much kidding at West Point.
Despite his childhood labor, Henry eventually completed his high school education in Worcester, living with the Newtons and Calvin and Priscilla Brooks. Then a Worcester lawyer with political connections, Brooks had encouraged Henry to apply for an appointment to the Military Academy through Congressman Charles Allen of the 5th Congressional District. Henry, at loose ends and wishing a more secure future, decided to try for it. His teachers at Worcester's Classical and English High School sent off recommendations, one of them, Warren Hazell, writing:
Having been requested to state to you what I know of Henry M. Lazell with reference to his fitness for entering West Point; I will say that I have been acquainted with him for five or six years; that he was under my instruction, as nearly as I can recollect, about one year, and that during that time his deportment was invariably correct. He was of industrious and studious habits, and his proficiency was respectable.
I have known but little about him for the last two or three years; but that little has been favorable to his character and talents, and to his standing as a member of our Classical and English High School. My impression is, that he would sustain himself well in the Institution, to which he desires admission.
On April 23, 1850, with apologies for his tardiness due to unforeseen circumstances, Congressman Allen formally nominated Henry, at the last minute. Allen acknowledged receipt of the appointment in an April 25 letter to the Chief of Engineers (who had administrative responsibility in Washington for the Academy), and Henry signed an official acceptance of his appointment on May 5. Several weeks later, he boarded a steamer in New York City for the trip up the Hudson.
Welcome to West Point
As 17-year-old Henry stood apprehensively on the Academy's river landing, he and his fellow newly appointed cadets were greeted by an Army sergeant who led them "up to the plateau, where they registered, deposited their money, and marched off to the barracks to be greeted by a cadet officer. 'Stand attention!' he bellowed. 'Hats off! Hands close upon your pants! Stand erect! Hold up your head! Draw in your chin! Throw out your chest!' They then followed the officer into the building and received uniforms, temporary room assignments, and regulation haircuts."
The "plebes" (as the brand-new cadets were called) were then subjected to three weeks of basic military training known as squad drills, essentially basic marching; a formal "candidate examination" covering reading, writing, and arithmetic; and a medical examination. Until they passed the acceptance examination, they were "candidates" and wore a black probationary uniform. During this initial period, the plebes quickly learned that they were members of the lowest family of the human species:
Instead of receiving kind hospitality, he becomes for a time one of an inferior caste, towards whom too often the finger of derision is pointed, and over whom the fourth class [sic] drill-master flourishes with too snobbish zeal his new-born authority. ... to be called "a conditional thing," ... to be crowded five in a room, with the floor and a blanket for a bed; to be twice or thrice a day squad-drilled in "eyes right" and "left face," in "forward march," and in the intricate achievement of "about face;" to be drummed up in the morning, and drummed to meals, and drummed to bed, all with arithmetic for chief diversion; this is indeed a severe ordeal for a young man who is not blessed with good nature and good sense, but with these excellent endowments it soon and smoothly glides on into a harmless memory.
Founded during the Thomas Jefferson administration by an act of Congress in 1802, West Point was the nation's first chartered military academy and remains the oldest continuously occupied military post in America. During the Revolutionary War, General George Washington considered West Point one of the country's most important strategic positions because of its ability to control passage on the Hudson. Designed in 1778 by Thaddeus Kosciuszko, one of the heroes of the Battle of Saratoga, West Point's fortifications were never captured by the British.
Following the Revolutionary War, a number of political and military leaders, looking to reduce America's wartime reliance on foreign engineers and artillerists, pushed for an institution of higher learning that would be devoted to both classical education and to the science and practice of warfare. Colonel Sylvanus Thayer, known as the "father of the Military Academy," was Superintendent from 1817 to 1833. Under his guidance, its academic standards were upgraded to the challenging coursework that Henry faced. Thayer also "instilled military discipline and emphasized honorable conduct. Aware of our young nation's need for engineers, Thayer made civil engineering the foundation of the curriculum."
In 1850, when Henry arrived, West Point still was the primary source of officers for the U.S. Army, although state schools such as Virginia Military Institute (founded in 1839) and The Citadel in South Carolina (founded in 1842) served as secondary sources of commissioned officers. The U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, had just been established in 1845.
The Corps of Cadets into which Cadet Lazelle was inducted numbered about 250 and was organized into a battalion of four companies, all officered by cadets. The Commandant of Cadets, an Army captain, commanded the battalion, and Army lieutenants were in charge of each company as "Assistant Instructors of Tactics." Some of the First Class cadets (seniors) served as the battalion's cadet captains and lieutenants; some Second Class (juniors) as cadet sergeants; and some Third Class (sophomores) as cadet corporals. All other cadets served as privates.
Squad drills were conducted by Third Class cadets, usually corporals; company drills by the Assistant Instructor of Tactics; and battalion drills by the Commandant of Cadets or an assistant from the tactics department. In ordinary roll calls, marching to meals, and other non-academic activity, the cadet officers were in charge.
From Candidate to Cadet
In late June, following end-of-year examinations for existing cadets (and the plebes' three-week introductory training and candidate exams), the annual "marching into camp" was performed during which the Corps of Cadets (including the third classmen and new plebes but absent the first class and second classmen on furlough) encamped on a portion of "The Plain," a large, level field adjacent to the barracks and parade ground. During the encampment, drill training continued, with two formal parades daily at 8:00 a.m. and sunset. Plebes also had to put in the required hours standing watch. The encampment continued through the summer months, ending in late August when the cadets returned to their barracks.
Having passed the candidate exam, Henry was "found qualified for admission to the Military Academy" on June 24, 1850, was officially "admitted" on July 1, and began wearing the cadet uniform. With his formal "appointment," Lazelle, like all cadets, was considered a regular Army "warrant officer," a special grade from which he would be promoted to second lieutenant upon graduation. As such, the cadets were fully subject to the rules and articles of war, and incurred a contractual obligation to serve a minimum of four years in the Army in return for their education.
The West Point record books provided detailed information on each entering plebe regarding his family situation and economic circumstances, including parents and their relative wealth (indigent, reduced, moderate or affluent); whether they came from a city, town or the countryside; and the father's occupation. Henry was identified as an orphan from the countryside, whose father had been a farmer of "moderate" circumstances. His roommate, Oliver Otis Howard, had an almost identical background, except his mother was still alive. Of the 63 in his class, twenty had fathers who were farmers. Another fourteen fathers were lawyers, ten merchants, six doctors, nine Army or Navy officers, and two each clergymen and teachers.
Henry's other classmates included George Washington Custis Lee and James E. B. Stuart. Lee was the eldest son of Robert E. Lee, who would become Superintendent of the Academy in September of 1852 and would later command the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War. The young Lee would graduate and, like his father, go on to serve as a Confederate general. Eventually, he succeeded his father as president of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. J.E.B. Stuart also would achieve fame as a Confederate cavalry commander. He would die at the Battle of Yellow Tavern near Richmond in May 1864.
Henry would much later cross paths with Howard, who also rose to the rank of general during the Civil War and went on to found Howard University. They would lock horns over cadet discipline while Howard served as Superintendent and Henry as Commandant of Cadets at West Point in 1882.
Henry evidently was lax in corresponding with his family during his first months at West Point. In a letter dated July 19, 1850, to his twin, George, Academy Superintendent Captain Henry Brewerton, Corps of Engineers, wrote: "Your letter of the 16th Inst. making inquiries relative to your brother Cadet H. M. Lazelle has been received. I am happy to inform you that your brother passed his examinations last month and is now in the performance of his military duties in camp. He is in good health and has promised me he will write to you without delay."
Although Cadet Lazelle's records of academic achievement and disciplinary infractions during his plebe year are incomplete, Oliver Howard claimed, both in his autobiography and in an early letter home to his mother, that Henry and his other roommates were serious students:
When we first went into quarters, the room to which I was assigned was in what was called the Old South Barracks, a very large room without alcoves. There were four separate iron bedsteads and four iron tables, with other meager furniture for four cadets. My mates were Thomas J. Treadwell, from New Hampshire, a student of Dartmouth; Levi R. Brown, from Maine, my own state; and Henry M. Lazelle, of Massachusetts. No young men were ever more studious or desirous to get a fair standing in the institution than we.
Surviving records from that year suggest, however, that Henry, while at least a decent student, fell from disciplinary grace almost immediately, receiving his first demerit on July 3, only two days after donning the cadet uniform.
The record of each cadet's behavior was written meticulously in a large leather-bound book, with double columns on each page of 45 to 50 lines. The job of secretary-recorder went to a man with neat, legible penmanship. The pages were headed "Delinquencies," and when a cadet received his first demerit, a fresh page was begun for him: first the date, then the offense, then the number of demerit points. Few cadets survived an entire grueling year — even fewer a full four years — without a single misstep. Others, like Henry, were destined from the start to fill page upon page of double columns:
• July 3, Presenting arms incorrectly at drill, 1 demerit.
• July 6, Not rising at command, 1 demerit.
• July 7, Bedding not folded neatly at inspection, 1 demerit.
• July 17, Absent from reveille roll call, 1 demerit.
By the time the corps of cadets moved into barracks at the end of the summer, the page headed "Lazelle, Henry M. (Mass.)" was filling up relentlessly. Infractions ranged from "late turning out for officer of the day," to "not standing in front of tent at inspection," to "raising right hand before the command." Most of these were minor infractions — the honest mistakes in military practice and discipline of a new plebe still on the learning curve. Later, as he clearly began to challenge the system and his instructors — and fall under the spell of his second-year roommate, the future artist James Whistler — the infractions became more serious.
When the Corps of Cadets was encamped on The Plain that first summer, there were no academic classes, and the hours normally set aside for academic study were used for further drilling and "recreation." There was virtually no free time, and plebes were not allowed to attend the upperclassmen's "frolics" and dances at night. Henry still had to study dancing as part of his cadet training, but his partners the first year were other plebes, just as annoyed as he was to be spinning about the floor in the Fencing Academy building with their right hands gracefully supporting the shoulder blades of other cadets. Henry enjoyed the group singing in the early evenings, as the other plebes sprawled at ease under the stars, the one activity in which they could make a mistake without being punished. It was said that J. E. B. Stuart, called "Beauty" by his classmates, had the best singing voice.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Against the Grain by James O. Carson. Copyright © 2015 James O. Carson. Excerpted by permission of University of North Texas Press.
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