Last in Their Class: Custer, Pickett and the Goats of West Point

by James Robbins

Overview

Today’s Goat, the celebrated West Point cadet finishing at the bottom of his class, carries on a long and storied tradition. George Custer’s contemporaries at the Academy believed that the same spirit of adventure that led him to “blow post” at night to carouse at local taverns also motivated his dramatic cavalry attacks in the Civil War and afterwards. And the same willingness to stoically accept punishment for his hijinks at the Academy also sent George Pickett marching into the teeth of the Union guns at Gettysburg. 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594039232
Publisher:	Encounter Books
Publication date:	03/21/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

James S. Robbins is a columnist for USA Today and Executive Director of the American Security Council Foundation. In addition to this book, he is the author of This Time We Win: Rethinking the Tet Offensive, Native Americans: Patriotism, Exceptionalism and the New American Identity, both from Encounter Books; and The Real Custer: From Boy General to Tragic Hero by Regnery History. Dr. Robbins holds a PhD from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Massachusetts, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in political science from the University of Cincinnati. He has taught at The Fletcher School, Boston University, Marine Corps University, National Defense University, and other schools. His awards include the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Meritorious Civilian Service Award, and the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association first prize award for editorial writing. He is a member of the advisory board for the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition ix

Introduction xiii

Nathaniel Wyche Hunter 1

Benny Havens' 13

Ephraim Kirby Smith 29

The Seminole War 35

Henry Heth 54

Flirtation Walk 67

Zeb Inge 83

Churubusco 94

Chapultepec 107

James McNeill Whistler 117

William Logan Crittenden 133

The Battle of Blue Waters 146

Solomon's Fork 159

The Pig War 173

George Armstrong Custer 183

Absent Friends 195

James McQueen McIntosh 205

Charles Nelson Warner 221

Gettysburg 231

Pickett's Charge 239

Laurence Simmons Baker 255

Five Forks 269

Appomattox 282

The Reunion 298

Charles Dempsey 311

John Jordan Crittenden 323

Hurrah for Custer 335

Washita 346

The Boy President 358

The Sioux Campaign 366

Little Bighorn 373

My Every Thought Was Ambition 385

The Immortals 391

Whither the Goat? 409

A Note on Sources 413

Endnotes 414

Index 481