The Legends of the West Point Class of 1846

Summary

West Point has long been America’s most famous military academy, but in the early 19th century, it was a highly unimpressive school consisting of a few ugly buildings facing a desolate, barren parade ground. Established with just five officers and ten cadets of the Corps of Engineers on March 16, 1802, the Academy was built on a spot just 50 miles north of New York City which had been a key Hudson River military fortress during the Revolutionary War. Cadets attending during the “Point's” first several decades were obliged to maintain their daily regimen knowing the school might shut down at any moment, as the U. S. government frequently questioned why it should provide free education.

As it turned out, West Point would become the foremost military academy in the nation, but none of the West Point classes became as famous as the Class of 1846, which boasted more than a dozen future Civil War generals. The Class of 1846 included a shy kid named Thomas Jonathan Jackson who made few friends and struggled with his studies, finishing 17th in his class 15 years before becoming Stonewall. Also in that class was A.P. Hill, who was already in love with the future wife of George McClellan, a young prodigy who finished second in the class of 1846. A popular and mischievous George Pickett would play hooky at the local bar and struggle just to finish last in the class, and the Class of 1846 also churned out critical Union generals like Jesse Reno, Darius Couch, and George Stoneman.

Before these men opposed each other on Civil War battlefields, they forged their own friendships and charted their future paths together at West Point and the Mexican-American War.