West Point photos and interesting tidbits
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November 29, 1890, marked the beginning of the greatest rivalry in all of American sports: Army-Navy football, which came about primarily because of the efforts of Dennis Mahan Michie. Born at West Point to a prominent faculty member who had been brevetted brigadier general for Civil War service, Michie learned how to play football at Lawrenceville Prep. He entered West Point in 1888 and began to contrive a way to bring that sport to the Military Academy. Navy already had a team. Michie knew that the USMA Academic Board was reluctant to approve such a contest, but he got Navy to issue a challenge, and convinced his father, a professor of natural and experimental philosophy (physics); Commandant Hamilton S. Hawkins, and Superintendent John M. Wilson that the pride of West Point was at stake. They helped persuade the Academic Board to permit the contest but only with the condition that the game be played at West Point.

The 271 members of the Corps of Cadets contributed 52 cents each to pay half of the Navy traveling expenses. Young Michie served as captain, coach, trainer, and business manager for the Army team. He gathered volunteers throughout the Corps to play, but only three had any experience with the sport, and usually they could practice only on Saturday afternoons whenever bad weather cancelled drill or parade.

The Midshipmen arrived by special ferry on game day and grabbed a feisty goat from an Army NCO's quarters as their mascot. The game was played on a gridiron marked off on the Plain. The much more experienced Navy team dominated that first contest, winning 24-0 in front of a good crowd.

That result did not sit well with Cadet Michie, who was determined to best the Middies. He found a competent coach named Harry Williams teaching in nearby Newburgh, and the officer-in-charge of football, LT Denny Tate, persuaded Williams to visit West Point twice a week to work with the team.

The 1890 result also did not sit well with Superintendent Wilson, who approved an unprecedented trip to Annapolis for a rematch. The 1891 Army team was much better prepared to battle the Midshipmen, having won three games, tied one, and lost only to powerful Rutgers. Michie starred in Army's 32-16 romp. Both teams attended a big dance at the Navy boathouse that night, and the players congratulated each other on a fine game. At the event's conclusion, Michie shook hands with Worth Bagley, Navy's star quarterback, and they wished each other well.

Bagley and Michie exemplified the special nature of the Army-Navy rivalry not only on the field but also in their service and sacrifice off it. Both would lose their lives in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Bagley died aboard the USS Winslow on patrol duty near Cuba, the only Naval officer killed during the conflict. Captain Michie, whom General Hawkins had selected as aide-de-camp, was organizing the brigade for an assault during the Battle for Santiago when he was killed by a Spanish marksman on July 1. He was only 28 years old. But his legacy is still evident on those fall Saturdays at West Point when the Black Knights battle opponents in the famous stadium that bears his name. And the legacy continues as well in the continuing contest between the Army and Navy football teams, which will meet for the 110th time this year in the game that is the real Super Bowl of American sports.

Historic Narrative of West Point from the 1851 publication 
'Hudson River and the Hudson River Rail-Road'
Click on each image...in order...to enlarge

Still Minting History

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West Point Mint Facility

Located near the U.S. Military Academy in New York state, the United States Mint at West Point manufactures the entire family of American Eagle proof and uncirculated coins in gold, silver, and platinum. The gold and platinum coins are manufactured in denominations of one-ounce, half-ounce, quarter-ounce and tenth-ounce. Silver bullion coins are manufactured in a one-ounce denomination.
You probably knew the above statistics

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Notables of West Point 
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Graduates
Contribute Your Own Words

Graduates are invited to contribute their own anecdotes or remembrances of their days at West Point. Do you remember Beast, Hazing, Buckner, Natural Bridge, Benny Havens, Kissing Rock, The Hotel Thayer, Athletics, or perhaps the Square Meal? Many of these things no longer exist at West Point, but they did "way back when".  If you're a graduate, and remember well, click on the image below, and then start writing. We'll get as many stories published as possible.                       
                                  Click On The Quill!

Click HERE for Benny Havens Page

Click HERE for The Marty Maher Page
(If you don't know Benny or Marty, you're not a true West Pointer)

Joseph Gardner Swift -The First Graduate

Joseph Gardner Swift, the first graduate of the United States Military Academy, was born on 31 December 1783 on Nantucket Island, the son of Foster Swift and his wife, Deborah. At the age of six, he saw George Washington on Boston Common, an experience that made an indelible impression on him. 

Swift had read accounts of the American Revolution in his father’s diary and heard stories from a family friend, Major General David Cobb. With Cobb’s advice and assistance, Swift was appointed by President John Adams on 12 May 1800 as a cadet of artillerists and engineers. He reported for duty a month later at Newport Harbor.

In the summer of 1801, Secretary of War Henry Dearborn notified the Army that President Thomas Jefferson had directed the establishment of a military academy at West Point, New York. Swift reported to the academy on 14 October 1801. On 15 December 1801, then-Major Jonathan Williams took command and several months later became the first Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy. The Academy was established by law on 16 March 1802. Swift progressed well and was considered by Williams to be the foremost cadet. After a thorough examination, Swift became the first graduate of the Academy on 12 October 1802. Simon Maruder Levy was the only other graduate in 1802, and would be considered the first "Goat".

                                 The First and Last Fact
Joseph Gardner Swift was first in his class (out of two) and his younger brother, William Henry Swift, was the 'Goat' of his 1819 West Point class. William's older  brother happened to be West Point Superintendent at the time.

               Joseph Wheeler - Class of 1859

One of only a handful of Confederates to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Joseph Wheeler qualified on the basis of his later service as a 
major general of volunteers in the Spanish-American War. The Georgia-born West Pointer (1859) had resigned his commission as a second lieutenant in the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen-he had briefly been posted to the dragoons in 1859-and, joining the South, had a meteoric rise.
                              Edgar Allan Poe
In 1829, after his beloved foster mother died, and although he was already  enlisted  in the army and over age, he applied to West Point military academy with the support of his commanding officer and foster father.

Once at West Point in 1830, he soon fell into debt again. Poe also seemed the misfit -- he was older, more educated and tended to be physically weak. While at the academy, he studied the Romantic poets such as Byron, Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth, and Coleridge, and he allowed the untrue rumor that he was a grandson of Benedict Arnold to circulate (his mother's maiden name had been Arnold). In a prank, he once used a dead and bloody gander to simulate the severed head of one of the academy's officers. Tired of West Point by the beginning of 1831, Edgar's plan to get out was to neglect his duties. In January he was tried at a court-martial for having missed drills, parades, classes and church. 

Excerpt from the website:
http://www.neuroticpoets.com/poe/ 

When you're finished here...be sure to visit West-Point.org....your West Point connection.

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