_Letter of Edgar Allan Poe, Lately Cadet, U. S. M. A., to the Superintendent: 1831._
Having no longer any ties to bind me to my country--no prospects--nor friends--I intend by the first opportunity to proceed to Paris with the view of obtaining through the interest of the Marquis De La Fayette, an appointment (if possible) in the Polish Army. In the event of the interference of France in behalf of Poland this may easily be effected--in all events it will be my only feasible plan of procedure.
The object of this letter is respectfully to request that you will give me such assistance as may be in your power in the furtherance of my views.
A certificate of standing in my class is all that I may have a right to expect.
Anything further--a letter to a friend in Paris--or to the Marquis--would be a kindness which I would never forget.
Most respectfully, Yr. obt. st. EDGAR ALLAN POE.
Poe, however, abandoned the plan and little more was heard of his whereabouts by his friends at West Point.
The two other cadets under Major Thayer, were Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, but their history is too well known to bear repetition here. Suffice to say that Jefferson Davis was mischievous and human enough as a cadet to be court-martialed for an escapade.
The prosperity of the Academy continued in spite of its opponents in Congress who, just prior to the Mexican War, came near accomplishing its overthrow, but the brilliant achievements of its graduates in that conflict silenced for a while their mutterings. Many young officers who served with distinction in this war were later to win greater fame in the titanic Civil War. Grant (class of ’43); Sherman (’40); Hancock (’44); Thomas (’40); Meade (’35); Hooker (’30); Sedgwick (’37) participated in the campaigns against the Mexicans.
The nation was given ample proof of the wisdom of Washington, Hamilton, and Knox in their efforts to establish a Military Academy wherein officers might be educated and trained to organize and discipline citizen soldiers, and lead them to victory. At West Point today there are bronze cannon, tattered flags, and mutilated flagstaffs, trophies of the Mexican War that were presented to the Academy by General Winfield Scott, the Commanding General of the Army, who stated, “as under Providence it is mainly to the Military Academy that the United States became indebted for those brilliant achievements and other memorable victories in the same war, I have a lively pleasuring in tendering the seven trophies (semi-national) to the mother of so many accomplished soldiers and patriots.”