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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 [First Page] [94], (1) Lines: 0 ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal P PgEnds: [94], (1) 6. Cow Year Alone Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness. Thomas Henry Huxley Charles Young’s second-class year, which began the summer of 1887, was most likely his loneliest. This was the first year he was not able to share a tent or barracks room with another African American cadet. Alexander graduated with the class of 1887, and no new black cadets entered West Point in June. Young faced his fourth year at West Point as alone as he had ever been, since no white cadet would room with him. Young was given no formal leadership positions that involved supervision of white cadets during the academic year. But it was just as well, since he had his hands full with his studies. This was a doubly difficult year for him, since the third-year curriculum did not include language or humanities courses to offset his difficulties in the hard sciences. Still, on the positive side, he seemed to slowly gain more acceptance and recognition from his classmates with each succeeding year. Cow Year The second-class (“cow”) year served as an important break point for a number of reasons. First, during the summer between the completion of yearling year and beginning of cow year, cadets normally enjoyed a ten-week furlough, their first break fromWest Point in more than two years. The term cow came from their celebrated return from the furlough, when the new senior class lined up on the Plain to rush and meet the returning second class when the “cows cow year alone 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 [95], (2) Lines: 51 to ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TE [95], (2) came home.” The superintendent may have succeeded in outlawing the traditional melee in 1886, but the nickname stuck.1 Cow year was also the first year that cadets were given any leadership responsibilities of importance. Twenty-two third-year cadet sergeants wore two chevrons on the upper sleeves of their uniforms: one sergeant major, one quartermaster-sergeant, four first sergeants, and sixteen platoon sergeants. The sergeants were charged with the accountability and discipline of their companies and assisted the first-class officers in running day-to-day operations. It reflected badly on them if the cadets in their charge had leadership or academic difficulties. Reminiscent of yearling year, Young’s leadership abilities were not tested like those of his classmates.2 As in the previous year, Young and the five other surviving turnbacks did not spend the summer with the rest of their classmates. The previous year, Young had spent the ten weeks of summer at home on furlough while his new yearling classmates drilled in the summer encampment. This year the roles reversed, as Young spent most of the summer training on the Plain while McGlachlin, Piper, and the others were on leave. However, sometime during the summer Young was granted a short summer leave. It was routine for five-year cadets to be granted special summer leaves during their “extra” summer. According to a note that Young’s widow, Ada, wrote to Alexander Piper in 1939, he took one or two of these. In this letter, she asked Piper: “Do you remember the name of the classmate living in Philadelphia or somewhere in Pennsylvania with whom Colonel Young spent part of the summer on two occasions?”3 Piper responded to Ada’s query but could not give a definitive answer. He guessed it might have been Edward Stockham, who lived across the river from Philadelphia in Camden, New Jersey; A. R. Smith, who lived near Philadelphia; or James Jarvis, who came from Pittsburgh. The latter two cadets did not graduate. But the question remained a mystery even after Piper asked the twenty assembled members of the class at their fiftieth reunion. Except for Piper, none of the cadets mentioned in Young’s Liberia letter came from Pennsylvania.4 Piper was an “army brat” who grew...

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