Brief description:
From the book cover:
The spring of 1861 was a bad time for everybody in the United States. Nobody really knew what was happening, although the blindest could see that whatever was going on was likely to be shattering, and the average man was torn between patriotic emotion and the desire to look for a storm cellar. But the bewilderment probably was most complete on the parade ground at West Point. The cadets at the United States Military Academy were dedicated young men, trained to take guidance from on high and living by unquestioning obedience, and suddenly they found that there was no guidance to be had anywhere. The people who ordinarily gave them orders did not know what to say to them. All in all, it was hard to live through, and the most revealing account of it that this writer knows about is to be found in the letters of Tully McCrea, whose experiences in that difficult spring somehow epitomize the terrible problem that the outbreak of the Civil War brought to the entire country. . . .
Tully McCrea was a gallant soldier too, and there obviously was a very good fellow indeed wrapped up in the casings of a restless Vest Point cadet and a disillusioned lieutenant of artillery. Reading his letters, one begins to see the value of the work done by the Military Academy, exemplified in McCrea’s own career. He never became famous, but he did become one of the solid, reliable, dedicated young offieers without whom the war could not have been won, and the devotion to duty that was instilled into him in his cadet days was a substantial asset to his country. These letters of his not only make us acquainted with an interesting and admirable man; they bring a better understanding of a remarkable institution as well.
The spring of 1861 was a bad time for everybody in the United States. Nobody really knew what was happening, although the blindest could see that whatever was going on was likely to be shattering, and the average man was torn between patriotic emotion and the desire to look for a storm cellar. But the bewilderment probably was most complete on the parade ground at West Point. The cadets at the United States Military Academy were dedicated young men, trained to take guidance from on high and living by unquestioning obedience, and suddenly they found that there was no guidance to be had anywhere. The people who ordinarily gave them orders did not know what to say to them. All in all, it was hard to live through, and the most revealing account of it that this writer knows about is to be found in the letters of Tully McCrea, whose experiences in that difficult spring somehow epitomize the terrible problem that the outbreak of the Civil War brought to the entire country. . . .
Tully McCrea was a gallant soldier too, and there obviously was a very good fellow indeed wrapped up in the casings of a restless Vest Point cadet and a disillusioned lieutenant of artillery. Reading his letters, one begins to see the value of the work done by the Military Academy, exemplified in McCrea’s own career. He never became famous, but he did become one of the solid, reliable, dedicated young offieers without whom the war could not have been won, and the devotion to duty that was instilled into him in his cadet days was a substantial asset to his country. These letters of his not only make us acquainted with an interesting and admirable man; they bring a better understanding of a remarkable institution as well.
Publication
Wesleyan Univ.,(1965), 1st,Hdbk,DJ,,Good