1828 Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Joseph E. Johnston as West Point Cadets — Rare 1828 Congressional Report
An exceptionally revealing official record of the United States Military Academy, issued in 1828 while Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Joseph E. Johnston were cadets at West Point—more than three decades before they emerged as three of the most consequential figures of the American Civil War.
Titled Cadets at West Point: Letter from the Secretary of War, Transmitting a List of the Cadets Now at West Point; Their Names, the State and County from Whence Sent, &c. &c., the report was published in Washington by Gales & Seaton for the 20th Congress, First Session, as House Document No. 167. It was submitted on February 29, 1828, and ordered laid upon the table.
The document contains extensive lists and folding statistical tables recording the cadets’ names, states of appointment, dates of admission, ages, residences and the names and addresses of their parents or guardians.
Among the Virginia cadets appears Robert E. Lee, then approximately twenty-one years old. Lee had entered West Point in 1825 and would graduate second in the Class of 1829 without receiving a single demerit. The extended table also identifies his guardian or parent as “C. C. Lee” and records his Washington and Virginia connections.
Appearing alongside Lee is Joseph E. Johnston, printed in one list as “Jos. E. Johnson,” an early official misspelling of the future general’s surname. Lee and Johnston were classmates, both graduating in 1829 before pursuing distinguished United States Army careers and ultimately commanding major Confederate forces during the Civil War.
The Mississippi section records “J. Davis,” identified through the accompanying entry for his guardian, Mrs. Jane Davis, and his residence at Woodville, Mississippi. The cadet was Jefferson Davis, who graduated from West Point in 1828, served in the United States Army and as United States Secretary of War, and became president of the Confederate States of America in 1861.
The report includes many additional officers who later served in the Mexican and Civil wars, among them James Barnes, Theophilus Holmes, William H. Emory, Philip Kearny, Seth Eastman, Albert G. Blanchard and William Hoffman.
This remarkable document captures Lee, Davis and Johnston not as the opposing leaders history remembers, but as young cadets being educated together by the United States Army. Few documents illustrate more vividly the shared military institution from which much of the Civil War’s senior leadership emerged.
Nine printed pages with extensive folding tables. Removed from a bound Congressional volume, with binding residue and losses along the inner edge, scattered foxing and toning, edge wear, old folds, occasional small tears and some weakness at fold intersections. The important entries remain clear and legible, and the complex folding tables are substantially intact.
A rare and highly displayable intersection of West Point, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Joseph E. Johnston and Civil War history.
An exceptionally revealing official record of the United States Military Academy, issued in 1828 while Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Joseph E. Johnston were cadets at West Point—more than three decades before they emerged as three of the most consequential figures of the American Civil War.
Titled Cadets at West Point: Letter from the Secretary of War, Transmitting a List of the Cadets Now at West Point; Their Names, the State and County from Whence Sent, &c. &c., the report was published in Washington by Gales & Seaton for the 20th Congress, First Session, as House Document No. 167. It was submitted on February 29, 1828, and ordered laid upon the table.
The document contains extensive lists and folding statistical tables recording the cadets’ names, states of appointment, dates of admission, ages, residences and the names and addresses of their parents or guardians.
Among the Virginia cadets appears Robert E. Lee, then approximately twenty-one years old. Lee had entered West Point in 1825 and would graduate second in the Class of 1829 without receiving a single demerit. The extended table also identifies his guardian or parent as “C. C. Lee” and records his Washington and Virginia connections.
Appearing alongside Lee is Joseph E. Johnston, printed in one list as “Jos. E. Johnson,” an early official misspelling of the future general’s surname. Lee and Johnston were classmates, both graduating in 1829 before pursuing distinguished United States Army careers and ultimately commanding major Confederate forces during the Civil War.
The Mississippi section records “J. Davis,” identified through the accompanying entry for his guardian, Mrs. Jane Davis, and his residence at Woodville, Mississippi. The cadet was Jefferson Davis, who graduated from West Point in 1828, served in the United States Army and as United States Secretary of War, and became president of the Confederate States of America in 1861.
The report includes many additional officers who later served in the Mexican and Civil wars, among them James Barnes, Theophilus Holmes, William H. Emory, Philip Kearny, Seth Eastman, Albert G. Blanchard and William Hoffman.
This remarkable document captures Lee, Davis and Johnston not as the opposing leaders history remembers, but as young cadets being educated together by the United States Army. Few documents illustrate more vividly the shared military institution from which much of the Civil War’s senior leadership emerged.
Nine printed pages with extensive folding tables. Removed from a bound Congressional volume, with binding residue and losses along the inner edge, scattered foxing and toning, edge wear, old folds, occasional small tears and some weakness at fold intersections. The important entries remain clear and legible, and the complex folding tables are substantially intact.
A rare and highly displayable intersection of West Point, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Joseph E. Johnston and Civil War history.
