12. At West Point, cadets from the Southern states withdrew in an orderly manner
The Army of the antebellum era was viewed as apolitical. Publicly airing one’s political views was considered unsoldierly, with America’s officer corps united in support of the Constitution. The same atmosphere permeated the United States Military Academy at West Point, at least officially. During the 1850s, as sectional factionalism grew, this state of affairs began to break down. Prior to secession in 1860, cadets from all regions of the country were there to obtain an education at the expense of the federal government. This engendered a sense of loyalty to that government, rather than to the individual states from whence they came. A sense of divisiveness grew in the Corps of Cadets beginning in the 1850s and reached a dangerous point with the John Brown raid. Disciplinary problems among the Corps worsened. Cadets fought over political arguments and at least one challenge for a formal duel was made.
Contrary to the image depicted in films and literature, the Corps of Cadets gradually shrank as men from the seceding states left for home. He first departed on November 19, 1860, for his home in South Carolina. Captain Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard served as Superintendent during the secession crisis. The following April he ordered his batteries to open fire on Fort Sumter. By then, several of the cadets from the seceding states had resigned and departed West Point. The attack on Fort Sumter accelerated the exodus. In May 1861, only 21 out of 86 Southerners remained in the Corps of Cadets, most of them waiting out the end of the term. Nineteen of those 21 remained loyal to the United States during the war. On May 6, 1861, the class was graduated early, without ceremony, and the cadets went off to war.