Band of Brothers: West Point in the Civil War

Did you know Confederate General George Pickett was sent to West Point in 1842 by Congressman Abraham Lincoln of Illinois? Or, were you aware of the fact that Union General George B. McClellan and Confederate Brigadier General A.P. Hill were friends, roomates even, at the Point? Through crushing twists of fate, the two soldiers not only became rivals on the battlefield, but were thrown into conflict over a love interest as well. A few years after their graduation, each man fought for the heart and hand of Miss Nelly Marcy, whose father was a Union army officer that eventually served under McClellan during the North/South conflict. George Armstrong Custer was a wild cat in his cadet years at West Point. The hard-headed Ohio youth talked in the ranks, played forbidden card games, and threw snowballs at passing columns. Each year he came close to earning 200 demerits, the fatal number which ended a cadet's West Point career and sent him home in disgrace, but Custer always managed to stop short of the nasty little number. "Band of Brothers", by Thomas Fleming, is filled with these and other interesting facts about the pre-war United States Military Academy, its ante bellum graduates, and the role the men played in the Civi War. Fleming's book is short at 136 pages, but writers, students, and Civil War fanatics will find it useful and entertaining. Throughout "Band of Brothers", readers learn that ante bellum West Point cadets were susceptible to the secular politics dividing the fledgling United States. During the 1850s and 1860s, long held civilian political views were not only forcing a wedge into the fabric of the Union, they was cleaving West Point into two and sometimes three bitter factions, the Northerners, Southerners, and tough frontier Westerners. Did the friendships made at the Academy survive the war? Did the graduates remain cordial to each other on the battlefield? Read Fleming's book. Discover some truth about West Pointers and their sacred honor as leaders and soldiers. As a journalist, a scholar, and a man who holds a passion for military history, I enjoyed Thomas Fleming's book. "Band of Brother" reads quickly, is easily understood, and is a good starting point for anyone wishing to research the mindset of Union and Confederate generals before, during, and after the Civil War.