Last in Their Class: Custer, Pickett and the Goats of West Point

Just finished this book, and it was imho enthralling, very hard to put down..its takes us on a tour of West Point graduates ranked as "immortals" (those being the bottom 10 of their class) and the Goat, the last in their class.,..some famous names were goats or immortals; Heth, Pickett, Custer, Kirby Smith the Crittenden(s) Grant ( whose worst subject was..Infantry tactics go figure) among many others..... Great reading regards the Seminoles wars, Mexican-American War the Civil war......the trials and tribulations at West Point, their pranks and punishments etc....many great complimentary bios to be found here, Whistler, Poe et al...all wound up with stories of their military performance's and stories regards their paths criss-crossing in the Civil war etc....a comparative analysis as to why so many of the Immortals and Goats had an impact all out of proportion to the top 5 and their relative ranks, which in the end, means nothing...

Quite a different kind of history, since Mr. Robbins bounces around from before there was a West Point toward the end of the Indian Wars. He follows the personalities, not a timeline, and you can tell that a lot of time was spent sequencing the flow, which for the most part is outstanding. And along the way there is a lot of history - not necessarily important stuff, but very interesting and enlightening. Kind of like a Huckleberry Finn of history. For the more objective oriented, there are nuggets and short histories that fill in some of the less well-known corners of America's past. The cavalry and Gettysburg (esp. Custer's bit) was new to me, while the last stand is well covered, and Robbins' take on the 2nd Seminole War is particularly relevant to our conflict in Iraqi (so much so he doesn't have to mention it). Overall, it is a quirky read, and well worth it. Not your basic research book. The basic info is all there, of course, but organized in an original manner.

Here is a fine military history that informs us about the United States, and how our country was shaped by those who "stood at the foot" in class rank at the US Military Academy. Robbins describes in excellent and interesting detail how much of our national history pivoted on the actions taken by the Goats of West Point, and how "...the crucible of West Point produced men of many and varied abilities, which were then tested in the arena of life." Robbins shows us the Seminole War (the "War Without End") and how the threads of national policy that were touched and sustained by USMA graduates like Ephraim Kirby Smith (the Goat of USMA 1826) run through Little Big Horn, where George Armstrong Custer (the Goat of USMA 1861) ended his brilliant but sometimes questionable and inexcusably savage career. Along the way Robbins tells about the court-martial of Cadet Jefferson Davis and his distinguished service in Mexico, washouts like Edgar Allan Poe and James McNeill Whistler, Manifest Destiny, heroic Zeb Inge (the Goat of USMA 1838) at Resaca de la Palma, George Pickett (the Goat of USMA 1846) in the lead at Chapultepec and on a long field at Gettysburg, and their achievements in building America, averting war, and reconciling a divided nation. Robbins does much more than tell the stories of these famous Goats and those like Powhatan Clarke (USMA 1884) and Charles Young (USMA 1889) who distinguished themselves but are less than famous. He tells us about the richness of character, courage in the face of danger, daring, mischievous tendencies and audacity that seem to characterize those who worked to stay just above the line as Cadets when it came to academics and discipline, but "who persevered to live extraordinary lives of service and sacrifice."

"Last in Their Class" is wonderful book of popular history and a great read. Author James Robbins' greatest strength is how he can bring out the individual personalities of his subjects. Most of them are relatively minor figures of 19th-century American history with one common thread: each one graduated at the bottom of his West Point class. The "Class Goat" is the old West Point term for the man who graduated last in his class. Some of these men are well-known to most Americans, like George Armstrong Custer and Confederate General George Pickett of Pickett's Charge. Others will be readily recognized by history buffs, and some are relative unknowns. Each man's story is brought to life by the author. Also, by the time you finish this "Last in Their Class," you'll discover that you've covered a lot of ground in American history, some familiar and some not-so-familiar, from the Seminole Wars up to World War 1. I enjoyed this book as history, as biography, and also as a commentary on the nature of West Point and its system of education. Civil War buffs will especially enjoy the very human insights into several key figures on both sides of the conflict. "Last in Their Class" was recommended to me by other West Point graduates, and I recommend it highly to anyone who enjoys a good read in historical biography or military history.