A West Point cadet

While trawling through yet another long-stored box from the W. Dale Clark Library's "attic," I found something kind of neat: a copy of A Treatise on Military Law and the Practice of Courts-Martial, by Stephen Vincent Benét, published in 1868. Now, since Omaha Public Library is not an academic library, this work does not really fit into our collection very well (it is also a little the worse for wear--the cover is falling off, and over all it's a bit fragile) and I will probably have to send it to the Friends of the Library to sell. But first I wanted to gloat over it a little.

First of all, if the name Stephen Vincent Benét makes you wonder vaguely what military law and poetry have to do with each other, the answer is--not much. This is NOT the Stephen Vincent Benét who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1929 for his book-length narrative poem, John Brown's Body (all this can of course be verified at Wikipedia....), but rather the poet's grandfather and namesake, who was a brigadier-general and a graduate of the United States Military Academy. (It was a very military family--the poet's father was a career officer and young Stephen himself spent a year at Hitchcock Military Academy. But stop here, this post is NOT supposed to be about Stephen the younger. Or actually about Stephen the older, either, as you will see.)

If you'd like to actually read this book, it is available digitally from archive.org. But what actually interests me most about this particular volume is the person (or people) who owned it.  The original owner has inscribed his name, Fred A. Smith, a date (September 1872), and the words "Cadet U.S.M.A. West Point Ny."  Who was Fred Smith, and how did Omaha Public Library end up with his book?  (It might have something to do with the other name written on this frontispiece, which looks like "C.J. McCaffrey"--although the "C." looks as though it were crossed out, and the last name could be "McCalfrey.")

Well, one hopeless task at a time. "Smith" is a bad research prospect at best, and "Fred" is not much better, although it was kind of him to at least include a middle initial. But I think I've found our man. Although Ancestry.com (or Ancestry Library Edition, if you are using our library database) does have some of the West Point cadet registers, I discovered an even better source--the USMA Library Digital Collections. There I was able to download a pdf of The Official Register of the Officers and Cadets of the U.S. Military Academy (June 1873). Frederick A. Smith was a member of the graduating class that year, and he appears to be the only Fred A. Smith who was at West Point in September of 1872 (although a Fred E. Smith from Illinois was admitted in July, 1872).

Frederick A. Smith was born in New York and "appointed" from New York, having been nominated by the Honorable C.H. Van Wyck and accepted February 13, 1869, according to a cadet register in the Ancestry.com database U.S. Military and Naval Academies, Cadet Records and Applications, 1805-1908. C.H. Van Wyck was almost certainly Charles Henry Van Wyck (1824-1895), a New York Republican congressional representative from 1859 to 1863. Then, as now, West Point candidates needed a nomination for admission, usually from a U.S. senator or a representative. Interestingly, Congressman Van Wyck moved to Nebraska in 1874 and eventually served as U.S. senator from Nebraska (see The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress).

But back to good old Fred. The Official Register shows that he was admitted July 1, 1869, at the age of 20 years and one month (making his birth date around June 1849). The 1873 West Point registers in the Ancestry.com database give Frederick's hometown as Newburgh, New York, which is right by West Point. There was a Frederick of the right age in the 1850 and 1860 censuses living with his parents F.B. and Sarah Smith in Blooming Grove, New York, which is just southwest of Newburgh, and the same family, minus Frederick (though "F.B." is now "Frederick"), was listed in Newburgh in the 1870 census. I felt certain of my identification when I discovered this family in Newburgh in the 1875 New York state census, available at FamilySearch--and what a splendid state census it is!  Lists relationships, occupations, AND location of absent members. Frederick A. is listed with his family, but is described as a lieutenant in the 12th Infantry, usually employed "in California." The book published in 1885 on the occasion of the 16th Annual Reunion of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy provides further confirmation by identifying the Frederick A. Smith who graduated in 1873 as the same Frederick A. Smith who was a first lieutenant and adjutant in the 12th Infantry (p. 18).

The Official Register shows that our Fred was ranked a respectable 22 out of the 41 graduating members of his class, and had only 40 demerits for the year (as compared to the record holder, Joseph F. Huston, with 193. Of course, Joseph also graduated at the very bottom of the class). 

So, our book, published in 1868, was probably a brand-new textbook when it came into Frederick Smith's hands. Someone, probably Fred himself (since mention is made of "Lt. Reilly instructor" in "3rd Section Law Mch 28th 1873," and the Official Register confirms that 1st Lt. James W. Reilly was the law and ethics professor in 1873), took some serious notes:

As a librarian I can't really approve of this vandalism, but maybe composition books were in short supply. And after all, it was not a library book yet.

Anyway, if it was Fred, his work paid off. He eventually became a brigadier-general, after serving in the Indian wars, in the Columbian Guard at the World's Fair in Chicago (for which he was commended), in Cuba, and the Philippines. In 1910 he was given command of the Department of Missouri, the second largest in the army, "with station at Omaha, Nebraska." Is that when his old book came into our city? Just before he retired in 1913, he was again stationed in Omaha, having been assigned to the command of the Second Division of the Fifth Brigade, which was headquartered there. He is indeed in the 1911 Omaha city directory, p. 1113.

Living at the Hotel Loyal (211 N. 16th Street), which seems the perfect place for a loyal officer of the U.S. Army, and very fortunately we have a picture of what it looked like just about the time he was living there.


You may wonder how I suddenly know so much about Fred.  Now that I knew he was
 the 12th Infantry Fred Smith, I hit paydirt with a Google search which unearthed a tribute to him that appeared after his death on February 4, 1922, in that year's Annual Report of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy (p. 138). Not much personal information, unlike some of the other tributes to deceased members, which were apparently written by close friends. Fred's was written by the Secretary of the Association. It does divulge that his middle initial stood for "Appleton," and that he was born May 15, 1849, in Craigville, New York. AND there is a portrait (the same that is housed at the Library of Congress). He was a distinguished-looking man. But I'd love to see what he looked like as a young cadet.

There is quite a bit more to find about Brigadier General Frederick A. Smith--because my obscure Fred Smith, humble cadet, turned out to be famous! Now, however, I'm a little curious about C.J. McCaffrey (if that is the right name), who apparently had possession of our book on April 4, 1914.