December 24, 2014 • 29 mins
In 1826, liquor was forbidden at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. Cadets smuggled alcohol into the barracks anyway, and a defiant Christmas party turned into a riot when two officers attempted to break up the festivities. Read the show notes here.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from house
works dot com. Hello and'll welcome to the podcast. I'm
Holly Fry and I'm Tracy be Wilson. So h happy holidays,
whatever you celebrate. It's no secret that holiday celebrations often
(00:22):
involved drinking about a bit of spiked eggnog. I am
drinking some eggnog right now, but it is not spiked
because I'm at work. However, I did go get some
just ramp during this. I am jealous, but there's no
Also no big surprise in mentioning that when people drink,
they sometimes do really foolish things, and when they drink
a lot, the foolishness can reach epic proportions. I'm sure
(00:46):
many of our listeners have some moments where like, man,
I acted like a jerk when I had too much
to drink. Many of us have been there. Uh so
west Point, it will seem like I'm jumping, but I'm not.
West Point, for any listeners who may not know what
it is, is is the United States Military Academy and
it is located in West Point, New York, which is
why it is called west Point. And its roots go
(01:07):
right back to the founding of the United States, as
West Point was believed by George Washington to be the
key strategic spot on the North American continent in the
War for Independence, and so West Point began as a
military post, and then the Military Academy was established there
in eighteen o two by President Thomas Jefferson, and it's
the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States,
(01:29):
which I did not know prior to researching this. Getting
into West Point is extremely difficult, and the Academy has
a long history of prestige and honor. When you know
someone or you hear about someone, like a friend of
the family who says, oh my gosh, I got into
west Point or my son got into west Point, everybody
tends to go wow. Uh, so it's a big deal.
But we today are talking about Christmas at West Point
(01:52):
in eighteen six in an event that was exactly that
was not exactly what you would call honorable, and it
would not make you go wow being impressed. It would
make you go wow, I can't believe that happened. Uh.
And that is the eggnog riot. I had never heard
of this until someone asked us to talk about it recently,
and I passed it your away because my Christmas episode
(02:14):
was already smoking for yeah, and I'm so glad you did.
I had heard the phrase, but I never knew what
it was about. So I got some good learning in
and it's a fairly entertaining story. So first, we're going
to start with just a little background about eggnog. It's
not clear exactly when eggnog was invented. It's likely predecessor
(02:37):
was this hot milky ale called poset that was popular
in medieval Britain. Monks had started adding eggs and figs
to their posset by the thirteenth century, but it wasn't
until the seventeen hundreds that eggnog really surged in popularity
and became tied to holiday celebrations. So it was being
consumed by people, uh, you know, for many century is
(03:00):
at that point. But part of the reason that it
was not this hugely um popular drink that everyone had
at the holidays was because ingredients like milk and eggs
and sherry had been luxury items up to that point.
But in the American colonies, many people had access to
cows and chickens thanks to the many farms in the colonies,
(03:21):
and there was available rum that was cheaper, and so
the average person could suddenly enjoy eggnog, and the colonies
loved it just like I do. I get excited about
egg nog every year. It's so yeah, I get excited
about egg nog flavored things the way that I get
excited about pumpkin flavored things. I am one of those
pumpkin jerks. But I also really really love eggnog. Yeah,
(03:44):
Patrick hates it, which means it is all for me.
George Washington even made his own recipe for eggnog, which
included multiple alcoholic ingredients including brandy, rye whiskey, Jamaica rum,
and sherry. In short, this is a total booze bomb. Yeah,
you can actually find that recipe online. But there's a
trick to it, which is it the way he wrote it.
(04:07):
He didn't include how many eggs you were supposed to use,
so even at the time people that were using his
recipes were kind of guessing. Um. But basically, you would
be drunk as a skunk if if you drain it,
no matter how many eggs you included, because has a
lot of alcohol in them, and so as a beverage
enjoyed and endorsed by the founding fathers. Eggnog really became
(04:29):
a vital part of any holiday celebration in the United
States at that point. So let's detour back over to
West Point. The superintendent of West Point in eighteen six
was Colonel Sylvana's there. He actually served as superintendent from
eighteen seventeen to eighteen thirty three, and he's often called
the father of the military Academy. Was under his leadership
(04:50):
that the academic standards for the school were significantly upgraded
and codified. He also set rigorous criteria for military discipline
and conduct. Yes, so prior to his tenure as leader
of the school, it was not quite as uh, sort
of you know, standardized it. I read one historical account
(05:13):
that said, like, you know, it was really sort of
laughable to consider it an actual learning institution or military academy.
It just it was kind of a rough and rowdy
collection of sort of like we're gathering people together and
we're teaching them as well as we can. But Undersayer,
it really just became like a Swiss clock of you know,
(05:34):
good standards scheduling. He handled everything, like everyone that worked there,
he hired them, every student that it was admitted he
chose them, and he really really had these very very
high standards. And one of the major contributions that he
made to the school, in addition to pretty much setting
it up as an actual institution, and he really the
(05:56):
whole country kind of owes him a debt for this contribution,
was that he set up this curriculum with engineering at
its core. So for much of the nineteenth century, the
vast majority of engineers that were building the infrastructure of
the U. S. Transportation system came from West Point. So
if you were on a road, if you crossed a bridge,
if you travel by train, probably the people that designed
(06:19):
and built those things were West Point graduates. And that
is all thanks to Thayer's recognition that a fledgling country
really needed engineers if it was going to actually sustain
itself and develop long term Any biography or a description
of their notes that he had an intense focus on
standards and excellence. He made the school into a meritocracy
(06:41):
that was based on performance and throughout any benefits to
being from a privileged family. When his nephew was admitted
to the school, he made the voice sign a letter
of resignation that they are kept in his possession, so
the invent of a single infraction, the younger man would
immediately removed from the school. Yeah, he wanted there to
(07:04):
be no, uh, no way that anybody could point to
him or his nephew and say that like there had
been unfair partial treatment. He really was all about sort
of everybody comes in as an equal, everybody behaves as
an equal. I don't care if you're rich or poor.
I care about how smart and dedicated you are. She's
really kind of a very new way of thinking at
(07:24):
the time. We should probably point out that everyone here,
like the school was not integrated or anything, so everyone
was kind of I just don't want to make it
sound as though we are unaware of that aspect that
like everyone still had limits. Oh yes, of course. His
is mostly like in terms of class level. You know,
(07:46):
rich kids were not going to get treated any better
or have any better chances than children than boys that
had come from families that were less privileged. But we're
just as smart and willing to work. It's hard. So
that was his thing. Uh. And up to this point
in the U. S m A's brief history, it had
really become a tradition over the holidays for cadets to
unwind a bit. Life as a student at the academy
(08:09):
was rigorous. It was even grueling at times, and so
as a much needed break from all of that discipline,
homemade eggnog, which was of course spiked, had become the
drink of choice among the cadets to celebrate Christmas. Colonel
Fair was not okay with this. The superintendent is sometimes
described as leading with an almost monk like existence because
(08:31):
he was so dedicated to a life of honor and
living up to the standards he set for himself as
well as the cadets. So the idea of holiday drunkenness
did not mesh with his vision of how disciplined cadets
should behave, so he instituted a rule that no cadet
could purchase, store, or consume alcohol of any kind. Yeah,
(08:52):
that didn't go over so well. You can imagine how
well a rule like that would be received. Uh. Plenty
of the young men at West Point flouted the rule
on the down low. I think we're just like, that's fine,
he can say that all he wants. We're still going
to drink at Christmas. But a few cadets that were
really sort of bristling at the idea that he would
go so far as to make a regulation that would
(09:13):
bar spirits from a holiday celebration, made it their personal
mission to throw the biggest holiday party the school had
ever seen. And when we say biggest, what we really
mean is the most alcohol filled. And before we get
to sort of how that played out, do you want
to have a word from a sponsor. Let's do, and
now we will get back to the story of the
egg nog Riot. Several nights before the Christmas Eve party,
(09:36):
three different students together across the Hudson River to visit
Martin's Tavern, which was located on the East Bank, and
there were other taverns closer to the school, but they
were not going to be able to provide the amount
of liquor that the Cadets were planning to amass for
their revelry at a price that the students could also afford.
And so after having a few drinks at Martin's tavern,
(09:57):
the cadets took several gallons of whiskey that they had
procured and they headed back to the academy. When they
reached the dock at the Academy, after crossing back over
the river, they ran into a little obstacle which was
a guard, and the guard was an enlisted man who
was standing on the dock. This was kind of a
minor obstacle because the guard was willing to look the
(10:18):
other way for a thirty five cent ribe. And once
the cadets reached the barracks, they stowed their illicit alcohol
in their bunks with their more mundane personal effects. They
kind of carefully disguised it as just in a among
with everything else there. Knew that the cadets were likely
to try to smuggle in alcohol into the barracks because
(10:39):
it had happened before, and he was not a fool,
so he assigned Captain Ethan Alan Hitchcock and Lieutenant William A.
Thornton to the North Barracks to keep to keep an
eye on things on Christmas Eve and uh. Initially, the
evening was relatively quiet, so the two officers went to
bed around midnight thinking that nothing was going to happen.
(11:00):
But several hours later, Captain Hitchcock awoke to the sound
of several of the young men partying several floors up.
He went upstairs and he discovered a half dozen drunken cadets,
and initially he just thought he was breaking up a
minor situation, and he ordered all of the boys to
their rooms, but before he could leave, noises in the
next room tipped him off to additional inebriated cadets. When
(11:24):
Hitchcock entered the next room, two drunk cadets were trying
to hide under a blanket and a third was hiding
his face behind a hat. Doesn't this kind of crack
you up? Like I could so picture these drug people
thinking they are somehow imperceptible under a blanket. I feel
like this is a weird sitcom set at West Point
(11:47):
a long time ago. So Hitchcock confronted the hat hider
and tried to get him to reveal his identity, and
then things pretty quickly became heated. Yeah, they exchanged some
words and Hitchcock eventually left, but the cadets that remained
were really angry at having been confronted, and and his
heated exchange with the young man hiding behind the hat
(12:10):
just kind of ratcheted up everybody's I you're a little
bit like I think they just felt like they were
being hassled, and it appears that this is kind of
in the tone of the revelry took a turn, and
eventually someone is said to have shouted, get your dirks
and bayonets and pistols. If you have them before this
night is over, Hitchcock will be dead. That's what catalyzed
(12:30):
the riot. Yeah, a little drunken screeching about violence, uh so,
and the unruly party. Another one sprung up on one
of the lower floors, and Captain Hitchcock ran to break
it up, and on his way he actually encountered Jefferson Davis,
who was intoxicated in the hallway and the slash. Davis
(12:51):
accompanied Hitchcock into the room where this new phase of
the party was going on, shouting put away the grog boys.
Captain Hitchcock's coming, of course, he was standing right next
to him. Hitchcock sent Davis back to his room and
he acquiesced, which really saved his bacon. Later on, his
cooperation kept him from being court martialed. And when Hitchcock
(13:13):
attempted to break down a barricaded door in another room
that where a party was erupting, another cadet tried to
shoot him, and this shooting was only thwarted by another
young man that jostled him as his pistol went off,
and from the accounts I read, it was unclear whether
that second man that did the jostling did so on
purpose or was just kind of having a drunken stumbling
(13:35):
a moment a serendipitous prevention of murder. Yes. So meanwhile,
Lieutenant Thornton had also gotten up from his bed and
was trying to stop the various pockets of partying that
we're popping up all over the barracks. But he was
having even more trouble than Captain Hitchcock. At one point,
a cadet brandished a sword at him and another whacked
(13:56):
him with a piece of wood. Yeah, and these sound funny,
but I have to like step back for a moment
and think, like, Okay, these are young men that have
been trained rigorously physically there, you know, in the prime
of life in terms of their health, and they are
running around drunk, so they do not have full control
of their mental faculties brandishing weapons at these poor men.
(14:18):
Like it sounds kind of funny, but I can imagine
in the moment it was terrifying. Well, and I am
also reminded of a number of blog posts that have
been circulating around the internet rate lately of white people
rioting over stupid things, and I feel like this is
a historical example of a ridiculous riot over something stupid. Yeah,
(14:42):
we wanted some losing our ignong. So after Captain Hitchcock's
near miss with the drunken shooter, he called for backup,
and he called for the Commandant of Cadets. But some
of the drunken men misunderstood what he said and they
thought he was calling for their campus rivals, which were
artillerymen that were stationed at West Point, and this set
(15:03):
off a chain reaction of these inebriated young men arming
themselves to defend against the bombardiers that they were convinced
were coming. As they prepared for the coming enemy, they
also trashed the barracks. They broke dishes and windows and
tora part the furniture. They pulled banisters away from the
staircase cases. Hitchcock had never called for the artillerymen, so
(15:26):
they never came, but the violence and the barracks kept
escalating anyway. Finally, William Worth, who was the Commandant of Cadets,
came to Hitchcock's Hitchcock's call and was able to shut
it down. So even though at this point, you know,
things subside a bit, what's left is that roughly one
(15:46):
third of the cadets at West Point at the time,
so I've seen the number ninety out of to sixty
were involved in this booze fueled chaos where they basically
destroyed their own surroundings. Uh, some of the young men
were still drunk on Christmas morning, because remember this started
well after midnight, so it was actually technically Christmas already
when it began, and they looked a mess at this point,
(16:10):
you know, clothes disheveled, some of them torn, Their barracks
were complete shambles. And basically what it boiled down too,
is that a few gallons of whiskey had incited nearly
one young men to do a serious amount of damage
to their academy and their home away from home and
really sort of them the mental environment where they were
(16:31):
as well. I'm actually kind of just made to learn
by this episode, or maybe have reiterated that rioting over
ridiculous things it's not actually a new phenomenon, no, not
even a little. And I wonder how much of that
is sort of the expression of in this particular case,
(16:53):
you know, if they were kept to this incredibly high
standard and they were you know, forced to be rigger Slee,
devoted to their studies and devoted to being you know,
sort of on point at all times. If this is
just sort of like a build up of the normal
rambunctiousness that people have that's been kind of tamped down
for a while, and then you get some whiskey in
(17:14):
the mix and you can't hold that back anymore and
it goes berserk. Now, there's actually some really interesting sociological
uh and psychological research about what sparks riots that are
made for, um like combating oppression basically. Uh So when
it comes to ones that are just about drunkenness, I
(17:36):
don't know. Yeah, it's I'm like, it might be uh
unfair is not the right word. I Mostly I'm like, guys,
there's no excuse for that behavior when when your reason
is that they told you you couldn't have alcohol in
your agnog Yeah, but there's that thing that happens right
(17:58):
when you're drunk and a small forms it quickly becomes
a large mob and then just there's not really much
logical thought going on. It's just kind of like violence
and everyone like a rocket, like you just people just
get swept up in that that weird wave of intensity.
But before we talk about sort of what happened after
(18:18):
all of these young men lost their minds while they
were drunk. Do you want to have a word from
a sponsor chair, So now let's go back to talking
about West Point and the Christmas events that happened there
in the eighteen hundreds. So to get back to what
happened after this ridiculous riot was over, Pearl there gathered
the Academy staff together to discuss the matter, and eventually
(18:39):
two orders were issued by Major General Alexander Makeum, who
was the Chief Engineer of the Army and Inspector of
the Academy. So, following the riot, Order number nine named
twenty two cadets who were placed on immediate restriction, and
Order number forty nine opened a Court of Inquiry into
the riot and the events surrounding it. The goal was
(19:00):
to identify the key players who led the riot. Yeah,
they were trying to be fair and understanding that, like, yes,
there were ninety young men involved, but surely there were
ringleaders and those are the ones we're going to go after.
And these inquiries took several weeks to investigate just what
had happened during the cadets Christmas festivities, and eventually nineteen
(19:22):
cadets and one soldier were courts martialed for their involvement
in the mob that caused all the problems. The trials
began a month after the Shenanigans on January eight seven.
Those nineteen cadets were William E. A. Squith, Benjamin G. Humphreys,
Walter B. Guillon, James W. M. Barrion, Fayette Norville, David M. Fairley,
(19:46):
George E. Bombard, James L. Thompson, Hugh W. Mercer, Benjamin F. Guard,
Thomas Swords Jr. Richard B. Screven, Bill Fitzgerald, John C. Stucker, T. M. Lewis,
William R. Burnley, Samuel Roberts, and Anthony Johnson, and William D. C. Murdoch.
(20:09):
And at this point, as they faced uh this tribunal
that had been assembled to try them, these cadets were
basically defending themselves to preserve their futures. If they were
not going to be able to effectively plead their cases,
their time at West Point would end really abruptly. And
at that point their future was to become military men.
So it really was the stakes were quite high, uh
(20:32):
for what was going to happen to them based on
this one night of really stupid behavior. And fellow cadets
with some now famous names came forward in support of
the cadets that were on trial while they testified, including
Robert Elie and as we mentioned before, Jefferson Davis. The
proceedings concluded on March eight of eight cadets, as with Mercer, Swords,
(20:55):
murdochs Screvin, Norville Thompson, and Guard were all allowed to
remain at West Point, although Norville, Murdoch and Guard eventually left,
the rest of the young men were dismissed and were
no longer welcome at the academy. And just as a
side note about Jefferson Davis, so he there are many
incidents associated with drunkenness on record for him during his
(21:17):
time at West Point. He apparently really liked a party,
and as we mentioned earlier, he was not charged over
the Eggnog riot, though he got into plenty of other,
uh troublesome little exploits when he was inebriated the North
Barracks as they were during the Eggnog riot. No longer exist.
When the school built new barracks on campus in the
eighteen forties, the new structures were made with no interior
(21:41):
floor to floor access and short hallways as a form
of crowd control to prevent a similar scenario where reality
cadets could manage another riot. The barracks that were built
in eighteen forties are also long gone, and there's also
no longer a holiday celebration at West Point. So while
(22:01):
the Eggnog riot had lasting ramifications in the eighteen hundreds,
it seems to have been largely forgotten as part of
the school's lore. I definitely had never heard of it before. Um,
and that was even after like a heavy search last
year for ideas of Christmas related topics to do. When
Smithsonian writer Natasha Guiling interviewed West Points Command historian Sherman
(22:24):
Fleak about the eighteen Christmas episode, she was told, quote,
hardly anyone knows about it. If pooled among four thousand,
four hundred cadets, three thousand federal employees, fift hundred military
staff and faculty, I doubt thirty people will know a
thing about it until now. Yeah, it's kind of um,
(22:48):
you know, it's an entertaining story. It's certainly one of
those things that you can't I can't help I'll admit
kind of like sighing and being like you idiots. Yeah,
I'm like, God, go your room, guys. That's how I
feel about it. Go to your room. I love it. Uh. Yes,
(23:08):
So that's the egg non riot, which did you know
significantly change the trajectory of the wives of the young
men that were dismissed from West Point as a consequence
of their behavior. Uh, but it is. It's one of
those things where even when I, uh, the few articles
that I found about it, they all kind of sum
it up is like, this is a good life lesson
to not get too drunk at a Christmas party, And
(23:29):
I'm like, well, it's kind of bigger than that. But
I definitely feel like it belongs in the same blog
posts as like the pumpkin riot that just happened this year,
and the riots over various sports teams winning games are
losing games or not actually playing their games or whatever.
Like I feel like it's that caliber of foolishness. Yeah,
(23:53):
so that's the scoop. Do you have some listener mails?
I do have some listener mail. This is um, kind
of a counterpoint to previous listener mail that I read
about when I had referred to people who's so at
stitchers when I was talking about the Charles Worth episode. Uh,
and then I read an email about it in a
subsequent episode. So I have a couple of different ones
(24:16):
from two different stitchers. I'm gonna use it. Uh. The
first one is from our listener Rachel, and she says,
thanks so much for taking time to read and respond
a listener mail, You too are great. I just had
a comment to add about the discussion of the title
stitcher versus seamstress. I'm currently a costume maker at the
Minnesota Opera and have worked in the industry of couture
costume making for several years. While I worked for the
(24:38):
Santa Fe Opera, it was strongly stressed that we call
ourselves stitchers on resumes and while describing what we do,
so that we remain gender non specific. So please do
continue to call us stitchers. Thank you. Uh. And then
our other one is from our listener Layton. She says,
I'm a longtime listener and fan of the podcast, and
while I've always felt moved to write in follow through
sometimes a problem for me when you did your episode
(24:59):
on a tall chief, though, I figured I'd better actually
do it because I work in the costume shop at
the New York City Ballet. This email is coming a
month late because we've been so busy in the shop.
It is Nutcracker season, after all, and our sixtieth anniversary
of her of performing Balanchine's Nutcracker, and we were also
in the middle of building three other new ballets for
our winter and spring season. It was great to hear
(25:21):
about one of our past principal dancers and a brief
mention of the company I now work for. If you
want to do more, I highly support that. She suggests
doing one on Barbara Corinska, which might happen you never knew.
Layton goes on to say that what really moved me
to write in, however, was the recent listener mail in
your Henry Hudson podcast. As a professional stitcher, I can
assure you that the term seamstress is an antiquated one
(25:43):
and not really used in the business anymore, because, as
Holly said, it is an exclusionary term. Perhaps it's still
used in some parts of the world that still only
higher female sewers, but most shops these days do tend
to have a few malee stitchers are as at the
New York City Ballet included. The only time I used
the word seems dress is when I'm speaking to someone
outside of the business. Newspapers and magazines love the word
(26:04):
in an effort to better explain what I do for
a living. Strangely enough, stitcher is not as self explanatory
as you might think to most people I know, I
work in a costume shop, but not a couture house,
but being based in New York City, the two fields
do tend to cross paths. We've had some of the
giants of the fashion world as guest designers, including Sarah Burton,
Carolina Herrera, and Tom Brown most recently, and many of
(26:25):
my colleagues freelance during New York Fashion Week. We all
refer to ourselves as stitchers, regardless of what type of
garment we're sewing or how we are sewing it. In
the New York City Ballet Shop, we are masters of
our trade. We are expert tailor's dressmakers, drapers, cutters, and stitchers,
making professional grade clothing that is then used as costumes.
To suggest my work is no better than something a
machine could do is an insult. And to suggest that
(26:47):
someone who works in a factory has less of an
ability to sew is also an insult. I myself was
first taught to sew by someone who used to work
in a girdle factory, and she does beautiful work. As
a side note, a person who sews on the left
patch pocket onto a pair of jeans in a Denom
factory is usually called a piece worker rather than a stitcher,
because they are paid per piece that they sew. The
bottom line is using the term stitcher is perfectly acceptable
(27:09):
and preferable by most people in our field. So you
keep using it, Holly okay uh. And to end on
a lighter note, I include some pictures for you of
things I've worked on at the New York City Valet.
Hollway smokes. The pictures are incredible and blew my mind.
I can look at two twos until the cows come home,
and then I'll show the pictures to the cows and
hope that they gasp over them. Absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous work.
(27:30):
Um the Alexander McQueen. Uh. It was Sarah Burton for
Alexander McQueen that designed it. There's a dress that she
included a photo of that just mind blowingly gorgeous. Uh.
So that that's the counterpoint to the one that said
we should not use the term stitcher. But uh, here's
my thing. I think whatever word you use, as long
as your intent is good, I'm good with it. Which
(27:51):
is not to say that we shouldn't pay attention to
what isn't is not the the accepted and preferred term.
But that's my thing. I do not mean to start
a fight amongst the sewers of the world. Just want
to do point counterpoint on that one and give both
sides of the the story. So whatever you do in
the sewing of your garments and whatever you prefer to
(28:11):
call yourself, it's cool by me to keep making pretty
things because we all need them. Uh. If you would
like to write to us and talk about what you
would like to be called, whether it be stitcher or
something else, you can do so at History Podcast at
house to Works dot com. We're also on Twitter at
missed in History, at facebook dot com, slash missed in
History and mist in History dot tumbler dot com, and
(28:31):
on pinterest dot com. Slash missed in History. You can
also buy shirts at our spreadshirt store, which is missed
in History dot spreadshirt dot com. And it is not
just shirts. You can get other goodies like messenger banks
and mugs and other fun accessories, iPhone cases. I think
they have other phone cases. And if you would like
to learn a little bit more about what we talked
about today, you can go to our parents site, which
(28:53):
is how stof Works and if you type in the
word egg Nog in the search bar, you will get
a number of different articles also including five classic Christmas
cocktails which also includes ignog. If he would like to
come and visit us at mist in history dot com,
we encourage you to do so. We have all of
the episodes there. There's show notes for all of the episodes.
It's Tracy and I joined almost two years ago and
(29:15):
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Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from house
works dot com. Hello and'll welcome to the podcast. I'm
Holly Fry and I'm Tracy be Wilson. So h happy holidays,
whatever you celebrate. It's no secret that holiday celebrations often
(00:22):
involved drinking about a bit of spiked eggnog. I am
drinking some eggnog right now, but it is not spiked
because I'm at work. However, I did go get some
just ramp during this. I am jealous, but there's no
Also no big surprise in mentioning that when people drink,
they sometimes do really foolish things, and when they drink
a lot, the foolishness can reach epic proportions. I'm sure
(00:46):
many of our listeners have some moments where like, man,
I acted like a jerk when I had too much
to drink. Many of us have been there. Uh so
west Point, it will seem like I'm jumping, but I'm not.
West Point, for any listeners who may not know what
it is, is is the United States Military Academy and
it is located in West Point, New York, which is
why it is called west Point. And its roots go
(01:07):
right back to the founding of the United States, as
West Point was believed by George Washington to be the
key strategic spot on the North American continent in the
War for Independence, and so West Point began as a
military post, and then the Military Academy was established there
in eighteen o two by President Thomas Jefferson, and it's
the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States,
(01:29):
which I did not know prior to researching this. Getting
into West Point is extremely difficult, and the Academy has
a long history of prestige and honor. When you know
someone or you hear about someone, like a friend of
the family who says, oh my gosh, I got into
west Point or my son got into west Point, everybody
tends to go wow. Uh, so it's a big deal.
But we today are talking about Christmas at West Point
(01:52):
in eighteen six in an event that was exactly that
was not exactly what you would call honorable, and it
would not make you go wow being impressed. It would
make you go wow, I can't believe that happened. Uh.
And that is the eggnog riot. I had never heard
of this until someone asked us to talk about it recently,
and I passed it your away because my Christmas episode
(02:14):
was already smoking for yeah, and I'm so glad you did.
I had heard the phrase, but I never knew what
it was about. So I got some good learning in
and it's a fairly entertaining story. So first, we're going
to start with just a little background about eggnog. It's
not clear exactly when eggnog was invented. It's likely predecessor
(02:37):
was this hot milky ale called poset that was popular
in medieval Britain. Monks had started adding eggs and figs
to their posset by the thirteenth century, but it wasn't
until the seventeen hundreds that eggnog really surged in popularity
and became tied to holiday celebrations. So it was being
consumed by people, uh, you know, for many century is
(03:00):
at that point. But part of the reason that it
was not this hugely um popular drink that everyone had
at the holidays was because ingredients like milk and eggs
and sherry had been luxury items up to that point.
But in the American colonies, many people had access to
cows and chickens thanks to the many farms in the colonies,
(03:21):
and there was available rum that was cheaper, and so
the average person could suddenly enjoy eggnog, and the colonies
loved it just like I do. I get excited about
egg nog every year. It's so yeah, I get excited
about egg nog flavored things the way that I get
excited about pumpkin flavored things. I am one of those
pumpkin jerks. But I also really really love eggnog. Yeah,
(03:44):
Patrick hates it, which means it is all for me.
George Washington even made his own recipe for eggnog, which
included multiple alcoholic ingredients including brandy, rye whiskey, Jamaica rum,
and sherry. In short, this is a total booze bomb. Yeah,
you can actually find that recipe online. But there's a
trick to it, which is it the way he wrote it.
(04:07):
He didn't include how many eggs you were supposed to use,
so even at the time people that were using his
recipes were kind of guessing. Um. But basically, you would
be drunk as a skunk if if you drain it,
no matter how many eggs you included, because has a
lot of alcohol in them, and so as a beverage
enjoyed and endorsed by the founding fathers. Eggnog really became
(04:29):
a vital part of any holiday celebration in the United
States at that point. So let's detour back over to
West Point. The superintendent of West Point in eighteen six
was Colonel Sylvana's there. He actually served as superintendent from
eighteen seventeen to eighteen thirty three, and he's often called
the father of the military Academy. Was under his leadership
(04:50):
that the academic standards for the school were significantly upgraded
and codified. He also set rigorous criteria for military discipline
and conduct. Yes, so prior to his tenure as leader
of the school, it was not quite as uh, sort
of you know, standardized it. I read one historical account
(05:13):
that said, like, you know, it was really sort of
laughable to consider it an actual learning institution or military academy.
It just it was kind of a rough and rowdy
collection of sort of like we're gathering people together and
we're teaching them as well as we can. But Undersayer,
it really just became like a Swiss clock of you know,
(05:34):
good standards scheduling. He handled everything, like everyone that worked there,
he hired them, every student that it was admitted he
chose them, and he really really had these very very
high standards. And one of the major contributions that he
made to the school, in addition to pretty much setting
it up as an actual institution, and he really the
(05:56):
whole country kind of owes him a debt for this contribution,
was that he set up this curriculum with engineering at
its core. So for much of the nineteenth century, the
vast majority of engineers that were building the infrastructure of
the U. S. Transportation system came from West Point. So
if you were on a road, if you crossed a bridge,
if you travel by train, probably the people that designed
(06:19):
and built those things were West Point graduates. And that
is all thanks to Thayer's recognition that a fledgling country
really needed engineers if it was going to actually sustain
itself and develop long term Any biography or a description
of their notes that he had an intense focus on
standards and excellence. He made the school into a meritocracy
(06:41):
that was based on performance and throughout any benefits to
being from a privileged family. When his nephew was admitted
to the school, he made the voice sign a letter
of resignation that they are kept in his possession, so
the invent of a single infraction, the younger man would
immediately removed from the school. Yeah, he wanted there to
(07:04):
be no, uh, no way that anybody could point to
him or his nephew and say that like there had
been unfair partial treatment. He really was all about sort
of everybody comes in as an equal, everybody behaves as
an equal. I don't care if you're rich or poor.
I care about how smart and dedicated you are. She's
really kind of a very new way of thinking at
(07:24):
the time. We should probably point out that everyone here,
like the school was not integrated or anything, so everyone
was kind of I just don't want to make it
sound as though we are unaware of that aspect that
like everyone still had limits. Oh yes, of course. His
is mostly like in terms of class level. You know,
(07:46):
rich kids were not going to get treated any better
or have any better chances than children than boys that
had come from families that were less privileged. But we're
just as smart and willing to work. It's hard. So
that was his thing. Uh. And up to this point
in the U. S m A's brief history, it had
really become a tradition over the holidays for cadets to
unwind a bit. Life as a student at the academy
(08:09):
was rigorous. It was even grueling at times, and so
as a much needed break from all of that discipline,
homemade eggnog, which was of course spiked, had become the
drink of choice among the cadets to celebrate Christmas. Colonel
Fair was not okay with this. The superintendent is sometimes
described as leading with an almost monk like existence because
(08:31):
he was so dedicated to a life of honor and
living up to the standards he set for himself as
well as the cadets. So the idea of holiday drunkenness
did not mesh with his vision of how disciplined cadets
should behave, so he instituted a rule that no cadet
could purchase, store, or consume alcohol of any kind. Yeah,
(08:52):
that didn't go over so well. You can imagine how
well a rule like that would be received. Uh. Plenty
of the young men at West Point flouted the rule
on the down low. I think we're just like, that's fine,
he can say that all he wants. We're still going
to drink at Christmas. But a few cadets that were
really sort of bristling at the idea that he would
go so far as to make a regulation that would
(09:13):
bar spirits from a holiday celebration, made it their personal
mission to throw the biggest holiday party the school had
ever seen. And when we say biggest, what we really
mean is the most alcohol filled. And before we get
to sort of how that played out, do you want
to have a word from a sponsor. Let's do, and
now we will get back to the story of the
egg nog Riot. Several nights before the Christmas Eve party,
(09:36):
three different students together across the Hudson River to visit
Martin's Tavern, which was located on the East Bank, and
there were other taverns closer to the school, but they
were not going to be able to provide the amount
of liquor that the Cadets were planning to amass for
their revelry at a price that the students could also afford.
And so after having a few drinks at Martin's tavern,
(09:57):
the cadets took several gallons of whiskey that they had
procured and they headed back to the academy. When they
reached the dock at the Academy, after crossing back over
the river, they ran into a little obstacle which was
a guard, and the guard was an enlisted man who
was standing on the dock. This was kind of a
minor obstacle because the guard was willing to look the
(10:18):
other way for a thirty five cent ribe. And once
the cadets reached the barracks, they stowed their illicit alcohol
in their bunks with their more mundane personal effects. They
kind of carefully disguised it as just in a among
with everything else there. Knew that the cadets were likely
to try to smuggle in alcohol into the barracks because
(10:39):
it had happened before, and he was not a fool,
so he assigned Captain Ethan Alan Hitchcock and Lieutenant William A.
Thornton to the North Barracks to keep to keep an
eye on things on Christmas Eve and uh. Initially, the
evening was relatively quiet, so the two officers went to
bed around midnight thinking that nothing was going to happen.
(11:00):
But several hours later, Captain Hitchcock awoke to the sound
of several of the young men partying several floors up.
He went upstairs and he discovered a half dozen drunken cadets,
and initially he just thought he was breaking up a
minor situation, and he ordered all of the boys to
their rooms, but before he could leave, noises in the
next room tipped him off to additional inebriated cadets. When
(11:24):
Hitchcock entered the next room, two drunk cadets were trying
to hide under a blanket and a third was hiding
his face behind a hat. Doesn't this kind of crack
you up? Like I could so picture these drug people
thinking they are somehow imperceptible under a blanket. I feel
like this is a weird sitcom set at West Point
(11:47):
a long time ago. So Hitchcock confronted the hat hider
and tried to get him to reveal his identity, and
then things pretty quickly became heated. Yeah, they exchanged some
words and Hitchcock eventually left, but the cadets that remained
were really angry at having been confronted, and and his
heated exchange with the young man hiding behind the hat
(12:10):
just kind of ratcheted up everybody's I you're a little
bit like I think they just felt like they were
being hassled, and it appears that this is kind of
in the tone of the revelry took a turn, and
eventually someone is said to have shouted, get your dirks
and bayonets and pistols. If you have them before this
night is over, Hitchcock will be dead. That's what catalyzed
(12:30):
the riot. Yeah, a little drunken screeching about violence, uh so,
and the unruly party. Another one sprung up on one
of the lower floors, and Captain Hitchcock ran to break
it up, and on his way he actually encountered Jefferson Davis,
who was intoxicated in the hallway and the slash. Davis
(12:51):
accompanied Hitchcock into the room where this new phase of
the party was going on, shouting put away the grog boys.
Captain Hitchcock's coming, of course, he was standing right next
to him. Hitchcock sent Davis back to his room and
he acquiesced, which really saved his bacon. Later on, his
cooperation kept him from being court martialed. And when Hitchcock
(13:13):
attempted to break down a barricaded door in another room
that where a party was erupting, another cadet tried to
shoot him, and this shooting was only thwarted by another
young man that jostled him as his pistol went off,
and from the accounts I read, it was unclear whether
that second man that did the jostling did so on
purpose or was just kind of having a drunken stumbling
(13:35):
a moment a serendipitous prevention of murder. Yes. So meanwhile,
Lieutenant Thornton had also gotten up from his bed and
was trying to stop the various pockets of partying that
we're popping up all over the barracks. But he was
having even more trouble than Captain Hitchcock. At one point,
a cadet brandished a sword at him and another whacked
(13:56):
him with a piece of wood. Yeah, and these sound funny,
but I have to like step back for a moment
and think, like, Okay, these are young men that have
been trained rigorously physically there, you know, in the prime
of life in terms of their health, and they are
running around drunk, so they do not have full control
of their mental faculties brandishing weapons at these poor men.
(14:18):
Like it sounds kind of funny, but I can imagine
in the moment it was terrifying. Well, and I am
also reminded of a number of blog posts that have
been circulating around the internet rate lately of white people
rioting over stupid things, and I feel like this is
a historical example of a ridiculous riot over something stupid. Yeah,
(14:42):
we wanted some losing our ignong. So after Captain Hitchcock's
near miss with the drunken shooter, he called for backup,
and he called for the Commandant of Cadets. But some
of the drunken men misunderstood what he said and they
thought he was calling for their campus rivals, which were
artillerymen that were stationed at West Point, and this set
(15:03):
off a chain reaction of these inebriated young men arming
themselves to defend against the bombardiers that they were convinced
were coming. As they prepared for the coming enemy, they
also trashed the barracks. They broke dishes and windows and
tora part the furniture. They pulled banisters away from the
staircase cases. Hitchcock had never called for the artillerymen, so
(15:26):
they never came, but the violence and the barracks kept
escalating anyway. Finally, William Worth, who was the Commandant of Cadets,
came to Hitchcock's Hitchcock's call and was able to shut
it down. So even though at this point, you know,
things subside a bit, what's left is that roughly one
(15:46):
third of the cadets at West Point at the time,
so I've seen the number ninety out of to sixty
were involved in this booze fueled chaos where they basically
destroyed their own surroundings. Uh, some of the young men
were still drunk on Christmas morning, because remember this started
well after midnight, so it was actually technically Christmas already
when it began, and they looked a mess at this point,
(16:10):
you know, clothes disheveled, some of them torn, Their barracks
were complete shambles. And basically what it boiled down too,
is that a few gallons of whiskey had incited nearly
one young men to do a serious amount of damage
to their academy and their home away from home and
really sort of them the mental environment where they were
(16:31):
as well. I'm actually kind of just made to learn
by this episode, or maybe have reiterated that rioting over
ridiculous things it's not actually a new phenomenon, no, not
even a little. And I wonder how much of that
is sort of the expression of in this particular case,
(16:53):
you know, if they were kept to this incredibly high
standard and they were you know, forced to be rigger Slee,
devoted to their studies and devoted to being you know,
sort of on point at all times. If this is
just sort of like a build up of the normal
rambunctiousness that people have that's been kind of tamped down
for a while, and then you get some whiskey in
(17:14):
the mix and you can't hold that back anymore and
it goes berserk. Now, there's actually some really interesting sociological
uh and psychological research about what sparks riots that are
made for, um like combating oppression basically. Uh So when
it comes to ones that are just about drunkenness, I
(17:36):
don't know. Yeah, it's I'm like, it might be uh
unfair is not the right word. I Mostly I'm like, guys,
there's no excuse for that behavior when when your reason
is that they told you you couldn't have alcohol in
your agnog Yeah, but there's that thing that happens right
(17:58):
when you're drunk and a small forms it quickly becomes
a large mob and then just there's not really much
logical thought going on. It's just kind of like violence
and everyone like a rocket, like you just people just
get swept up in that that weird wave of intensity.
But before we talk about sort of what happened after
(18:18):
all of these young men lost their minds while they
were drunk. Do you want to have a word from
a sponsor chair, So now let's go back to talking
about West Point and the Christmas events that happened there
in the eighteen hundreds. So to get back to what
happened after this ridiculous riot was over, Pearl there gathered
the Academy staff together to discuss the matter, and eventually
(18:39):
two orders were issued by Major General Alexander Makeum, who
was the Chief Engineer of the Army and Inspector of
the Academy. So, following the riot, Order number nine named
twenty two cadets who were placed on immediate restriction, and
Order number forty nine opened a Court of Inquiry into
the riot and the events surrounding it. The goal was
(19:00):
to identify the key players who led the riot. Yeah,
they were trying to be fair and understanding that, like, yes,
there were ninety young men involved, but surely there were
ringleaders and those are the ones we're going to go after.
And these inquiries took several weeks to investigate just what
had happened during the cadets Christmas festivities, and eventually nineteen
(19:22):
cadets and one soldier were courts martialed for their involvement
in the mob that caused all the problems. The trials
began a month after the Shenanigans on January eight seven.
Those nineteen cadets were William E. A. Squith, Benjamin G. Humphreys,
Walter B. Guillon, James W. M. Barrion, Fayette Norville, David M. Fairley,
(19:46):
George E. Bombard, James L. Thompson, Hugh W. Mercer, Benjamin F. Guard,
Thomas Swords Jr. Richard B. Screven, Bill Fitzgerald, John C. Stucker, T. M. Lewis,
William R. Burnley, Samuel Roberts, and Anthony Johnson, and William D. C. Murdoch.
(20:09):
And at this point, as they faced uh this tribunal
that had been assembled to try them, these cadets were
basically defending themselves to preserve their futures. If they were
not going to be able to effectively plead their cases,
their time at West Point would end really abruptly. And
at that point their future was to become military men.
So it really was the stakes were quite high, uh
(20:32):
for what was going to happen to them based on
this one night of really stupid behavior. And fellow cadets
with some now famous names came forward in support of
the cadets that were on trial while they testified, including
Robert Elie and as we mentioned before, Jefferson Davis. The
proceedings concluded on March eight of eight cadets, as with Mercer, Swords,
(20:55):
murdochs Screvin, Norville Thompson, and Guard were all allowed to
remain at West Point, although Norville, Murdoch and Guard eventually left,
the rest of the young men were dismissed and were
no longer welcome at the academy. And just as a
side note about Jefferson Davis, so he there are many
incidents associated with drunkenness on record for him during his
(21:17):
time at West Point. He apparently really liked a party,
and as we mentioned earlier, he was not charged over
the Eggnog riot, though he got into plenty of other,
uh troublesome little exploits when he was inebriated the North
Barracks as they were during the Eggnog riot. No longer exist.
When the school built new barracks on campus in the
eighteen forties, the new structures were made with no interior
(21:41):
floor to floor access and short hallways as a form
of crowd control to prevent a similar scenario where reality
cadets could manage another riot. The barracks that were built
in eighteen forties are also long gone, and there's also
no longer a holiday celebration at West Point. So while
(22:01):
the Eggnog riot had lasting ramifications in the eighteen hundreds,
it seems to have been largely forgotten as part of
the school's lore. I definitely had never heard of it before. Um,
and that was even after like a heavy search last
year for ideas of Christmas related topics to do. When
Smithsonian writer Natasha Guiling interviewed West Points Command historian Sherman
(22:24):
Fleak about the eighteen Christmas episode, she was told, quote,
hardly anyone knows about it. If pooled among four thousand,
four hundred cadets, three thousand federal employees, fift hundred military
staff and faculty, I doubt thirty people will know a
thing about it until now. Yeah, it's kind of um,
(22:48):
you know, it's an entertaining story. It's certainly one of
those things that you can't I can't help I'll admit
kind of like sighing and being like you idiots. Yeah,
I'm like, God, go your room, guys. That's how I
feel about it. Go to your room. I love it. Uh. Yes,
(23:08):
So that's the egg non riot, which did you know
significantly change the trajectory of the wives of the young
men that were dismissed from West Point as a consequence
of their behavior. Uh, but it is. It's one of
those things where even when I, uh, the few articles
that I found about it, they all kind of sum
it up is like, this is a good life lesson
to not get too drunk at a Christmas party, And
(23:29):
I'm like, well, it's kind of bigger than that. But
I definitely feel like it belongs in the same blog
posts as like the pumpkin riot that just happened this year,
and the riots over various sports teams winning games are
losing games or not actually playing their games or whatever.
Like I feel like it's that caliber of foolishness. Yeah,
(23:53):
so that's the scoop. Do you have some listener mails?
I do have some listener mail. This is um, kind
of a counterpoint to previous listener mail that I read
about when I had referred to people who's so at
stitchers when I was talking about the Charles Worth episode. Uh,
and then I read an email about it in a
subsequent episode. So I have a couple of different ones
(24:16):
from two different stitchers. I'm gonna use it. Uh. The
first one is from our listener Rachel, and she says,
thanks so much for taking time to read and respond
a listener mail, You too are great. I just had
a comment to add about the discussion of the title
stitcher versus seamstress. I'm currently a costume maker at the
Minnesota Opera and have worked in the industry of couture
costume making for several years. While I worked for the
(24:38):
Santa Fe Opera, it was strongly stressed that we call
ourselves stitchers on resumes and while describing what we do,
so that we remain gender non specific. So please do
continue to call us stitchers. Thank you. Uh. And then
our other one is from our listener Layton. She says,
I'm a longtime listener and fan of the podcast, and
while I've always felt moved to write in follow through
sometimes a problem for me when you did your episode
(24:59):
on a tall chief, though, I figured I'd better actually
do it because I work in the costume shop at
the New York City Ballet. This email is coming a
month late because we've been so busy in the shop.
It is Nutcracker season, after all, and our sixtieth anniversary
of her of performing Balanchine's Nutcracker, and we were also
in the middle of building three other new ballets for
our winter and spring season. It was great to hear
(25:21):
about one of our past principal dancers and a brief
mention of the company I now work for. If you
want to do more, I highly support that. She suggests
doing one on Barbara Corinska, which might happen you never knew.
Layton goes on to say that what really moved me
to write in, however, was the recent listener mail in
your Henry Hudson podcast. As a professional stitcher, I can
assure you that the term seamstress is an antiquated one
(25:43):
and not really used in the business anymore, because, as
Holly said, it is an exclusionary term. Perhaps it's still
used in some parts of the world that still only
higher female sewers, but most shops these days do tend
to have a few malee stitchers are as at the
New York City Ballet included. The only time I used
the word seems dress is when I'm speaking to someone
outside of the business. Newspapers and magazines love the word
(26:04):
in an effort to better explain what I do for
a living. Strangely enough, stitcher is not as self explanatory
as you might think to most people I know, I
work in a costume shop, but not a couture house,
but being based in New York City, the two fields
do tend to cross paths. We've had some of the
giants of the fashion world as guest designers, including Sarah Burton,
Carolina Herrera, and Tom Brown most recently, and many of
(26:25):
my colleagues freelance during New York Fashion Week. We all
refer to ourselves as stitchers, regardless of what type of
garment we're sewing or how we are sewing it. In
the New York City Ballet Shop, we are masters of
our trade. We are expert tailor's dressmakers, drapers, cutters, and stitchers,
making professional grade clothing that is then used as costumes.
To suggest my work is no better than something a
machine could do is an insult. And to suggest that
(26:47):
someone who works in a factory has less of an
ability to sew is also an insult. I myself was
first taught to sew by someone who used to work
in a girdle factory, and she does beautiful work. As
a side note, a person who sews on the left
patch pocket onto a pair of jeans in a Denom
factory is usually called a piece worker rather than a stitcher,
because they are paid per piece that they sew. The
bottom line is using the term stitcher is perfectly acceptable
(27:09):
and preferable by most people in our field. So you
keep using it, Holly okay uh. And to end on
a lighter note, I include some pictures for you of
things I've worked on at the New York City Valet.
Hollway smokes. The pictures are incredible and blew my mind.
I can look at two twos until the cows come home,
and then I'll show the pictures to the cows and
hope that they gasp over them. Absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous work.
(27:30):
Um the Alexander McQueen. Uh. It was Sarah Burton for
Alexander McQueen that designed it. There's a dress that she
included a photo of that just mind blowingly gorgeous. Uh.
So that that's the counterpoint to the one that said
we should not use the term stitcher. But uh, here's
my thing. I think whatever word you use, as long
as your intent is good, I'm good with it. Which
(27:51):
is not to say that we shouldn't pay attention to
what isn't is not the the accepted and preferred term.
But that's my thing. I do not mean to start
a fight amongst the sewers of the world. Just want
to do point counterpoint on that one and give both
sides of the the story. So whatever you do in
the sewing of your garments and whatever you prefer to
(28:11):
call yourself, it's cool by me to keep making pretty
things because we all need them. Uh. If you would
like to write to us and talk about what you
would like to be called, whether it be stitcher or
something else, you can do so at History Podcast at
house to Works dot com. We're also on Twitter at
missed in History, at facebook dot com, slash missed in
History and mist in History dot tumbler dot com, and
(28:31):
on pinterest dot com. Slash missed in History. You can
also buy shirts at our spreadshirt store, which is missed
in History dot spreadshirt dot com. And it is not
just shirts. You can get other goodies like messenger banks
and mugs and other fun accessories, iPhone cases. I think
they have other phone cases. And if you would like
to learn a little bit more about what we talked
about today, you can go to our parents site, which
(28:53):
is how stof Works and if you type in the
word egg Nog in the search bar, you will get
a number of different articles also including five classic Christmas
cocktails which also includes ignog. If he would like to
come and visit us at mist in history dot com,
we encourage you to do so. We have all of
the episodes there. There's show notes for all of the episodes.
It's Tracy and I joined almost two years ago and
(29:15):
we have just occasional blog posts. You get cool pictures
to go along with some of the episodes. It's a
fun place to hang out, so we encourage you to
visit missed in History dot com or our parents site,
how books dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics. Is that how stuff Works dot com
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