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Show ms . Wta tome wlr - rl-j J By Cadet Georqe G.Meade. 1833 , f By Cadet William Tecum seh Sherman, 1838 p :; v;vxv, , ji , Al vvk - , 1 Sfl iffcftlP 1 Mott B Cadet U. h. Grant, 181 And the Story of One Who Didn't But Who Rose to World-Wide Fame as a Painter. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON BEVER you visit the United States Military Mili-tary academy be sure to ask that they take you to the classrooms where the cadets receive their Instruction In-struction In drawing, for a thrill awaits you there. Hung upon the walls of those classrooms Is a remarkable re-markable collection of pen sketches, water colors, crayon drawings and wash drawings. The subjects of these pictures may not Interest you very much but If you step closer to one of them to see who wa3 the artist who made It you will hare a surprise In store. For Instance, there Is the one which pictures a Greek warrior of the ancient days. Down In one corner of the picture is a barely decipherable decipher-able Elgnature "J. Davis." Perhaps this doesn't mean anything to you especially until you see a typewritten sheet Inserted In the other corner which reads ns follows: "This picture, drawn by Jefferson Davis while a cadet at the U. S. M. A. was presented to roe on August 13, 1924, by Sergeant Ser-geant Starr, retired, formerly of the service detachment, de-tachment, now on the police force of the State, War and Navy building at Washington. He Informed In-formed me that when the old academic building (the one that stood on the site of the present west academic building) was torn down that the drawing fell in the hands of some friend of his from whom he nfterwards obtained It and that .he, Douglas Newton Starr, made the frame from a part of a bannister railing of one of the staircases stair-cases In the old academic building, (signed) Fred W. Sladen, Major General, Superintendent" So more than a hundred years ago this Greek warrior's portrait came from the pencil of a slender slen-der young Kentucklan, appointed to the military mili-tary academy from Mississippi In 1824 and graduated grad-uated In 1S28, who had his first military experience expe-rience as a second lieutenant of infantry in the Llack Hawk war lu 1832 and who, as a colonel of Mississippi volunteers in the Mexican war, distinguished dis-tinguished himself at the battle of Buena VlBta by an exploit which was to have much to do with his future career. For Jefferson Davis's greatest great-est fame lies not in his career as a soldier but as a statesman, lie was successively a member of the United States house of representatives, United States senator and secretary of war. And later, in 1SC1, the Confederate congress, remembering remem-bering the hero of Uuena Vista and Davis's serv. Ices in the war portfolio in Tresident Franklin Tierce's cabinet, selected him for the position of president of the Confederate States of America. But the portrait of the Greek warrior made by Jefferson Davis is .not the only one made by a cadet destined for future fame. Near It is a scene in un Indian camp of the old days. In the foreground a chief squuts holding his gnyly decorated dec-orated pipe as he dickers with the white trader whose wares of blankets, knives and other trinkets trin-kets are spread enticingly before him. Standing to one side Is an Indian woman, papoose In arms, who seems much Interested in the bargaining." The artist who depicted this scene was Cadet U. O. Grant, a graduate from the academy In 1841. Perhaps most Americans know him as U. S, Grant, those initials standing both for Ulysses Simpson and "Unconditional Surrender" but when he was at West Tolnt he signed his name as U. IL Grant for Ulysses nirwn was the name which bis mother had given Vim. Close beside the drawing made by the future commander-in-chief of the Union forces In the Civil war is one made by a man who, next to V U I James A.MtN. Whistler ,1853 -'''P .y-y AU P,C,Ure" Courtey States Mill La 17 Academy. By Codet Jeffenson Davis Grant, was the greatest leader of the boys In blue. It 13 a classical subject, a Greek warrior slaying a centaur, and It is signed by Cadet William Will-iam Tecumseh Sherman, a graduate In the class of 1838. Not far away Is a painting of a different sort a water color picturing a riverside city, perhap an ancient walled town somewhere in Italy. It Is a palntlug of rare beauty and one which might well have come from the brush of a dreamy-eyed artist. Looking at Its soft coloring color-ing it is difficult to realize that the hand which held the brush that put this scene on canvas was the same hand which directed the movements of thousands of armed men on the bloody battlefield bat-tlefield of Gettysburg, those hot days of July 1, 2, and 3, 18G3. For this painting was made by Cadet George C. Meade of the class of '33, whose victory over the great Robert E. Lee, a fellow West Pointer, was still thirty years in the future. But these drawings by "artists who. became great generals" are not the only artistic treasures treas-ures which adorn the walls of this West Point classroom. There, too, are examples of work by one artist who never became even so much as n "shavetail" (lieutenant) but who did become be-come one of the greatest American artists of all time. Once upon a time James Abbott McNeil Whistler humorously remarked: "Ilad silicon been a noxious gas I would have been a general today." Back of this remark Is this history of a brief career at West Point. In 1S52 Whistler was appointed to West Point. He was there for two years. Then came the fatal day when he and his classmates were taking an examination in chemistry. Was silicon a noxious gas or wasn't it? That was one of the questions confronting the future generals. Young Whistler guessed that it was. And he guessed wrong. It is probable prob-able that It was only one of several mistakes which he made in the examination. At any rate, he was "found" that is, discharged from the academy for deficiency in chemistry. Today a "Whistler" Is one of the most prized possessions of public art gaHeries and-private collectors, and the United States Military academy acad-emy is the possessor of not only one but five genuine "Whistlers," and what makes them even more valuable Is the fact that they are "early Whistlers." They ore all copies of drawings and paintings which Whistler made from the work of recognized masters. One of them shows a group before the door of a medieval castle with the lord of the manor distributing alms to the poor. Even more interesting is another of his, showing two pretty Italian girls gossiping In a doorway. Although this was a copy, Whistler showed his Independent genius in an interesting way. In copying the original he changed one of the girl a from a brunette to a blonde so as to glvo variety to the picture and he painted in the shadowy figure of a young Boldler at the end of the street so as to give the girls something to gossip about Surprising as It may seem to some Americana that the great American painter was once a West Toint cadet It might not be so surprising perhaps per-haps If they knew of the military background of Whllstler's family. In 1758 there was born In Ireland of an old English family of Whistlers a boy to whom was given the name of Jolrn. During the American Revolution he ran away from home and Joined the army, coming to America with the troops under Burgoyne in 1777. He was thus one of the members of "Gentleman Johnny's" ill-fated ill-fated army which was captured by the Americans at Saratoga. Returning to England, Whistler was discharged from the army and soon afterwards eloped with the daughter of one of his father's friends. Believing that life In America offered greater opportunities for him, he brought bis bride to this country and settled at Hagerstown, Md. In 1791 he entered the American army and served continuously on the frontier of the old northwest under St. Claire, Wayne and others. In 1S03 the secretary of war ordered Colonel Haratramck of the First Infantry, commander at Detroit, to send an officer and six men to establish estab-lish a military post where the Chicago river flows into Lake Michigan. Colonel namtramck selected select-ed for this duty Capt. John Whistler and made him commander of the new post which was to be built there. Whistler arrived at the site of the present city of Chicago In August, 1S03, and began building the stockaded structure to which was given the name of Fort Dearborn, In honor of the secretary of war, Thus'he became the founder of the first permanent settlement on the site of the metropolis metrop-olis of the Middle West and to him historians have given the title of the "Father of Chicago." Whistler was accompanied to Chicago by his family. fam-ily. One of them was a daughter, Sarah, who on November 1, 1S04, married James Abbott, a Detroit merchant. The wedding which was performed by John KInzIe was the first marriage of white people peo-ple la Chicago. Another member of his family was a son, George Washington Whistler, then a toddling child three years old. When this boy grew up 'he was Bent to West Point and was graduated from the academy at the age of nineteen. nine-teen. He was assigned to the artillery branch 'of the service and after his resignation from the army In 1833 he rose to eminence as an engineer. A year after Whlstter's resignation from the army, a son was born to him at Lowell, Mass. To this son was given the name of James Abbott Ab-bott McNeil Whistler, and it was this boy who achieved in the realm of art an even greater reputation than had his father in engineering. Although the connection of Whistler, the artist, with the history of Fort Dearborn and Chicago is not commonly known, one historian has said: "The very names he bore served constantly to advertise it" The Abbott part of It was in honor of James Abbott, Chicago's first bridegroom and the McNeli was la honor of Lieut Col. John McNeil, Mc-Neil, commander of Fort Dearborn from 1821 to 1S23. "The artist himself never saw Chicago, but with the exception of West Point there was no other place in the United States In which he was more interested," writes M. M. Quaife in "Chicago and the Old Northwest." He regarded his grandfather as the founder of Chicago and more than once lamented his failure to vJ< flia place." |