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CAPTAIN HENRY V. PARTRIDGE.
Uniform of 1840.

armory was the centre front of the fourth passage. Roll calls were had in this second passage, the right resting on the north. The

rooms were practically alike; numerous chimneys provided each pair of adjoining rooms with fireplaces, or later, with opportunity for stoves, the space between the chimney, passage and outer wall being for closets, thus offering one unbroken side to each apartment. These rooms were all whitewashed with a tint known by the cadets as 'brindle.' There were no bedsteads, mattresses or carpets. A wooden bunk, three feet wide, with slat bottom, held the blankets and sheets

and between the centre window and that next to the south, were the cabalistic letters, scrawled in chalk but somehow always kept fresh, however often they were erased:

B. E. D.

&

E. M.

the first letter having originally been P, and then R, and finally, in our day, B. This was understood by the initiated to mean: 'Bourns (Partridge, Ransom) Expels Devils and Educates Men; although the cynics sometimes reversed the translation so as to provide for the education of devils and the expulsion of men. The cadet drill uniform was the claw hammer drill coat with three rows of cadet buttons, dark blue pants with twoinch black velvet stripe down the seam, 'bell muzzle,' high, blue cloth cap with gold band; for undress, the single-breasted frock, soft blue cap with velvet band and the letters N. U. in a gold wreath in front; white pants

were worn in summer, and the old flint lock, twelve-pound Springfield musket was used; the text-book was 'Scott's Infantry Tactics.''

The strictest order did not always reign at Norwich Plain, nor was it was always quiet on the Connecticut. From time immemorial, that is to say from the foundation of the university, a feud had raged between the cadets and the students at Dartmouth, across the river. Many raids and encounters had taken place, in regard to which tradition had much to say.

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A CAPTAIN OF CADETS, 1897.

and recumbent cadet, and was turned up against the wall before morning. inspection. Over the bunk was the gun rack, with wooden pegs, on which were suspended the musket and equipments. Over the front door,

The cadets were inferior in numbers to the classical antagonists, but they were filled with martial ardor and utterly unwilling to admit that the stylus is mightier than the sword.

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The prevailing opinion among them. seemed to be that Dartmouth must be destroyed. The discipline of the university prevented the attempt by any well-organized expedition to accomplish this favorite object, but it was not sufficient to restrain individual cadets from hostile incursions into the enemy's country. Bristling with daggers and revolvers, which they never had a serious thought of using, it is said that two or three together would cross the river at night, either by bridge or boat, and parade the streets of Hanover or penetrate even to "Tempe's pleasant

vale," with a marked disregard of the dangers they incurred. Frequently they succeeded in provoking hostilities, and then they displayed the gallantry which afterward distinguished them upon larger fields. When greatly outnumbered, as they usually were, they would fall back to the river with a celerity to which Xenophon's famous retreat furnishes no parallel. If they discov

ered that the bridge was disputed they took to boats, or if these were not to be found, a flank movement up or down the river to a fording place was executed in a masterly manner, and the barracks gained some time before reveille. The casualties were always few, but the fun and glory were considerable. On one of those quiet escapades a cadet returned to the barracks with his coat very much "ripped up the back." This was considered a sufficient

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CORNER IN THE CHEMICAL LABORATORY.

casus belli, and an encounter followed on the Dartmouth side of the Connecticut, which tradition calls "the battle of torn coats," wherein the cadets, although greatly outnumbered, gained a decisive victory.

For many years commencements were held in the old Congregational Church, but in 1853 difficulties between town and gown culminated. The faculty were of the Episcopal faith in an orthodox community, and the church was refused. In a delightful dell in the woods just back from the town a platform was erected, draped with flags, and flanked by the two shining cannon then just allotted the institution, and here a most pleasant commencement was

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rail to Winooski, just out of Burlington, marching up the hill, topping its crest to look down upon the city and beautiful Lake Champlain; forming around Ethan Allen's grave in the cemetery on the hill, and marching to quarters in town, the observed of all; the trip down the lake on the Francis Saltus, the occupancy of Ticonderoga, and our reception along the line, were things to evoke pleasant memories after the lapse of many

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COLONEL EDMUND RICE.

tinction in two great conflicts, drank in the first inspirations of war. A member of the class of '52 has recently remarked: "I believe, and the belief grows upon me, that no institution in New England at this time offered better opportunities for a complete education." The cadet roster of those

days contains many names which have since been written high up on the scroll of fame, seeming to bear out the truth of the above statement.

Conspicuous in this list is the name of Grenville M. Dodge, who, as commander of the Sixteenth Army Corps in the Civil War, was a most distinguished leader, brave, full of resources and persevering, of whom General Howard said: "No officer suited General Grant or General Sherman better than Dodge. His engineering knowledge made him doubly useful to General Sherman, particularly where so much bridge building across streams of every size was demanded. I doubt if any officer in the service during the campaign of Sherman could at all compete in usefulness with General Grenville M. Dodge." In the Spanish-American War General Dodge was urged to take a commission as major general with the command of the First Army Corps, which he was obliged to decline on account of the state of his health. He has since, however, made himself particularly useful as chair

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man of the Board of Investigation of the War Department. And there are other honored names: Charles C. Carpenter, who, as rear admiral, commanded the Asiatic squadron Asiatic squadron during the war between China and Japan; Thomas E. G. Ransom (son of General Truman B. Ransom, '25), whom General Grant called a "most gallant and intelligent volunteer officer, capable of commanding an army corps," and who met an untimely Ideath with these words: "Patriotism and inclination have led me to do all in my power for my country" (his brother, Dunbar R. Ransom, distinguished himself as colonel in several battles in the Civil War); George Dewey, who was commended for his "nerve" by Admiral Farragut in the Civil War, and whose fame has since become world-wide, from his heroic services at Manila Bay in the Spanish-American War; William H. Greenwood, who distinguished himself both as a soldier and as a civil engineer in the Civil War; Frederick W. Lander, who as brigadier general commanded on the upper Potomac, to the great satisfaction of General McClellan; James E. Ainsworth, the eminent civil engineer; George E. Bryant, gallant major general in the Civil War, and Wisconsin jurist; Henry O. Kent, colonel of the 17th New Hampshire Volunteers, lawyer and statesman; William H. Ensign, George Dewey's chum and special associate, captain and surgeon, United States Army; Charles H. Lewis, gallant colonel in the Civil War, and acting president of the university from 1880 to 1890; George P. Buell, brigadier general in the Civil War and the hero of many battlefields; Edward B. Williston, brigadier general in both the Civil and Spanish-American wars; Jedediah H. Baxter, surgeon general, United States Army; Arba N. Waterman, colonel in the Civil War, and judge Appellate Court, Illinois; Luther L. Baxter, colonel, and Minnesota judge; Edmund Rice, colonel,

United States Army, brave and gallant in the Civil War, on the frontier as an Indian fighter, and in the Spanish-American War, and who, General Miles has said, "had the best drilled regiment in the Army of the Potomac."

In the War of the Rebellion, Norwich University's record was most brilliant, its only rivals being the National Academies at West Point and Annapolis. A well-known government official has recently said: "Norwich University fully paid for her right to an honorable existence, in the production of the Ransoms and General Alonzo Jackman alone. But to these honored names are to be added over five hundred more, able and gallant officers, who fought for their country in the Mexican and Civil wars, and those names constitute the university's roll of honor. This list contains six major generals, eight brigadier generals, fifty colonels, seventy lieutenant colonels and majors, and one hundred and fifty captains (in the army), and three rear admirals, six commodores, three captains, and three commanders (in the naval service). Conspicuous in this list, aside from those already mentioned, are the names of the gallant General William S. Harney, '29; Major-General Thomas H. Seymour, '28, who succeeded General Ransom in command, and was first to enter the fortress of Chapultepec at the head of the "Gallant Old Ninth," in the Mexican War; the brave and energetic Major-General Robert H. Milroy, '43, who served with distinction in both the Mexican and Civil wars; Generals N. B. Gleason, '49. George. W. Balloch, '47, and scores of others, who bore most distinguished parts.

Admiral Dewey is the third Norwich cadet who has commanded a fleet in the Pacific. The first was Commodore Josiah Tatnall, '23, who aided the English in their encounter with the Chinese at Pei-Ho, and explained his action later by the famous saying, "Blood is thicker than water."

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