After having said this I got courage to ask to be sent to the blackboard. My request was granted, and I had no trouble in writing answers to every question, or to solve any problem given me, but for the life of me I could not turn my back to the board and tell what I had put on it; but fortunately I could point to anything called for. The preliminary examinations the next year were written, and they have been written ever since, which is decidedly the best, as some of my class were so badly frightened that they did not know what they said, and some who failed were graduates of good schools, or had passed splendid competitive examinations for their appointments. In a few days the result of the examination was announced, and I was happy to write home that I was one of the lucky ones to enter West Point, and be a “new Cadet” instead of a “Candidate.” Those of us who were fortunate enough to pass were sent to the Commissary[15] for “plebe-skins,” that is, rubber overcoats, caps and white gloves, and we were measured for uniform, clothes and shoes, and for fear perhaps that we might get lazy another hour’s drill, from 11 a. m. to 12 m., was given us. From now on we wore caps and white gloves at all infantry drills. The new cadet whose name comes first in alphabetical order is the “class-marcher” whenever the class is called out by itself, and it is his duty to call the roll of the class and to report absentees. After our preliminary examination Baily became the class-marcher, and he marched us over to the Library, where we took the oath of allegiance.[16] We were now assigned to Companies, the tallest were put in A and D and the rest in B and C Companies, but the new cadets were still drilled by themselves in small squads, then in larger ones, and later on all in one squad as a company. W⸺r of my class wore a plug hat when he reported, and he was sorry for it many times. He was the left file of Mr. H⸺d’s squad. One day we were drilling on the Cavalry plain,[17] and there were many ladies and gentlemen watching the drill. We were marching in line at double time, and Mr. H⸺d gave the command, “By the right flank, march.” Three of us marched to the right, but Mr. W⸺r went off to the left all by himself. Everybody near laughed, even Mr. H⸺d suppressed a grin, and then scolded the new cadets for laughing in ranks. Mr. W⸺r chewed tobacco, and this, too, caused him many unhappy moments, but after having been repeatedly reprimanded for chewing tobacco and told to spit it out he quit the practice in ranks.