Henry Ossian Flipper, the Colored Cadet at West Point: Autobiography of Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper, U.S.A., First Graduate of Color from the U.S. Military AcademyFlipper, Henry Ossian
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Henry Ossian Flipper, the Colored Cadet at West Point: Autobiography of Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper, U.S.A., First Graduate of Color from the U.S. Military Academy
Flipper, Henry Ossian
African American military cadets -- New York (State) -- West Point -- Biography; African American soldiers -- Biography; Flipper, Henry Ossian, 1856-1940; Military cadets -- United States -- Biography; Soldiers -- United States -- Biography; United States Military Academy
"To bone."--To study, to endeavor to do well in any
particular; for instance, to "bone demerits" is to
strive to get as few as possible.
"To bone popularity."--This alludes to a habit
practised, especially by, "yearlings" while in
camp, and is equivalent to our every-day expression
in civil life, viz., "to get in with."
"To bugle it."--To avoid a recitation. To avoid a
recitation is an act seldom done by any cadet. It
is in fact standing at the board during the whole
time of recitation without turning around, and thus
making known a readiness to recite. At the Academy
a bugle takes the place of the bell in civil schools.
When the bugle is blown those sections at recitation
are dismissed, and others come in. Now, if one faces
the board till the bugle blows, there is not then
enough time for him to recite, and he is said to have
"bugled it." Some instructors will call on any one who
shows a disposition to do so, and will require him to
tell what he knows about his subject.
"Busted," "broken."--These words apply only to cadet
officers who are reduced to ranks.
"A cold case."--A sure thing, a foregone conclusion.
To "get chevrons."--To receive an appointment in the
battalion organization. Each year, on the day the
graduates receive their diplomas, and just after--
possibly just before--they are relieved from further
duty at the Academy, the order fixing the appointments
for the next year is read, and those of the year
previous revoked. It has been customary to appoint the
officers, captains, and lieutenants from the first
class, the sergeants from the second, and the corporals
from the third. This custom has at times, and for
reasons, been departed from, and the officers chosen as
seemed best.
For any offence of a grave nature, any one who has
chevrons is liable to lose them, or, in other words,
to be reduced to ranks.
"A cit."--Any citizen.
"To crawl over."--To haze, generally in the severest
manner possible.
"A chapel."--An attendance at church.
"To curse out."--To reprimand, to reprove, and also
simply to interview. This expression does not by any
means imply the use of oaths.
"To cut," "To cut cold."--To avoid, to ostracize.
"Debauch."--Any ceremony or any thing unusual. It may
be a pleasant chat, a drill, or any thing that is out
of the usual routine.
"To drive a squad."--To march it.
"Dropped."--Not promoted.
"To eat up."--See "To crawl over."
"Exaggerations."--It is a habit of the cadets to
exaggerate on certain occasions, and especially
when policing. "A log of wood," "a saw-mill," "a
forest," and kindred expressions, are applied to
any fragment of wood of any description that may
be lying about. A feather is "a pillow;" a straw,
"a broom factory;" a pin, an "iron foundry;" a
cotton string, "a cotton factory;" and I have
known a "plebe" to be told to "get up that sugar
refinery," which "refinery" was a cube of sugar
crushed by some one treading upon it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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