Could Major Thayer have only peered into the future he would have seen Fame, years later, crowning three of his raw young cadets. One of the lads at West Point under Major Thayer was Edgar Allan Poe, America’s foremost literary genius. He entered West Point July 1, 1830, but after a troublous stay of a little over eight months was dismissed for repeated misconduct. Not a great deal is known of his brief cadet days, but his classmates have stated that he was irritable and morose, and addicted to excessive drinking. He would steal out of barracks sometimes, long after taps, and “run it out” to “Old Benny Havens,” a tavern kept by Benny Havens on the banks of the Hudson about a mile below West Point. Benny Havens’ name is preserved in song and story at West Point, and tales that surrounded the cadet reunions in ye olden days at “Benny’s” are flavored with all the romance of a mythical legend. Old Benny died in 1877 at the ripe age of eighty-nine years, but his name survives in a stirring West Point song that I quote in part: Come fill your glasses, fellows, and stand up in a row, For singing sentimentally we are going for to go, In the Army there’s sobriety, promotion’s very slow, So we’ll sing our reminiscences of Benny Havens, Oh! * * * * * To our comrades who have fallen, one cup before we go; They poured their life-blood freely out _pro bono publico_. No marble points the stranger to where they rest below! They lie neglected far away from Benny Havens, Oh! * * * * * When you and I and Benny and all the others too, Are called before the “final Board,” our course of life to view, May we never “fess”[5] on any point, but straight be told to go And join the Army of the blest at Benny Havens, Oh! Poe, however, was only one of many who disobeyed the regulations, but he did not care for military life and made no effort to conceal his offenses. Finally he was tried by court-martial. For two weeks prior to his trial he neglected almost all of his studies as a cadet. Two of the specifications against him were for absences from parades and roll calls and two for disobedience of orders, but at the trial, he deliberately pleaded guilty to the latter and not guilty to the former, the most patent and obvious of his offenses. Whether or not he did this from a sense of humor, is not known, but his action was not calculated to help him in the eyes of his superiors. He was dismissed March 6, 1831. Four days later he wrote Major Thayer the following letter: _Letter of Edgar Allan Poe, Lately Cadet, U. S. M. A., to the Superintendent: 1831._ (_Original in the library U. S. M. A._) NEW YORK, Mar. 10, 1831. SIR: