Milton Cogswell, USMA 1849

 

 

There was drilled into my noddle at school, or rather schools, the usual amount of stereotyped pedagogic pabulum, including the preliminary classics and higher mathematics, belles-lettres, ethics, political economy, French, and the law courses, etc. Upon such an incongruous foundation it was mine to build the superstructure of an imperfect education, after closing the academic doors behind. That there were glorious opportunities neglected shall not be denied, but that there were shoals that were shunned can be truly claimed.

First-Lieutenants John M. Jones, David R. Jones, and Henry B. Clitz, were Assistant Instructors of Infantry Tactics, and teachers and gentlemen all. The first two died General Officers in the Confederate Army, and the last attained the like rank in the Federal, and, I trust, still survives, for all who recall him when he was in charge of one of the military departments of the South, in the early days of 'reconstruction,' speak of him in affectionate and loving terms, as one who never took advantage of his power and position to ill-use or maltreat those then at his mercy, and a beautiful epitaph it would be for this good soldier and worthy gentleman. All who were puffed up with a little brief authority in those dark days, which gave an insight into character and inward nature, were not always so considerate. What is said of Clitz applies with equal force to General Milton Cogswell, at the time referred to a Second-Lieutenant and Assistant Professor of Mathematics.  [Pp. 84-85 of Wharton Jackson Green (1831-1910), RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS: An Auto of Half a Century and More. Electronic Edition.  http://docsouth.unc.edu/green/green.html ]