Women of West Point

A virtual tour of the United States Military Academy

Cadets march on The Plain, October, 2020

This virtual tour is a collaboration between the West Point Department of History and the Theater Arts Guild. It chronicles West Point’s history through the stories of women who have shaped the academy and the US Army.


Women of West Point Introduction

Introduction Captions

Hello, I am Major Justine Meberg. Welcome to our Women of West Point virtual tour. This project began as a way to remember the August 2020 centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment. Because of that, you will notice that each video begins by introducing the amendment’s complex legacy.

In this tour, you will meet some of the women who shaped West Point over its first two centuries. When we talk about women at West Point, we often start the conversation in 1976, when the first women entered the academy as cadets. Yet women have shaped West Point since its earliest days.

Each video pairs a historical figure, or a small group of figures, with a physical location. The women whose legacies we honor on this tour include heroines of the American Revolution, members of the Hamilton family, successful authors, wealthy landowners, working women, and surrogate families to cadets. Taken together, they demonstrate that women’s history at the United States Military Academy has a long, complicated, and compelling lineage.

As a West Point woman and a historian, this project has been an enduring source of inspiration. The more I learned, the more I felt that the past seemed suddenly to be so much richer, and more recognizable. 

As a history instructor, it was equally wonderful to see so many cadets from the Theater Arts Guild enthusiastically volunteer their time to bring it to life. I thank each of them. And, I hope that you enjoy the tour.


1

Buffalo Soldier Families and the Buffalo Soldier Monument

CC: At this stop, we will talk about the enduring legacy of the Black women who served alongside Buffalo Soldiers who worked at West Point. In 1907, West Point received a detachment from the 9th Cavalry—one of the all-Black “Buffalo Soldier” units—to instruct cadets in horsemanship. Black soldiers also served in medical and mess units at West Point throughout this period. Archives have long ignored the experiences of Black enlisted men and their families, but for more on West Point’s Buffalo Soldiers, you can watch oral histories given by former Buffalo Soldiers and their family members online at the West Point Center for Oral History’s website.

The same Military Peace Establishment Act of 1802 that created the military academy also formalized the positions of army laundresses, who had performed important labor for the army since its earliest days in the Revolutionary War. Laundresses worked in every part of the army, including Buffalo Soldiers. When the question of whether to keep or abolish laundresses came up in 1876, one General argued that laundresses were a positive influence and that black regiments should have double the rest of the army’s quota of laundresses because, as he said, black soldiers were especially “domestic in their attachments and miss the society of their women.”

Like many Black Americans after the Civil War, formerly enslaved Black soldiers treasured their newfound freedom to live as families, without the threat of sale. It is also unsurprising that the dangers of Jim Crow America would impel Black soldiers to want to keep their families close by.

Laundresses were often the wives of non-commissioned officers and thus served as pillars of the community, especially for enlisted men and their families. Yet Buffalo Soldiers arrived at West Point just a few years after army laundresses disappeared and the Quartermaster Corps began operating post laundries. Although laundresses were no more, the long legacy of wives working alongside their enlisted husbands continued.

The Buffalo Soldiers at West Point quickly established an excellent reputation. Before their arrival, the all-white cavalry detachment had been known as the worst unit at the post. After the 9th Cavalry arrived, the detachment became one of the best.

Unlike most other posts in the Army, West Point allowed enlisted soldiers to marry without any prohibition, and Buffalo Soldiers joined this pro-family environment when they arrived at the academy. West Point provided family lodging for Black troopers and encouraged married life. Wives helped advance the detachment’s reputation through their work in the community, including popular monthly dances. In part because West Point offered black soldiers a family environment and a chance to serve in a well-run unit, the detachment quickly developed a waiting list of men who sought to join it.

Yet they faced other forms of racism. Notably, Black soldiers could not enter the central post area or the officers’ housing areas, and if they did, military police stopped and questioned them. This humiliating policy forced Black men and women to travel circuitous routes to follow the rules. Ironically, given the family-friendly environment that attracted top recruits, this meant that Black soldiers stationed at West Point could not show their families around post. They could not give proud parents a tour of West Point’s many monuments and vistas. Instead, visiting families often came here, to what we now call Buffalo Soldier’s field, where the cavalry barracks housed single soldiers.

In 1907, many decades before American schools attempted desegregation, West Point opened the first Congressionally funded school on an Army post. Children of black soldiers attended it alongside children of white soldiers. Black soldiers initially lived in new, modern cavalry barracks, and unit-specific housing areas.

But by the 1930s, as lynching and other forms of violent white supremacy flourished throughout the country, at the military academy, Black soldiers and their families lived in homes spread throughout the enlisted housing area, regardless of race. They also had the same access to health care as other enlisted men.

The cavalry detachment’s experiences reflected both the unique opportunities and persistent challenges of Black service at West Point. Despite discrimination, the detachment—both soldiers and families—continued to serve with distinction until its deactivation in 1947. So today, in front of the Buffalo Soldier Memorial, we remember the men and women of the 9th Cavalry Detachment at West Point, and we recognize their enduring legacy. 

2

Isabella Flipper and Davis Barracks

CC: We are here to talk about Isabella Flipper’s West Point legacy. Born into slavery, Isabella would eventually serve the Union army, contribute to slavery’s destruction in the United States, and see five sons grow up into free men with successful careers. The eldest of those, Henry O. Flipper, would become the first Black West Point graduate.

Isabella and her husband, Festus Flipper, were enslaved in Georgia when Henry was born. Both were skilled workers, and Festus worked as a shoemaker and carriage repairman. He used these skills to earn an income in the free time he was allowed by his enslaver. Eventually, he earned enough money to lend his enslaver the money to buy Isabella and their children, so that the family could live together in Atlanta.

Following General Sherman’s capture of Atlanta in 1864, the Flipper family claimed their freedom and moved into a home on Decatur Street. Festus repaired boots and shoes for Union soldiers, and Isabella, a talented cook, opened a restaurant that fed Union soldiers. Isabella used her growing financial power to hire an impoverished white woman, the widow of a Confederate Captain, to educate her sons.

In 1867, white terrorists severely beat her husband and many others in the black settlements of Atlanta. Isabella and her family refused to be terrorized, and just a few years later, she sent her two oldest boys to a college established by New England missionaries that would soon become Atlanta University. One son graduated from Atlanta University and went on to become the director of a Black-owned bank, president of Morris Brown College, and a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Another son became a professor at Savannah State College. Another became a doctor. Another took over his father’s business as a bootmaker in Savannah. Henry chose a different path and transferred from Atlanta University to West Point in 1873.

Henry arrived with several gifts from Isabella, whom in his autobiography he gave the credit for raising him well. In addition to the education she had given him, she also gave him his genteel manners, his refusal to drink or smoke, his commitment to education, and his abiding sense of dignity. His legendary coolness in the face of constant, racially charged insults was a testament to her, and he kept it up for four lonely years spent away from his family. He later wrote that he badly missed the, quote, “caressing hand of a loving mother” and recalled that he had never been away from his mother or father for more than, quote, “ten consecutive hours in my life until I went to West Point.”

We are here in front of Davis barracks. After the Civil War, West Point opened a door, just barely, to Black cadets. But the post-war efforts to educate freedpeople that had helped Isabella’s sons rise to prominence, and brought Henry to West Point, soon faded, giving way to the same racial discrimination that entrenched Jim Crow laws across the country. Henry Flipper graduated in 1877. After him, John Hanks Alexander graduated in 1887, followed closely by Charles Young in 1889. The fourth Black officer graduated 47 years later. That officer was Benjamin O. Davis Junior, Class of 1936.

By 1936, Isabella had long since passed and been buried in Georgia by her loving family. But Henry lived to read about Davis’s graduation. When Henry died a few years later, he was buried with Isabella in the family plot. Her grave is marked by an obelisk that stands proudly among her family’s flat tombstones. It is a testament to the deep love of a family that sought to memorialize and elevate its matriarch.

Behind Isabella’s grave is a recently installed historical marker that recognizes Henry as the first Black graduate of West Point. He remains best known for that historical first, and for his unfair expulsion from the army after five years as an officer. Despite that injustice, he went on to an impressive career as a surveyor, mapmaker, and civil and mining engineer. His accomplishments, and abiding faith in his abilities, made him a renowned figure in the American Southwest. Moreover, these attributes marked him as one of Isabella’s sons.

So today, we remember Isabella Flipper’s remarkable life and legacy and honor her enduring place in West Point history.

3

Elizabeth Hamilton Halleck Cullum and Cullum Hall

CC: Here, we will consider how the life and legacy of Elizabeth Hamilton Halleck Cullum shaped West Point. I would like to introduce you to West Point’s piece of Hamilton history. Cullum hall is named after George Washington Cullum, a Civil War general, Superintendent of West Point, and prominent figure in the early Association of Graduates. The $250,000 bequest to establish Cullum Hall—a true fortune in the 1890’s—came from his estate after he died. But Cullum inherited his fortune from his wife, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was born Elizabeth Hamilton, the granddaughter of Elizabeth Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton. Through her brother, she met Henry Halleck, his West Point roommate. Henry Halleck has a unique connection to TAG because our club began as the Dialectic Society, and Halleck (Class of 1839) was its co-chair as a cadet. Henry and Elizabeth married in 1855, a few years after he left the army to make his fortune in San Francisco. Following the wedding, Elizabeth made the difficult sea journey with her new husband from New York City to San Francisco, where the adventurous young equestrian and life-long New Yorker became a pillar of Californian society.

Henry Halleck rejoined the army as the Civil War began. And so, Elizabeth and her young son moved back in with her family in New York. Henry became President Lincoln’s Chief of Staff and worked closely with his lifelong friend, George Cullum.

When Henry died in 1872, a widowed Elizabeth deftly managed the family fortune. In a legacy that would have made her grandmother Eliza Hamilton proud, she used this immense sum to provide generous financial support to her extended family; help found the New York Cancer Hospital; and serve as Vice President of the Woman’s Hospital, among other charitable contributions.

Her friendship with George Cullum matured into love. They married in 1875 and commemorated Henry’s memory by commissioning a bust of him in Italy. Elizabeth Cullum’s fortune grew through tragedy when her only son died at 27, leaving her his estate. She outlived him by only two years, dying of cancer. George Cullum was left alone, a wealthy widower. Cullum set aside money to regularly update his register of West Point graduates; and to build and maintain Cullum Hall, designed to commemorate distinguished academy graduates. Cullum ensured that Henry Halleck, his best friend, would be one of the graduates remembered in his new building.

When Cullum died, he was buried with Elizabeth and Henry in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. At rest after a remarkable life, Elizabeth’s grave is a simple cross, with Henry Halleck on her left, and George Cullum on her right.

So today, we remember Elizabeth Hamilton Halleck Cullum and hope that you have the chance to enjoy Elizabeth’s Cullum Hall.

4

Deborah Sampson and The Plain

CC: Now, we will talk about Deborah Sampson and her time as a Light Infantryman at West Point. Deborah Sampson enlisted in the Continental Army on May 20th, 1782 under the male pseudonym “Robert Shurtleff.” She soon arrived at West Point, where officers of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment chose her for their Light Infantry Company. The Light Infantry was an elite group of men who were carefully chosen for their, quote, “endurance, agility, and initiative.” During an attack, the Light Infantry served as skirmishers who would be the first soldiers to make enemy contact. They were also sometimes called “rangers” and “scouts.” Revolutionary soldier Joseph Plump Martin described Light Infantry duty as “the hardest, while in the field, of any in the army.”

Deborah was athletic, and at over 5 feet 7 inches she was taller than most men, which made her a good candidate for a light infantry company. Like nearly all colonial women, she was used to hard manual labor and was able to meet the requirements of her job. She could march double-time for ten miles a day with a large pack, she could wield a musket and bayonet, and she was willing to go on dangerous missions. Her officers and non-commissioned officers found her to be an alert, capable, and vigilant soldier who faithfully did her duty. She used these skills in various small-scale fights that were part of the violent and continuous partisan fighting in Westchester County throughout the war. During two of these engagements, one of which took place nearby at Tarrytown, she was wounded, and a shot from one of her wounds remained in her body for the rest of her life.

The war ended in the spring of 1783, but in June George Washington sent 1,500 troops, including Deborah, from West Point to Philadelphia to suppress a mutiny. The mutiny did not materialize, but while in Philadelphia, Deborah fell ill. Later in life, she described the quote “death-like doors of the hospital” where she saw many others dying as measles and smallpox raged through the city. The Doctor attending her discovered that she was a woman and brought her to stay with his family while she recovered. When General Paterson was told that his excellent soldier, Robert Shurtleff, was a woman, he exclaimed “Can it be so!”

Unlike other women who posed as men to fight in the Revolution, when Deborah’s true identity was revealed, she was celebrated rather than punished. She earned acclaim as a “faithful and good soldier” who behaved with propriety and did not drink or swear. Her officers offered her their “applause and admiration.” It was strong praise in an army where officers often thought little of enlisted men.

After a year and half of service, numerous engagements with the enemy, and two war wounds, Deborah was honorably discharged at West Point in October of 1783. Today, we are on West Point’s historic Plain. Thousands of soldiers drilling on the plain, over hundreds of years, helped shape the earth into the perfect parade ground you see behind me. Today, we honor Deborah Sampson, who was one of those many soldiers, and we remember her service to her nation, and to West Point.

5

Mary MacArthur and the Cadet Fine Arts Forum

CC: At this stop, we will get to know Mary MacArthur and talk about her time at West Point. Mary came from a slave-owning family of Old Virginia who later became cotton merchants. Her brothers served in the Confederate Army when she was a girl. Presumably, the family enslaved many people over the years, yet she married an army officer who had fought for the Union, and they had three sons. The middle child died during the family’s arduous and extended frontier service with the army in the 1880s. The oldest, Arthur, and the youngest, Douglas MacArthur, survived. Mary continued to make difficult treks with her husband and son across the frontier posts of the American Southwest. Eventually, the family relocated, first to Washington DC, and later to other posts all around the country.

While Arthur went to the Naval Academy—Beat Navy—Douglas wanted to go to West Point. The night before he attended a competition for an appointment to West Point, Douglas felt anxious, sleepless, and nauseous. He later wrote that only Mary’s “cool words” brought him around. She told him, quote, “Doug, you’ll win if you won’t lose your nerve. You must believe in yourself, my son, or no one else will believe in you. Be self-confident, self-reliant, and even if you don’t make it, you will know you have done your best. Now, go to it.” He calmed down, continued preparing, and won the competition, earning him a cadet appointment. He arrived at the academy in June of 1899.

Mary came to West Point with him and stayed at the West Point Hotel. The brick building behind us once served as its laundry facility and quarters for the army laundresses of the post. While there, Douglas was called to testify to hazing practices at West Point during a Congressional investigation. He refused to consider himself a victim of hazing, and he claimed in his memoirs that he refused to name the upperclassmen involved, writing that his mother had taught him, quote, “two immutable principles, never to lie, never to tattle.”

At this difficult moment, Mary wrote him a poem and sent it to him during a recess of the court, to help him take courage. The poem read:

Do you know that your soul is of my soul such a part/ That you seem to be fiber and core of my heart?

She concluded by asking him to make her proud, writing:

Be this then your task, if task it shall be/ To force this proud world to do homage to me/ Be sure it will say, when its verdict you’ve won/ She reaps as she sowed: “This man is her son!”

Douglas claimed later in life that after reading Mary’s poem, he resolved that he would not name names even if it meant his dismissal from West Point for refusing an order. Recent scholarship indicates that Douglas did, in fact, disclose the names of other cadets involved. While this concern with, quote, “tattling” might seem outdated to us, the anecdote says much about the relationship between mother and son. For Douglas, Mary was always a source of motivation and inspiration; someone he both feared and admired. Simply put, he wanted her to be proud of him. For her part, Mary probably felt that as a woman in the year 1900 she could only create real change in the world through her son. Thus, she lived in the Thayer Hotel for about half of Douglas’s time as a cadet.

She later made a triumphant return to West Point when Douglas became Superintendent in 1919. Mary returned, not to the hotel that she remembered, but to the storied Quarters 100. One Sunday afternoon, Superintendent Douglas MacArthur struck up a conversation with a group of cadets holding ice cream cones, who were walking by on a warm Sunday afternoon. Mary shouted down from a window, “Douglas! You must stop talking to those boys and let them go. Don’t you see that their ice cream is beginning to melt?” Perhaps she was remembering that earlier time, when she was the mother of a cadet, rather than the mother of a senior officer. 

Mary continued to serve her country, through her influential military family, for the rest of her life. So today, we remember Mary MacArthur and her unique place in West Point history. 

6

Margaret Corbin and the Corbin Monument

CC: At this stop, we will talk about Margaret Corbin. We are here in the West Point Cemetery in front of a monument dedicated to her legacy. Margaret served as a camp follower in the Revolutionary War. Camp followers—who were usually poor—performed important military labor like laundry, cooking, sewing, and nursing.

Like Margaret, many camp followers served alongside husbands who had enlisted to fight. Margaret’s husband John was an artilleryman. In November of 1776, the Continental Army had suffered defeats at the Battles of Long Island and White Plains. Several artillery batteries remained in possession of Fort Washington, on the northern tip of Manhattan, and continued to fight.

On November 16th, the British attacked. John took up his position as an assistant gunner, with Margaret beside him. When British fire killed the gunner, John took over the cannon and Margaret stepped in as assistant gunner. When British fire killed John, Margaret took over the cannon and continued loading and firing it alone.

Grapeshot from a British cannon struck her shoulder, chest, and jaw, and she collapsed. Soldiers rushed her off the front lines and placed her in the care of other camp followers, who tended her wounds as the battle raged on.

After the Battle of Fort Washington, the British paroled wounded soldiers, including Margaret, who permanently lost the use of her left arm because of her wounds. She made her way to the invalid regiment at West Point, where Congress granted her a veteran’s pension in recognition of her service and sacrifice. She drew rations and clothing from West Point and lived out her life in the village of Highland Falls.

Margaret remained a poor woman, known for swearing and drinking, much like the other Continental soldiers who fought and won the Revolution. Yet her rough manners and fighting spirit were often ignored in the decades after the Revolution. As Americans began to memorialize heroes and heroines of the war, they rarely honored real, complex women like Margaret.

Yet Margaret’s day would come. In 1926, the Daughters of the American Revolution in New York State erected this monument on West Point, where she lived most of her life and where she died. And today, many West Pointers—female and male—have participated in the academy’s Corbin Forum, which offers programming that deals with issues of gender and military service.

So today, we remember Margaret Corbin as she was: a brave woman who lived a hard life, like many other Revolutionary camp followers, and who gave much in the service of her country.

7

The Thompson Women, Souverine, and the West Point Cemetery

Here, we will get to know the Thompson women, who were important figures in the lives of generations of cadets. Amelia Thompson was the widow of Captain Alexander Thompson, who served during the Revolutionary War and continued his service as an officer until he died in 1809. Amelia grieved his loss while also securing her future as a widow. As a middle-class woman, she knew she could earn a living by taking boarders into her home. As an officer’s widow, she knew she could make a valid claim to the army’s support. So, she requested and received permission to operate a boarding house on West Point. Her daughter and namesake Amelia, who was a teenager when her father died, helped Mrs. Thompson to run the house.

Amelia also hired a woman of color to run the Thompson dining room. Souverine was originally from Haiti and spoke French to cadets. Cadets at the time described her as the “Maitresse d’Hotel.” From this position of responsibility, she provided the meals, and the more casual experiences, that cadets cherished. The original boarding house stood was at the site of today’s Firstie Club. One cadet wrote that after he missed dinner and wandered into the Thompson dining room, Souverine generously fed him a, quote, “abundant supper.” She had a great sense of humor and engaged cadets in lively, witty conversation as she provided their food.

About a dozen cadets at a time had permission from the academy to eat at Mrs. Thompson’s boarding house. Cadets chosen for this privilege relished the home-like and relaxed atmosphere and the escape from mess hall food. A seat at Souverine’s table became such a highly prized honor that each graduating cadet passed on his seat to his chosen successor.

Meanwhile, Amelia’s son, named Alex after his father, upheld his mother’s West Point legacy by graduating from West Point in 1812. He soon wed Mary Nexsen. Amelia’s daughter upheld her mother’s West Point legacy in another way. When her mother died, Amelia Junior took over the Thompson boarding house and continued the family tradition of earning a living by offering a domestic environment, and meals, to select cadets.

Mary Thompson’s West Point story began in tragedy, with the death of her husband Alex during the Second Seminole War. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Ramsey Thompson died on Christmas Day, 1837, while fighting at the front of his regiment, during the Battle of Okeechobee in Florida. Thompson had already been shot twice by Seminole fire and had continued to advance with his soldiers. After he was mortally wounded by a third shot, he propped himself against a nearby tree, still facing the enemy, and shouted his last words to his soldiers: “Keep steady men. Charge the hammock. Remember the regiment to which you belong!”

News of this misfortune prompted Mary to memorialize her husband. She worked tirelessly with West Point, and with officers in the Sixth Infantry, and eventually secured a monument to his memory, which you can see behind me, here in the West Point cemetery. It includes the inscription, quote, “This monument is the joint tribute of his affectionate widow and admiring regiment.”

Mary maintained a strong interest in the army and followed their progress when a few years later the United States invaded Mexico and began the Mexican War. As the war raged, she wrote a poem to commemorate the officers and enlisted men who died at the Battle of Monterrey. It began with the following verse:

Softly swells the bugle’s note/ Low rolls the muffled drum/ Measured and slow the heavy tread/ That bears them to their home/ The battle’s din has ceased/ Proud victory’s shout is hushed But sorrow mingles in that joy/ For many a hope is crushed.

She must have been thinking about her husband’s death on another faraway battlefield. Where Amelia followed in her mother’s footsteps to run the Thompson boarding house, Mary followed in her mother-in-law’s footsteps when she became an officer’s widow. The Thompson family is buried in the West Point Cemetery. We do not know Souverine’s final resting place, or even her last name.

Souverine and the Thompson women demonstrate the varied, complex, and important ways that women physically and culturally shaped West Point. So today, we remember Amelia Thompson Senior, Souverine, Amelia Thompson Junior, and Mary Thompson, whose unique set of legacies shaped West Point and the lives of generations of cadets. 

8

The Warner Sisters and Constitution Island

CC: Let’s get to know Susan and Anna Warner, who shaped West Point and the lives of cadets for generations leading up to the 19th Amendment. The Warner family moved into the house on Constitution Island that you can see in the distance behind me in the 1830s. Susan and Anna became popular writers who sold millions of copies of their books and hymns. The most famous of these today are the hymn “Jesus Loves Me” and the novel The Wide, Wide World. The sisters used their success to benefit cadets, whom they regularly invited to the island for food, religious study, and relaxation.

Susan and Anna continued to provide instruction and recreation for cadets for decades to come. Susan died in 1885 and was buried in the West Point Cemetery. In 1908, Anna and the new owner of the island, Mrs. Sage, presented Constitution Island as a gift to the US government in a letter to President Theodore Roosevelt, under the stipulation that, quote, “the island be for the use forever of the United States Military Academy at West Point.”

Roosevelt accepted, and thanked them, quote, “most heartily” for their patriotic act. Upon Anna’s death, she was buried next to Sarah in the West Point Cemetery. In life, they had tended to the bodies and souls of cadets, and in death, they shared the company of those they had served. So today, we remember the lifelong service of Sarah and Anna Warner, who had a lasting impact on both the memories of West Point graduates and the military installation of West Point.


External Media

United States Military Academy, Department of History

For questions or comments about this Story Map, please contact Mr. Jeffrey Goldberg (jeffrey.goldberg@westpoint.edu).

Editor

MAJ Justine Meberg

Cartographer

Jeffrey Goldberg