Rue de la Paix

In honor of Father's Day tomorrow, this week's collage features Rhett and his darling little girl Bonnie. Happy Father's Day to all our readers!

London Bridge by carol@themovies featuring ballet flat shoes

All Things Military: Mr. Butler's West Point Education

We all know that, before embarking on his subsequent careers as rogue, gambler, blockade runner and - did I leave something out? - oh yes, Confederate soldier and devoted husband, Rhett Butler started out as a West Point cadet. And though he managed to get himself kicked out of the prestigious Academy (for drunkenness and "something involving women" nonetheless), we thought it would still be worthwhile to take a look at his time as a West Pointer. So here we are, ready and eager to explore what daily life would have been like for a 19th century cadet!

The Academy

By way of introduction, we'll start with a few words on the institution itself. The United States Military Academy was founded in 1802, but plans for such an establishment go back to the War of Independence, when the need for having a facility to train professional military officers first became obvious. The concept of a military academy, however, was seen as too elitist and too European by the newly-emancipated and always-democratic Americans.

Finally, after a few false starts, the Academy was formally established in 1802, as a national university with a focus on science and engineering. Its first years were a little uncertain, but after 1817, when Sylvanus Thayer became superintendent, the Academy, now consolidated and boasting of a reformed curriculum and stricter code of conduct, became the nation's leading civil engineering school.

View of West Point, United States Military Academy in the 19th century (1857)

Since it was designed to be an institution for all of America, the West Point Academy strove to maintain a mixed student body, with cadets ranging from aristocrats to farmers' son, and with at least one cadet from each of the congressional districts of the United States (the latter point having been established by law in 1843).  The entrance age varied a lot in the earlier years, with incoming cadets ranging from 14 to 20, to then center around the interval from 14 to 16.

Loosely speaking, Rhett could have attended the Academy somewhere between 1842 (when he was 14) and 1848 (when he was 20 and back in Charleston, raising trouble and getting thrown out by his father). He most probably attended it in the second half of this interval.

Getting In

The admission process to the Academy was not an easy one. First came the "bureaucratic" part. In order to be admitted to West Point, a young man had to be nominated by a member of the Congress. Enter anxious families writing letters and exerting their influence to secure the precious nomination. The level of exertion varied of course according to the family's social and economical situation. For a rich and well-connected family like Rhett's, this step wouldn't have posed any problems. Poorer families, on the contrary, went to great lengths to obtain nominations for their sons, all the more so since such an endorsement would not only give their offspring a rare chance to move up into the world, but it would also do so without considerable damage to the family's finances. A West Point education was free!

Once nominated, the young man aspiring to the honor of becoming a West Point cadet still had some hurdles to pass. Even though the admission requirements were kept to a minimum throughout the 19th century to ensure fair chances of getting in for those from a rural background, they still included basic knowledge of mathematics and passing a vision test that required candidates to tell whether a dime held up 14 paces away was showing head or tails. 

Studies, Exams and Daily Life

So, once in, what was our fictional cadet, Rhett Butler, supposed to learn at the Academy? The study program held two components considered complementary - and equally important - for a young man's education in the 19th century: military subjects and discipline, on one hand, and academic subjects, on the other.

When it came to the academic subjects, the first two years focused almost entirely on mathematics in the mornings and French in the afternoon. (The emphasis on French can be partly explained by the fact that the French were thought to have the leading textbooks in mathematics, engineering and military sciences.  The cadets needed to know French in order to be able to read their manuals.) After that, engineering and related subjects (mineralogy, geology) formed the core of the curriculum, along with drawing, that was an essential skill for both engineers and soldiers (think of the importance of drawing maps in battles).

You can see the daily schedule of the West Point cadets including all the classes they took in the table below. This schedule applied to all days with the exception of Sundays. Keep in mind the fact that the First Class is the final year, the class about to graduate, while the Fourth Class is the first year, the class of the junior cadets.

Employment of Time During the Day, at the United States Military Academy. The Regulations of the United

States Military Academy, 1839.

As you can glimpse from the above, the course of study was rather strict and demanding, accounting for a typically high degree of failure (sometimes even up to half of the class!) during the first two years. After the first two years, most people tended to fail because of scandals involving women and drinking. Cadets had no control over their schedule and little free time, with basically every minute from reveille to lights out mapped out for them.

But if you thought their life was surely uncomfortable enough... enter the examinations. At West Point, cadets were graded in every subject every day! The daily examinations (or "recitations") were conducted by a teacher and several instructors, who could be either recent graduates or gifted students from the senior years. According to their daily grades, the cadets were placed into sections suitable to their abilities (the first section having the top students, the next one the mediocre ones and so forth). Each section worked at a different pace and sometimes even after different textbooks. These sections were re-evaluated on a weekly or monthly basis. On top of the daily examinations, cadets were supposed to pass general exams in June and December.

You can see probably see now how West Point life would have put quite a strain on your average cadet. And what's a young man to do, faced with all these restrictions and the stress of perpetual examinations? Why, misbehave, of course!

Misdemeanors and Demerits

Cadets were not only ranked according to their grades, but also according to their conduct.  The slightest misdemeanor, from not folding one's bedding to sitting down on post, could earn one up to ten demerits. 200 of these black marks meant expulsion from the Academy. (Now, if sitting down on post earns one 8 demerits, anyone cares to place bets on how much "something involving women" was worth?) 

The demerits of the cadets from all the years (classes) were written down in a conduct roll, which was public information. And of course, the individual sheets of demerits were kept, since they affected the student's ranking. We know, for example, that Robert E. Lee managed to finish West Point with no demerits at all.

So that was our insight into life at West Point. And we have to say, after reading all this, we can sort of see how and why a rebellious young man like Rhett would manage to get expelled from the Academy, can't you?

Poster of the Week

This beautifully illustrated advertisement hails from 1940 and juxtaposes Rhett carrying Scarlett up the stairs against the duo's earlier escape out of Atlanta. In fact, one could say that here Rhett is merely attempting to save Scarlett from two of her greatest threats: Yankees and her fixation on Ashley Wilkes.

Image from movieart.net.

Gone with the Wind: In Word Clouds

Here's a silly little something that we put together and thought you might enjoy: Gone with the Wind as depicted in word clouds. We've broken the novel down in five charts, each one corresponding to five formal parts of MM's novel and representing the most frequently used words in that section of the book. Check it out: 

Part One 

(Beginning of novel through Scarlett's move to Atlanta)

Part Two

(The early Atlanta war years through spring 1864)

Part Three

(The Atlanta campaign and siege through Ashley's return to Tara)

Part Four 

(The Kennedy era through Scarlett's wedding to Rhett)

Part Five 

(Rhett and Scarlett's honeymoon through the end of the book)

So what do you think? To me at least, it's both very cool and sad to the the progression away from "Scarlett, Scarlett, Scarlett, Scarlett" as the most prominent words in the first four parts, to "Scarlett" and "Rhett" as words of equal prominence in the last part. A visual reminder that our heroine did eventually catch on, but much too late...

The Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House: The Inspiration for Fayetteville Female Academy

Last week we looked at what life might have been like for Scarlett at the fictional Fayetteville Female Academy, and now we're pleased to explore the real life inspiration behind Miss O'Hara's school. As many of you may already know, Margaret Mitchell based her heroine's alma mater on the real Fayetteville Academy. Located in the Georgia town of the same name, Fayetteville Academy was actually a coed institution, one that was attended by Mitchell's grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald. The Academy was housed in antebellum mansion, which today is known as the Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House Museum. (If the Holliday name sounds familiar to you, you aren't imagining things--the house was built in 1855 by John Stiles Holliday, uncle to the infamous "Doc" Holliday, whose connection to GWTW you can find here.)

To get the inside story on Fayetteville Academy, we reached out to John Lynch, City Historian for Fayetteville, Georgia and curator of the Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House Museum, who was kind enough to email us about the Academy's history and its relationship to MM, which we've excerpted for you:

"The academy was built and organized around the mid 1850's and was very popular with the surrounding planters and well-to-do people (which were not the majority).  They sent their children here due in part because of the reputation of the founding professors - George C., Morgan, and M.V. Looney (brothers). There really was no female academy although one was proposed in the 1840's and never came to be.  So the 1850's academy was coed.  Dr. John Stiles Holliday was one of the founding trustees of the academy and after building his home (present HDF Museum), he allowed some students and faculty to board in the house. One of the boarders was (at times) Miss Annie Fitzgerald (the grandmother of Margaret Mitchell).  To say the least the academy was the premier place in the county for educating young people.  Most of the other schools were one-room affairs that belonged to planters or wealthy farmers who built them for the use of their own children and surrounding neighbors' children.  We do have some information on a few of these.  Fayette County was not a very wealthy county as counties go in those days, although there were a few families of moderate wealth.  Most of the time these families tended to marry into each other...

"I should say that as far as local legends go there are numerous stories about M.M. and the people that lived around here.  Every family seems to have a story or connection to M.M. I would gather to say that about 90% of them or erroneous or greatly exaggerated.  However, Margaret Mitchell was very fond of Fayetteville and spent a lot of time here while helping the local woman's club in organizing the library. One of those ladies was Mrs. R.E.L. Fife (last owners of the HDF House).  She and her husband entertained M.M. at the home in 1937 at which time the young M.M. said the house "would make a good shot in the new movie GWTW.""

 --John Lynch, City of Fayetteville Historian and Curator of the Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House 

We agree with MM that the Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House would have made a good shot in GWTW. In fact, we blinked a few times upon seeing it ourselves, as it does remind us somewhat of Tara in the movie. Isn't it interesting to see how real life compares against reel life?

    The Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House. Image from fayetteville-ga.gov.                   Tara from Gone with the Wind. Image from fanpop.com.

 

Rue de la Paix

This week, we've got "His & Hers" collages, one featuring the dashing Clark Gable and the other the enchanting Vivien Leigh. How glamorous they were! 

6. Clark Gable by i'm Barcelona [b'day June 14] featuring jeffrey campbell shoes

12. Vivien Leigh by i'm Barcelona [b'day June 14] featuring shoulder handbags

Of Grandeur and Gifts: A Small Glimpse into Victorian Birthdays

Recently I stumbled across a cute little tibdit on Victorian birthdays and gift giving that made me smile--and naturally think of Gone with the Wind, of course:

"Birthdays were celebrated in grandeur and gifts between the family members became integral to the Victorian Christmas. The wealthy looked upon fatherhood largely to lavish gifts and paying of sons debts, while in the middle-class, gift-giving was looked upon one's financial capabilities. Unfortunately, the mother very often could not compete in the area of gift-giving, thus the act of gift-giving become symbolic as to the exclusive duty of the father providing for his children."

--excerpted from The Victorian Father and Child

The quote above refers to Victorian England, but I couldn't help but think it had a nice parallel to Rhett and his approach to spoiling Bonnie rotten fatherhood. It's not hard to imagine Rhett going completely overboard in buying Bonnie birthday presents--and being rather generous to Wade and Ella too, for that matter. 

In fact, I often wish Gone with the Wind provided us more glimpses into how birthdays were spent in the Butler household. It would have be fascinating to see how Scarlett and Rhett celebrated each others' birthdays, for instance, both before and after their estrangement--or if they even knew each others' actual birthdays at all, given their mutual hesistancy to share personal details and Scarlett's secrecy over her exact age. I'd also love to see just how lavishly they celebrated the children's birthdays and what kind of gifts they bestowed. But, alas, we have so little to go on, beyond the few tantalizing details MM mentions about the day of Bonnie's birth.

So I'd like to turn it over to you all and get your thoughts. How do you think Rhett and Scarlett and family celebrated their birthdays? Or any other characters in GWTW for that matter?