Abraham Lincoln

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Posted on December 13, 2015 Updated on December 15, 2015

　Persons acquainted with the Academy know that the corps of cadets is divided into four companies for the purpose of military exercises. These companies are officered from the cadets, the superintendent and commandant selecting the officers for their military bearing and qualifications. The adjutant, quartermaster, four captains and twelve lieutenants are taken from the first, or Senior class; the sergeants from the second, or Junior class; and the corporals from the third, or Sophomore class. I had not been “called out” as a corporal, but when I returned from furlough I found myself the last but one-about my standing in all the tactics-of eighteen sergeants. The promotion was too much for me. That year my standing in the class-as shown by the number of demerits of the year-was about the same as it was among the sergeants, and I was dropped, and served the fourth year as a private.

–The Autobiography of General Ulysses S Grant: Memoirs of the Civil War, by Ulysses S. Grant，Grant 2-11