“...Jefferson Davis, helped organize the rumbustion,”

December 22, 2018 11:32 AM

The Great West Point Eggnog Riot [The Daily Beast] “Long before Eggnog was just a boxy carton at the supermarket, one that turned up in the dairy case around Thanksgiving, people cared enough about the drink that they were willing to riot over it. And not just anybody, but the disciplined cadets of West Point. It was Christmas Eve, 1826, and at the U.S. Military Academy it was anything but a silent night. Scores of cadets were in open, mutinous defiance of an order, of all things, that their holiday beverage be alcohol-free. The cadets nearly pulled the place down, and all because the officers denied them a proper drink of Christmas Eggnog.”
posted by Fizz (19 comments total)

Wow. And I thought the figgy pudding crowd was rough.
posted by 4ster at 11:34 AM on December 22, 2018 [24 favorites]

Reminds me of how I learned from that Medieval Death Bot that basically as soon as the idea of sending young men off to college started, so did the issue of them being rowdy, violent, drunk, and out of control.
posted by bleep at 11:44 AM on December 22, 2018 [7 favorites]

The superintendent of the academy was a humorless martinet named Sylvanus Thayer.

And in short order, the author shows how little research he actually did. Thayer was the superintendent who basically made West Point what it is today, setting up the model of instruction that they continue to use. Humorless perhaps, but he was definitely not a martinet.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:49 AM on December 22, 2018 [14 favorites]

While appointment to West Point has never been completely egalitarian (kids of wealthy and influential parents still get preferential admission), it’s also helpful to remember that in 1826, the military was still working its way out of the tradition of the aristocratic officer corps.

I can well imagine that one of the issues that Thayer (thanks NoxAeternum) had to deal with was the hard work of shifting the Academy culture from one of rich scion entitlement to what we now consider modern military meritocratic discipline.
posted by darkstar at 11:54 AM on December 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

Also covered in episode 96 of the The Dollop, if you enjoy awful/hilarious comedic re-enactments of poorly researched history :D
posted by Nutri-Matic Drinks Synthesizer at 12:57 PM on December 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

One of the cadets who survived without being expelled was John Archibald Campbell, later a Supreme Court Justice in the decade before the Civil War. Who would have thought it possible that someone so deep in his cups at school would rise to the high court?

its funny but also deeply depressing!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 1:01 PM on December 22, 2018 [14 favorites]

Related, I believe, would be the history of fraternities. I heard a book mentioned on NPR/public radio, (I think the author was a woman and she was being interviewed about some fraternity related crap,) but I cannot find it. The author described fraternities as arising out of the fact that 19th century upper class boys having nothing else to do were sent to college where they bridled at being told what to do by people they considered there inferiors and created fraternities so that they might exercise there power and control the institutions they were attending. Anyone know what I am talking about?
posted by Pembquist at 1:12 PM on December 22, 2018 [9 favorites]

No but I immediately believe it.
posted by bleep at 1:22 PM on December 22, 2018 [13 favorites]

Thayer was the superintendent who basically made West Point what it is today, setting up the model of instruction that they continue to use. Humorless perhaps, but he was definitely not a martinet.

martinet
1 : a strict disciplinarian
//The prison's warden was a cruel martinet.
2 : a person who stresses a rigid adherence to the details of forms and methods
//a martinet in conducting meetings of the society, he never tolerated any sign of levity or indecorum

martinet
1. a strict disciplinarian, especially a military one.
2. someone who stubbornly adheres to methods or rules.

What definition of "martinet" are you using that doesn't include the guy who set up West Point?
posted by Etrigan at 1:47 PM on December 22, 2018 [20 favorites]

While the definition of martinet is judgment-neutral, I’ve always heard it used in the negative sense, as a pejorative term for someone who was unnecessarily strict and/or petty in their adherence to discipline.

Incidentally, Jean Martinet, the inspiration for the word, is a fascinating character in military history.
posted by darkstar at 2:03 PM on December 22, 2018

Thayer was one of that rare breed, the tender martinet.
posted by Flashman at 2:45 PM on December 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

.....one of that rare breed, the tender martinet.

This sounds like something you eat with a special fork.
posted by Pembquist at 5:28 PM on December 22, 2018 [12 favorites]

Or a serrated spoon!
posted by grumpybear69 at 5:32 PM on December 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

First they came for his eggnog, then they came for his slaves. Oh, the injustice. /sarcasm
posted by jwest at 6:30 PM on December 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

I’m guessing there some confusion with “marionette”, you know like Pinocchio.
posted by sideshow at 8:15 PM on December 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

I was sure that the Humorless Martinet was a species of bird
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 1:08 AM on December 23, 2018 [6 favorites]

One of the cadets who survived without being expelled was John Archibald Campbell, later a Supreme Court Justice in the decade before the Civil War. Who would have thought it possible that someone so deep in his cups at school would rise to the high court?

its funny but also deeply depressing!

Hey, what happens at beach week West Point, stays at beach week West Point
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:16 AM on December 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

Who would have thought it possible that someone so deep in his cups at school would rise to the high court?

A tidy little dig indeed.
posted by M-x shell at 8:48 AM on December 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

Humorless martinet may not be a bird species, but nutmeg mannakin is.
posted by mollweide at 9:22 AM on December 23, 2018 [2 favorites]