Gettysburg Trivia

[pamc153PA]

This should be an easy question!

Of the officers who fought at Gettysburg, who were the first five oldest graduates of West Point, including members of both armies? Bonus if you can give the years they graduated as well!

 

[reading48]

I did not go into great depth but some officers included
E. P. Alexander, Buford, Early, Ewell, Hancock, Heath, Hood, Lee, Longstreet, Meade, Picket, Garnett, Custer, Armistead, Stuart, Pop Green to name a few

 

[Scott Bowden]

Shooting from the hip and totally from memory...Isaac Trimble, Class of '22...George S Greene, Class of '23...Robert E Lee, Class of '29...George Gordon Meade, Class of '31...then both Chilton (on Lee's staff) and Jubal Early were both Class of '37. Probably missed one.

 

[prroh]

Shooting from the hip and totally from memory...Isaac Trimble, Class of '22...George S Greene, Class of '23...Robert E Lee, Class of '29...George Gordon Meade, Class of '31...then both Chilton (on Lee's staff) and Jubal Early were both Class of '37. Probably missed one.

William Pendleton graduated in 1830.

 

[Scott Bowden]

Thanks. When it comes to true West Pointers, I often have a mental block against "Parson" Pendleton.

 

[prroh]

So we have four for sure. Greene, Trimble, Lee , Pendleton. Is Meade the next oldest? Not certain.

 

[pamc153PA]

It's actually Trimble, then Greene--Trimble was class of 1822, Greene was class of 1823.

 

[pamc153PA]

And here's one we skipped: Col. Hannibal Day (USA). He graduated in 1823 along with Greene (Greene was 2 /35, Day was 23/35). He was the second oldest officer at Gettysburg, younger in age only to Greene.

So, Trimble, Greene, Day . . .

 

[prroh]

Greene was also the oldest 2nd LT in the Army. I think he was 91 when Congress gave him the commission in the active Army as a kind of pension.

 

[GELongstreet]

Pendleton is correct. Born in 1809 and West Point in 30. But before him there would be James Barnes (1801 / 1829) and Sidney Burbank (1807 / 1829) etc. Meade (grad. in 1835) would be replaced by Andrew A. Humphreys (1810 / 1830) here.

 

[pamc153PA]

There were others who graduated 1835 besides Meade, though. For some reason I recall that being a fairly big year. Marsena Patrick comes to mind. . . How high up in his class was Meade, then?

 

[GELongstreet]

How high up in his class was Meade, then?

He was 19th of the 56.

 

[hoosier]

Pamc153PA, what was that you said about this being an easy question?

 

[pamc153PA]

Okay, I looked it up: West Point Class of '35--Charles Whiting ( 4 of 56), George Meade (19 of 56), Herman Haupt (31 of 56), Marsena Patrick (48 of 56). They were the 1835 class members who were at Gettysburg. For what it's worth (maybe that was just me being curious).

 

[Rebtracker]

This should be an easy question!

I got some studyin' to do....