Last in Their Class: Custer, Pickett and the Goats of West Point, by James Robbins.  Encounter Books, 2006.  $26.95, 500 pp., ISBN 1-59403-141-X

Where's the drama in the success of West Point cadets like Robert E. Lee and Douglas MacArthur who finish at or near the top of their classes?  Everybody expects them to become outstanding officers.  No, the drama surrounds the cadets who struggle mightily to make it through one of the most demanding curriculums in the world—especially those who skate precariously close to the edge of oblivion, i.e., dismissal.  What sort of officers might those at the bottom of the class make?  

That's the question that Robbins, a professor at the National Defense University, takes up in this engrossing study of the iconic Goat—the West Point cadet who graduates last in his class.  And, as his subtitle suggests, when the cast of Goats include such colorful, if controversial, figures as Major General George Armstrong Custer and Major General George Pickett, the answer should be entertaining and perhaps surprising. 

Robbins begins with what should be an obvious idea: "Nothing in one's academic record can predict heroism."  Scores of Goats, including Medal of Honor winner Powhatan Clark (Class of 1884) attest to that.  The author also argues that "class rank is not a certain predictor of achievement."  He points to the Class of 1847 to prove his point.  Sixteen members of that class would become generals—a group that included none of the class's "Star Men," the top five cadets.  By contrast, Custer, the 1861 Goat, became the "youngest American general officer in history" when he was made a Brigadier General in 1863 at age twenty-three.

Furthermore, Robbins clearly shows that "[t]he stories of the Goats are not tales of failure but of redemption."  Even the Goat, for example, has survived West Point's stringently selective admissions process and four years of rigorous academic, physical, and military training.  So, failure and Goat are not synonymous.  In fact, the Goat is nothing if not a survivor.

Robbins tells the story of the Goat in the 19^th Century in the context of the development of West Point and the U.S. Army.  This is a formidable challenge and the author discharges it admirably.  Moving back and forth seamlessly, Robbins follows the Goats from the Academy into the Army and chronicles their role on the nation's battlefields.

Since class rank determined branch assignments and the choice branches in the 19^th Century were Engineers, Ordnance, and Artillery, Goats usually found themselves in the Infantry and Cavalry—branches that assured they would be in the thick of things.  And they were, from the little-remembered Seminole War of the 1830s to the Mexican War, Civil War, and the Indian Wars of the 1870s and 1880s. 

Several West Point officers cut their teeth on the Mexican War included Robert E. Lee, who finished second in his Academy class, and Ulysses S. Grant, who, surprisingly, was not a Goat.  The future General and President finished in the middle of the Class of 1843.

Both, however, were overshadowed by LT. George Pickett, hero of Chapultepec and Goat of 1846.

Nine Goats served on each side during the Civil War, including most famously Custer and Pickett.  In fact, Pickett's Charge against Union positions on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg was immortalized by newspaper accounts and remains "one of the best-known actions of any graduate of the Academy." 

Similarly, the best-known action of the Indian Wars is Custer's Stand against a Sioux coalition at Little Big Horn in 1876.  Despite his Civil War success, Custer's West Point record finally caught up with him at the Little Big Horn.  As a Goat, all of Custer's grades were bad, but his "worst grades in his final year were in cavalry tactics."  How ironic is that?

As interesting and informative as Last in Their Class is, it could have been better.  First, why stop at 1900?  The tradition of the Goat continued until 1978—and continues informally today.  Perhaps Robbins plans a sequel.  Let's hope so.  Our other objection is the absence of a complete list of the 19^th Century Goats.  Only some of the Goats are identified in the narrative, and a full list would seem appropriate. 

Those questions aside, this is a story that will entertain, inform, and inspire.  And, why not?  We all love an underdog.