Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 211, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1916 — Why West Poin Cadets Sing “Benny Havens. Oh!" [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Why West Poin Cadets Sing “Benny Havens. Oh!"

The famous old ballad- has been sung for nearly a century by the cadets of the United States Military Academy. Its history makes good reading

We’ll never fail to drink to her and Benny Havens, Oh! » / next West Pointer.you meet to jkkl tell you something about Benny Havens. He knows and you’ll ■ - y And that his eyes will kindle at the niention of the name, says the New York Sun. West Pointers for half a <*entury have told the story of Benny Havens they have bled and '^===== i ' died with it on their lips. Wherever Duty called they went, their steps were With* Alma Uaier on their lips, and "Benny Havens, Oh!” "Benny Havens, Oh!” is the epic of West Point. It is a story in song, the story of West Pointers and their sacrifices for duty, honor. West Point and country. « This old academy of West Point, laid out on a rugged shelf overlooking the majestic .sweep of the Hudson, has many unsullied, inalienable, but none more sacred to her sons than that of Benny Havens. Go to Cullum Memorial hall at West Poipt and read in impertshuble letters of bronze the story of her sons. She has seen them march out of her sallyports singing “Benny Havens, Oh 5" and seen them brought back while minute guns were echoing among the granite hills that surround her. The history of West Point Is closely interwoven with that of our country; West Pointers have written bright pages in the annals of the land. Their blood has watered Western plains and Northern wilds of snow. Has stained Sierra’s highest peaks, where piercing wlndie'er blow; Has dyed deep red the Everglades, and deeper still, you know. . The sacred Montezuma shades and walls of Mexico. Wherever duty has summoned them West Pointers have carri<frd “Benny Havens, Oh 1” The story of Benny Havens is ulraost as old as that of the academy itself. Many, many years ago, in 1824 to be precise, Benny Havens took-up his residence on the southern border of what then constituted the post of West Point. Almost Immediately he and the cadetij became friends. He was a genial soul, generous, and of good company and an inimitable spinner of yarns,.and he Inyariably plied his visitors with buckwheat cakes and maple sirup. Soon his refreshments acquired such fame that cadets often slipped away trom their duties and made their w ay to Benny’s retreat, where they found oblivion for their disciplinary woes. Almost every night after taps saw half a dozen darlpg cadets, who should have been in bed, gathered around Benny’s bountiful table. Only for a short time did Benny’* fare confine itself to buckwheat cakes and maple sirup. Grog and ’wine were added to the menu, an addition whereby Benny’s popularity increased tenfold. About this time the West Point authorities, who had previously shut their eyes to. Benny's liberalities, decided that the time had come to declare a blockade on Benny in so far as cadets were concerned, and consequently Benny’s haven of delight became “off limits” for the future generals and punishment was meted out by those caught running the t>lockade. Jefferson Davis, afterward president of the Confederate states, had the distinction of being among the first batch of cadets court-martialed for midnight revels at Benny Havens’. Benny was warned that his generosity to cadets, was demoralizing to discipline and that unless he called a halt summary proceedings ttould result. He was unable to refuse v those few cadets who “ran it out” to his home and finally he was expelled from the post shortly after 1829, taking up his abode at the base of a high cliff near the river’s edge about a mile below West Point Here he lived In a small frame house until his death in 1877 at the age of ninety- He was buried in Union cemetery, about midway between Highland Falls and Fort Montgomery on the West Point road. men who rose %» hum after leaving West * ,» - "Ls '* ‘ . ' ' fg.'

Point—Grant, Fltzhugh Lee, Sherman, Custer anU others—spent happy hours in Benny’s retreat. In 1838 Lieut. Lucius O’Brien of the Eighth United States infantry paid a visit to Cadet Kipley A. Arnold, who was then a first classman. Arnold Introduced O’Brien to Benny Havens, a warm friendship at once springing up between the two. In the academy at this time were John Thomas Metcalfe, who after graduation studied - medicine and became one of the foremost surgeons in the country, and Irvin McDowell, who commanded the Union forces at the first battle of Bull Itun. Both Metcalfe and McDowell were great friends of Benny. Benny Havens, Lleutennnt O’Brien. Metcalfe and Arnold- together composed the original five verses of the song “Benny Havens. Oh!” and set it to the tune of “The Wearing of the Green.” An obituary notice of Doctor Metcalfe says: “He had an early taste for versifying, and with skill at the guitar and a good*tenor voice, composed many a ditty to pass away the idle time. It was thus that he wrote the celebrated song ‘Benny Havens, Oh!’” It is not what would be called good poetry. Some of it is crude. Today there are about 50 verses, almost all of which were composed before Benny’s deuth in 1877. Class after class added a verse. In the waning years of Benny’s life almost every night the cadets sang them through, crowding round Benny, with glasses full, while their host led them with his fiddle and-his low clear baryione. This fiddle, by the way, is still in possession of an old citizen of Highland Falls. Come, fill your glasses, fellows, and stand up In a r£W, To singing sentimentally we’re going for to go. In the army there’s sobriety, promotion’s very slow. So we’ll sing our reminiscertces of Benny Havens, Oh! Soon came along the Mexican war to furnish Inspiration to the cadet poets. Several verses were added to the poem in commemoration of the deeds of those whose gallantry carried the American flag from Vera Cruz to the heights of Chapultepec, overlooking Montezuma’s ancient capital. Two of these are: „ Here’s a health to General Taylor, whose rough and reddv blow * -Struck terror to the rancheros of braggart Mexico May his country ne’er forget his deeds and ne’er forget to show . She holds him worthy of a place at Benny Havens, Oh! To the “venl, vldl, vlcl!” man to Scott, Jthe greatest hero. Fill the goblet to the brim, let no one shrinking go. May life’s cares on his honored head fall light as flakes of snow ~ And his i!ilr fame be ever great at Benny Havens, Oh! The civil war saw stressful tfiiies at the Point and the cadets turned their attention to sterngfc things than poetry. The ranks of the corps were thinned by the loss of the Southerner’s, who went home to take up the cause of their respective states. Many of those from the North and South, who had been friends of Benny, fell on the field of glory—Manassas, Antietain, Gettysburg, the Wilderness and a hundred other places were stained with the blood of West Pointers. There was little gayety at Benny’s during the stern four years, for Benny was getting old and the almost daily news of <he loss of his' former friends on the battlefield robbed him of his oldtime lightheartedness. Some of the verses of the poem which were written just after the war are lost, There seems to be qnly the following intact: To the army’s brave commanders let now our glasses fIOW.

We’ll drink to Grant and Sherman and to the subs also, To Thomas, Meade and Sheridan (these come In apropos), We’ll toast them all with goblets full at Benny Havens, Oh! Early in 1860 Gen. Winfield Scott died. For him this verse appeared: Another star has faded, we miss Its brilliant glow. For the veteran Scott has ceased to be a soldier here below; And the country which he honored now feelß a heartfelt woe As we toast his name In reverence at Benny Havens, Oh! During the last year of Benny’s life came the stunning news that Custer and his men had fought their last fight James E. Porter, Harrington and others, lieutenants and West Pointers all, perished with that gallant band. Not until Benny had died did these verses appear In memory of Custer and his command: In silence lift your glasses: a meteor flashes out So swift to death brave Custer; amid the battle s shout Death called—and, crowned, he went to Join the friends of long ago. To the land of Peace, where now he dwells with Benny Havens, Oh! > —_ We’ll drop a tear for Harrington and his comrades, Custer's braves Who fell with none to see the deeds that glorified their graves; May their memory live forever with their glories present glow. They've nobly earned the right to dwell with Benny Havens, Oh! Some of the other verses are fraught with the magic spirit of West Point —that spirit that Is best summed up in the words. “Duty, Honor, Country, West Point,” which are part of the motto of the academy. Nowadays at West Point every cadet memorizes the first three verses of “Benny Havens, Oh !” The first has already been given; the other two are as follows: To our kind old Alma Mater, our rock-bound Highland home. May we cast back many a fond regret as o’er life s sea we roam; Until on our last battlefield the lights of heaven shall glow We’ll never fall to drink to her and Benny Havens; Oh! f May the army be augmented, promotion be less slow. May our country In the hour of need be ready for the foe; May we find a soldier’s resting place beneath a soldier’s blow. With room enough beside our graves for Benny Havens. Oh! - - Wherever duty has led them West Polpters have sung “Benny Havens, Oh!” Since Benny’s death these verses-have appeared in commemoration of the deeds of West Pointers in all parts of this country: Their blood has watered Western plains and Northern winds of snow; Has stained Sierra’s highest peaks, where piercing winds e’er blow; Has dyed deep red the Everglades, and deeper still you know. The sacred Montezuma shades and walls of Mexico, From Nevada’s hoary ridges, from stormy coast ot Maine. From lava beds and . Yellowstone—the story never WBfl6^l" Wherever duty called they went—their steps wers never alow— With Alma Mater on their lips and “Benny Havens. Oh! . It is the old, old story of West Point and they who know it well love best to.tell it It will never die; it is as firmly fixed in the highlands of the Hudson as the academy itself.

"GUARD MOUNT” AT WEST POINT