The West Point Eggnog Riot of 1826: A Drunken Christmas Party that made Today's Military Academy

  Across the Hudson River from West Point Military Academy at a place called Garrison’s Landing sits a lonely canoe on the frigid night of December 23, 1826.

The canoe had been pre-placed, hidden among some scrub-brush and high weeds, along the frozen banks of the Hudson earlier in the week.

Three cadets, William R. Burnley of Alabama, Alexander J. Center of New York and Samuel A. Roberts also of Alabama, quietly lug two gallon size barrels of whiskey and place them in the waiting canoe in the dead of night.  

Originally that night, after a drinking binge at a place called Martin’s Tavern, the off-duty cadets had planned to land an even bigger cache of up to 4 gallons of whiskey, but after their drunken garrulous behavior nearly caused them to come to blows with the proprietor of the tavern over the bartering price of the booze, the cadets had been forced to pay a hefty sum for the two barrels that they were lucky enough to obtain.  

This night, and the subsequent Christmas party, is the culmination of an alcohol smuggling campaign that the cadets have been conducting for months.

Once in the canoe the three take draughts from the barrels to stay warm as they row.

“Quietly; quickly,” Burnley, the trio’s ringleader urges as the cadets paddle back and forth in the icy water.

Burnley knows that they still face one last obstacle before they can safely smuggle their liquor back to room number 33 in the Academy’s North Barracks.

That obstacle is the armed guard on duty that night, Private James Dougan.  Supposedly, Dougan is already on the take and has agreed to let the cadets pass unopposed, but knowingly allowing three cadets to smuggle liquor into the “dry” Academy at West Point is a crime punishable by court martial and possible prison time, and Burnley fears that Dougan may get cold feet and back out at the last second.

Quietly, the canoe approaches the opposite bank of the river and the West Point barracks buildings loom ahead in the distance.  The three cadet bootleggers paddle ashore and carry their barrels of whiskey on their shoulders in the dead of night.

No one stops them.  The night is still and cold and the three cadets walk back into West Point Military Academy unseen and unopposed.  The armed guard supposedly on duty that night, Private James Dougan, has stayed true to his word.

Just as Burnley, Center and Roberts stow the whiskey away in their footlockers in Room 33 of the North Barracks, another Cadet, T.M. Lewis of Kentucky is also returning to the Academy with a gallon of rum that he has acquired from another tavern across the Hudson that night and is currently hiding away in Room 5 also of the North Barracks.

The plan is to keep the whiskey and rum hidden from the prying eyes of Officers, especially the Academy’s Superintendent Sylvanus Thayer for the next two days, and then to have a riotous and drunken eggnog fueled party on Christmas Night.

Sylvanus Thayer

This plan is a reaction to the harsh policies and strict discipline that have been instituted by Superintendent Thayer since he took over command of the West Point Military Academy several years before.

Since 1817, when Thayer became superintendent and commandant at West Point he has been attempting, through rigorous discipline and harsh punishment, to improve both the reputation of America’s foremost military academy and to improve the overall quality of the officer’s that West Point produces.

Earlier that year, at the beginning of 1826 Superintendent Thayer strictly forbade the consumption, possession or storage of any alcohol whatsoever at West Point.  Though already known for rigorous discipline, the 19th century was an era when most military’s literally ran on alcohol and when cadets discovered that Thayer himself was hosting parties where alcohol was consumed on campus at his own private residence, many like Burnley, Center and Roberts started to rebel and openly flaunt the superintendent’s prohibition against liquor consumption.

A huge party is planned for Christmas Night 1826, a party which will be called the Eggnog Riot by history and be remembered by some as the Great Mutiny of West Point. 

When West Point was initially founded in 1802 it consisted of only a few derelict buildings left over from the Revolutionary War and was home to a mere dozen cadets.

Discipline was lax, admission standards were nonexistent and any military training that took place was below the standards of even the most amateurish state militia of the time.  During the War of 1812 the United States Army was nearly unable to field any qualified officers at all to stand in the face of the highly disciplined British Army, and those federally commissioned officers which did take the field in battle were prone to drunkenness, cowardice and general incompetence.  In order to save the nation in its darkest hour during the War of 1812, after the nation’s capital had been sacked and burnt to the ground by Great Britain, the United States Army was forced to turn to state militias and retired officers from America’s War for Independence to bolster its officer corps and give American forces even a fighting chance.

Realizing that the decrepit state of our nation’s primary Military Academy at West Point was a huge problem and a potential threat to our national security congress authorized unprecedented funding to help improve training and discipline at West Point.  As part of these reforms congress also placed Sylvanus Thayer at the head of the West Point Military Academy.

Today, Thayer is known as “The Father of West Point” for the discipline that he brought to the Academy.  Thayer, hailing from Braintree, Massachusetts, was highly educated with a background in engineering and was a lifelong army man.  He promptly instituted a four year standard academic curriculum for all cadets at West Point, enacted a demerit system to penalize those cadets given to rule infractions, and strictly demanded that all cadets adhere to rigorous guidelines regarding military discipline and appearance at all times.  

Sylvanus Thayer would serve as the superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point until his resignation from the position in 1833 that was precipitated by political disagreements he had over the policies of then President Andrew Jackson, whom Thayer considered, “disheveled, unkempt and a country bumpkin”.

West Point in the early 1800's

Most who studied under Thayer’s tutelage between 1817 and 1833 at West Point would go on to have distinguished careers as professional officers during the Mexican American War of 1845 to 1848 and the American Civil War on both the Union and Confederate sides.

Though today we would consider many of Thayer’s disciplinary reforms customary for the world’s most renowned Military Academy at West Point, at the time, the policies Thayer tried to institute with regards to standards of personal behavior on campus were nearly impossible for many cadets to swallow.

His ban on alcohol in 1826, was for many, the straw that broke the camel’s back.  This dissatisfaction would culminate in the infamous “Eggnog Riot” on Christmas night of the same year.

So-called Christmas eggnog back in the 1820’s was not the standardized mixture, usually containing eggs, cream, rum and spices such as nutmeg that it is today.  Back then, especially among thirsty cash-strapped college aged cadets, eggnogs would have been made from an admixture of any hard liquors and dairy products (such as whiskey and milk) that might have been readily available.

Early 19th Century Whiskey Barrel

The cadets of the North Barracks, future President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis among them, planned to wait until midnight on Christmas, after the last officer on duty had turned in for the night, and then down their stashed liquor as quickly as possible using milk and cream as chasers to maximize their holiday inebriation.

Promptly at 12:00 midnight on Christmas the cadets opened up their footlockers and the party began.  Only moments before, the officer on rounds, Captain Ethan Hitchcock had officially reported that all was quiet on the grounds of the academy.

However, by 4 a.m. the partying was so loud, and things had gotten so out of control in the North Barracks, that Captain Ethan Hitchcock and a fully armed guard ran into the barracks and literally read the men the Riot Act, which stipulated that carousing and carrying on in such a manner was a crime against the government of the United States and punishable by court martial.

The Captain was ignored and a fight broke out.  The cadets started throwing punches at the armed guards that had been placed throughout the Academy.  Soon, the partying spread across the quad to the nearby South Barracks where the officer on duty in charge of the cadets there,  Captain Thornton, was knocked unconscious.

The drunken cadets broke into the officers private quarters and began to destroy their private property and light their rooms on fire.

Out of a total of 260 cadets at West Point on Christmas night 1826 it is believed that fully one-third, or 80 cadets in total, participated in the rioting and that more than half of the student body was intoxicated by sunrise on Christmas morning.

Cadets ran through the hallways carrying swords and bayonets and threatening officers.  Desks, beds, chairs and tables were smashed and thrown from barracks windows.

When one of the cadets obtained a pistol and fired shots into the air, soldiers stationed at the Academy were called in to begin arresting drunk cadets at bayonet point.  Shots were fired in the air to restore order and many a cadet filled with holiday cheer was smashed in the head with the butt of a musket.

Reveille was called just before 6:30 in the morning, with parts of the North Barracks smoldering and broken glass and furniture strewn about the Academy’s parade ground.

As the sun rose, realizing that the game was up, many of the remaining cadets attempted to stumble out for reveille and stand at attention, only to begin vomiting on the grass where they stood.  Hardly, a man out of 260, was fit for duty on Christmas morning 1826.

After the night of the Eggnog Riot, 20 cadets including Burnley, Center and Roberts would be court martialed.  Half a dozen would resign out-right and leave the Academy.  The rest of the student body, nearly 230 cadets, including Jefferson Davis, would be confined to lockdown in their barracks for over a month!

Weeks of investigation would be conducted into the Eggnog Riot on Christmas Night of 1826.  In the end, 176 witnesses would be called to testify regarding the incidents of that night, and 19 cadets plus one soldier (James Dougan) would be court martialed and imprisoned for their roles in the rioting.  One of the prosecution’s star witnesses would be future Confederate General Robert E. Lee who did not take part in any of the drinking or rioting that took place that night, despite being friends with many of the participants.  Court martials and disciplinary action as a direct result of the Eggnog Riot would continue until March of 1827.

In the end, if anything, as a result of the Eggnog Riot of 1826, West Point Military Academy would become even more disciplined and well-regarded as a place where the United States Army produced first-rate military officers.  As a direct result of what happened on Christmas night 1826, Sylvanus Thayer and the administration at West Point would crack down with even harsher disciplinary measures and prohibitions, this time not only banning alcohol consumption and possession, but also forbidding any cadets from leaving the grounds of the Military Academy altogether for any reason whatsoever, without special permission.

Though some in the annals of United States Military History would go on to call the Christmas Eggnog Riot of 1826 the Great Mutiny at West Point, and though thankfully today the stringent and exacting disciplinary requirements at the Academy produce the finest army officers in the world, somewhere inside all of us is a little piece of Christmas cheer that can’t help but root for those drunken young rebellious cadets of so long ago.