Against the Grain: Colonel Henry M. Lazelle and the U.S. Army (Volume 9) (North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series) by James Carson


Against the Grain: Colonel Henry M. Lazelle and the U.S. Army (Volume 9) (North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series)
Title : Against the Grain: Colonel Henry M. Lazelle and the U.S. Army (Volume 9) (North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series)
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1574416111
ISBN-10 : 9781574416114
Language : English
Format Type : Hardcover
Number of Pages : 432
Publication : First published November 15, 2015

Henry Martyn Lazelle (1832–1917) was the only cadet in the history of the US Military Academy to be suspended and sent back a year (for poor grades and bad behavior) and eventually return as Commandant of the Corps of Cadets. After graduating from West Point in 1855, he scouted with Kit Carson, was wounded by Apaches, and spent nearly a year as a “paroled” prisoner-of-war at the outbreak of the Civil War. Exchanged for a Confederate officer, he took command of a Union cavalry regiment, chasing Mosby’s Rangers throughout northern Virginia.

Lazelle’s service was punctuated at times with contention and controversy. In charge of the official records of the Civil War in Washington, he was accused of falsifying records, exonerated, but dismissed short of tour. As Commandant of Cadets at West Point, he was a key figure during the infamous court martial of Johnson Whittaker, one of West Point’s first African American cadets. Again, he was relieved of duty after a bureaucratic battle with the Academy’s Superintendent.

Against the Grain: Colonel Henry M. Lazelle and the U.S. Army (Volume 9) (North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series) Reviews

  • Barb

    I received this book as part of a Goodread's First Reads giveaway. I was interested in learning more about an officer in the U.S. Army that habitually butted heads with authority. I was not disappointed.

    Henry Lazelle was a free-thinker who, while committed to a lifetime career as an Army officer, refused to be deterred from what he considered to be the right motives and actions by the policies of superior officers he saw as deficient. From his acceptance as a cadet as West Point at the age of 17, Lazelle marched to the beat of his own drum, even as he strove to be an honorable and successful student. Time after time Lazelle pushed back on orders he believed to be contrary to the spirit of the military code of conduct. He suffered repeated censure and disciplinary action for acting in a manner he felt was appropriate for an officer and a gentleman.

    Although the narrative was a bit dry at times and peppered with an abundance of dates and details, I found this to be a very readable biography. It took on a personal note as it was written by Lazelle's great-grandson, and contains some fascinating photos from the era of the Civil War and the army's campaign to contain the Native Americans during the push to occupy and settle the West.

    I highly recommend this book to lovers of history and biographies.