New Book! The Eggnog Riot of 1826: The Complete West Point Court of Inquiry

Gallons of smuggled liquor. A bribed sentry. Buckets of eggnog. Cadets wielding pistols and swords. The wildest night in West Point history!

On Christmas Eve 1826, cadets at the United States Military Academy decided that a ban on holiday drinking was more of a suggestion. Fueled by booze, they turned their barracks into a madhouse. They attacked officers, and each other, broke windows, and ran through the hallways with all manner of weapons.

In January 1827, a Court of Inquiry set out to untangle who drank what and who threw which club. This book presents that Court of Inquiry in full for the first time, transcribed and annotated by geographer Jon Malinowski from the handwritten original in the National Archives.

Extras include:

• An extensive minute-by-minute timeline of the riot in the cadets' own words written by the editor

• A guide to the drinks, from eggnog to tiff

• An overview of the weapons and violence

• A portrait of West Point in 1826, with period maps