edgar allen poe

[jtuohy]

why was edgar allen poe thrown out of west point?

[Q.E.D]

Wiki:

Poe traveled to West Point and matriculated as a cadet on July 1, 1830. In October 1830, John Allan married his second wife, Louisa Patterson. The marriage, and bitter quarrels with Poe over the children born to Allan out of affairs, led to the foster father finally disowning Poe. Poe decided to leave West Point by purposely getting court-martialed. On February 8, 1831, he was tried for gross neglect of duty and disobedience of orders for refusing to attend formations, classes, or church. Poe tactically pled not guilty to induce dismissal, knowing he would be found guilty.

[John_DiFool]

Harry Turtledove or somebody wrote a short story which had Poe as a rather successful Confederate Civil War general.

[Missy2U]

Apropos of nothing at all, he is a distant relative of mine.

[panache45]

@Missy2U

Apropos of nothing at all, he is a distant relative of mine.

So you have Poe relations.

[Zoe]

Okay, panache, you’ve earned back your user name.

One of the high school textbooks from which I taught claimed that Poe was frequently playing pranks. One such prank was to seat a donkey in a professor’s chair. I can’t vouch for the authenticity of that claim, but supposedly that was one of the last straws.

[outlierrn]

@Zoe

but supposedly that was one of the last straws.

shoulda put the straw down first

[TWDuke]

It apparently is (or was) believed in certain circles that Edgar Allan Poe was dismissed for falling into formation wearing only a hat and his ammo belts. Sadly, this is probably not true.