No single group of men at West Point has been so indelibly written into history as the class of 1846. The class of '46 fought in three wars and produced twenty generals total, ten on the Union side, including George B. McClellan, who survived the war, and nine on the Confederate, including Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson and Ambrose Powell Hill, both of whom were killed, and George Edward Pickett, who had graduated last in the class.
The number one man in the class never made it higher than colonel during the conflict. McClellan had ranked second. Jackson, who had no formal education until he entered West Point at the age of 18, graduated 17th in the class. Originally a member of the class of '46, Hill's graduation was delayed one year when he contracted gonorrhea in the summer of 1844. He graduated 15th in a class of 38 in 1847.
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