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-3- 

finish the game with the board before us.

4. At least half of our working time at Saumur was taken up with applied mathematics in one form or another. That was quite a change change from Fort Oglethorpe, where Captain Sands had not bothered us with mathematics at all. There we had to worry only about memorizing the drill ritual and sticking on a horse. When we were commissioned, I had ranked 21st out of about a hundred second lieutenants, and Charlie Price had been 20th. But at Saumur I had an advantage over my fellow-Tennesseeans. I knew more about mathematics than they did. Just before we ended our work at Saumur de Salinelles ^[[insertion]] gave us [[/insertion]] the ratings of our section as our French instructors had figured them. Ransom and I were in the top five, but he was number 5 and he did not like it. His was perhaps the best brain among us, but it was the brain of a poet, not a mathematician. Number 1 of the section was Barrett Rogers, a graduate engineer. I was either second or third, I forget which. The other two among the top five were Aragon and another engineer named Stribling.

The lowest rating of all was given to Charles Duryea, the only son of a wealthy widow in New York. He was an odd case. He had been educated largely in private schools in Switzerland. He spoke French fluently, as none of the rest of could. He was handsome and he had beautifully tailored uniforms. He was friendly and I liked him, but he was one of the most stupid men I have ever seen at large. He had been commissioned second lieutenant from one our training camps in the summer, but his commission was revoked when he finished at Saumur. I heard later that he had been seen at Tours in the uniform of a sergeant and wearing the insignia of an interpreter.

On leaving I got a typed certificate of my standing. Eventually it went to pieces in my pocket. The only effect my rating a Saumur had on my subsequent career was that in the following April I was ordered to return to Saumur as an instructor. The order took six weeks to reach me. I was on duty with a French squadron. It was just a typical army foulup, and the order was eventually revoked, as I hope to explain in a later letter.

Transcription Notes:
Edited: removed preprinted reference. This is typed