Tom,

This may be of some interest:

February 9, 1861

Meanwhile, Cadet James Elisha M. Hopkins, after only five months at West Point, was discharged that same day, having been found "deficient in mathematics," and was busy packing his bags for his return home. James, having been appointed to the academy from the 5th Congressional District of North Carolina, would within the year be appointed as a Cadet in the Confederate army and assigned to the regiment [43rd Tennessee Infantry] where he would initially serve as Drill Master.

Two days later in his dormitory room, Nassau Hall, at Princeton University, nineteen year old Freshman Thomas Lyon Wallace of Knoxville, noted that only " . . . about half as many [Southern boys] here now as were last session." Tom, the son of "Major" Campbell Wallace, President of East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad with headquarters in Loudon, East Tennessee, would soon also depart the University, and later serve the regiment as Assistant Commissary of Subsistance Officer (ACS).