WEST POINT, N.Y. — An 1828 yearbook stowed in a time capsule discovered at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) reveals cadets at West Point saw potential in a little-known cadet named Jefferson Davis to be more than the role for which he is perhaps best known, as chief political inspiration to Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of America’s foremost political theorists and history scholars.

Greene, who said in February 2023, “We need a national divorce,” has done more than anyone but Tucker Carlson to keep a little-known historical figure like Davis in the present-day conversation.