King came from a military background. Both his father and grandfather had served in the military. His grandfather, Charles King, was also president of Columbia College, and his great grandfather, Rufus King, was Minister of England and served 20 years as a U.S. Senator.  In 1862, at the age of 17, King received an appointment to West Point from President Lincoln. After graduation from the academy in 1866, he stayed on as instructor of military tactics. 
 
 
 
 
 

In his lifetime, King wrote 62 books and a slew of short stories and articles. He spent only a brief time at the academy, but his influence on young cadet Burroughs would last a lifetime. Regarding King, Burroughs wrote:
“That was the famous Captain Charles King, writer of the best army stories ever were written; a man who has been an inspiration to me all my life because of his outstanding qualities as a soldier, a cavalry man and a friend.” 

“When I got home from Andover my father felt that a military school might be a good place for me and so he took me to Orchard Lake, where the old Michigan Military Academy was located and where I spent the next five years.”

Edgar Rice Burroughs (Circa 1892)
Burroughs found it difficult to conform to the strict discipline of military life. He acted out and had acquired –  as he put it – “...so many hours of unwalked punishment that if I had remained there the rest of my life I could never have walked it all…”

Burroughs also came from a military family. His father, George Tyler Burroughs, was a major in the northern army during the Civil War. While King was anxious to go to West Point, the younger Burroughs was less than enthused about being sent to a military school in Orchard Lake. 

“Cadet Burroughs’ offenses have been most serious, but not irretrievably so. He has been reckless; not vicious. He has found friends here including the Commandant, who best knew the boy in the Cavalry squad and on drill, and it is not impossible for him to return and wipe out his past.”

  “The drill wound up in the manner of the wild west show. Drawing their revolvers the cadets dashed madly around the ring, firing in all directions, and then rallied in the center, after which they left the ring.” 

“One hundred and twenty-five cadets from the Michigan Military Academy at Orchard Lake, Mich., under the command of Col. J. Sumner Rogers, arrived at the world’s fair grounds today and went into camp on the Midway Plaisance. With their new gray uniforms, their patent leather shoes, their highly-burnished rifles and their soldierly bearing, they turned the heads of half the pretty girls who saw them.” 

- Detroit Free Press, June 2, 1893 

MMA Cadets at the Columbian Exposition

“Down the Plaisance rode Commander Rice in full dress uniform with his aides beside him. Behind him thundered the band of the Michigan Military Academy leading the Orchard Lake Cadets, as trim a body of young fellows as has been seen here in many a year.”

Infanta Eulalie of Spain

“Marching in gray blouses and white trousers, the young soldiers kept a perfect step and alignment, eliciting rounds of applause as they marched by. behind them galloped the Chicago Hussars, escort of honor, and then came the carriages, the committee on cermonies leading. Behind them was the carriage of state, drawn by four horses, in which rode the Infanta, the prince and Mayor Harrison.” 

- Detroit Free Press, June 9, 1893