McGiffin's own father was Colonel Norton McGiffin, who served
in the Mexican War, and in the Civil War was Lieutenant-Colonel
of the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers. So McGiffin inherited
his love for arms.
In Washington he went to the high school and at the Washington
Jefferson College had passed through his freshman year. But the
honors that might accrue to him if he continued to live on in the
quiet and pretty old town of Washington did not tempt him. To
escape into the world he wrote his Congressman, begging him to
obtain for him an appointment to Annapolis. The Congressman
liked the letter, and wrote Colonel McGiffin to ask if the
application of his son had his approval. Colonel McGiffin was
willing, and in 1877 his son received his commission as cadet
midshipman. I knew McGiffin only as a boy with whom in
vacation time I went coon hunting in the woods outside of
Washington. For his age he was a very tall boy, and in his
midshipman undress uniform, to my youthful eyes, appeared a
most bold and adventurous spirit.
At Annapolis his record seems to show he was pretty much like
other boys. According to his classmates, with all of whom I find he
was very popular, he stood high in the practical studies, such as
seamanship, gunnery, navigation, and steam engineering, but in all
else he was near the foot of the class, and in whatever escapade
was risky and reckless he was always one of the leaders.
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