Virginia Military Institute

The Virginia Military Institute is a public senior military college in Lexington, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1839 as America's first state-sponsored and -supported military college and is the oldest public senior military college in the United States. In keeping with its founding principles and unlike any other senior military college in the United States, VMI enrolls cadets only and awards bachelor's degrees exclusively. The institute grants degrees in 14 disciplines in engineering, science, and the liberal arts.
While Abraham Lincoln first called VMI "The West Point of the South" because of its role during the American Civil War, the nickname has remained because VMI has produced more Army generals than any ROTC program in the U.S. Despite the nickname, VMI differs from the federal military service academies in many regards. For example, as of 2019 VMI had a total enrollment of 1,722 cadets making it one of the smallest NCAA Division I schools in the United States. All VMI cadets must participate in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps of the United States Armed Forces programs, but are afforded the flexibility of pursuing civilian endeavors or accepting an officer's commission in the active or reserve components of one of the six U.S. military branches upon graduation. Approximately 65% of VMI graduates enter the military upon graduation, making it one of the largest producers of officers for the United States Army and Marine Corps each year.

Governance

The Board of Visitors is the supervisory board of the Virginia Military Institute. Although the Governor is ex officio the commander-in-chief of the institute, and no one may be declared a graduate without his signature, he delegates to the board the responsibility for developing the institute's policy. The board appoints the superintendent and approves appointment of members of the faculty and staff on the recommendation of the superintendent. The board may make bylaws and regulations for their own government and the management of the affairs of the institute, and while the institute is exempt from the Administrative Process Act in accordance with Va. Code, some of its regulations are codified at 8VAC 100. The Executive Committee conducts the business of the board during recesses.
The board has 17 members, including ex officio the adjutant general of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Regular members are appointed by the governor for a four-year term and may be reappointed once. Of the sixteen appointed members, twelve must be alumni of the institute, eight of whom must be residents of Virginia and four must be non-residents; and the remaining four members must be non-alumni Virginia residents. The Executive Committee consists of the board's president, three vice presidents, and one non-alumnus at large, and is appointed by the board at each annual meeting.
Under the militia bill officers of the institute were recognized as part of the military establishment of the state, and the governor had authority to issue commissions to them in accordance with institute regulations. Current law makes provision for officers of the Virginia Militia to be subject to orders of the governor. The cadets are a military corps under the command of the superintendent and under the administration of the Commandant of Cadets, and constitute the guard of the institute.

History

Early history

In the years after the War of 1812, the Commonwealth of Virginia built and maintained several arsenals to store weapons intended for use by the state militia in the event of invasion or slave revolt. One of them was placed in Lexington. Residents came to resent the presence of the soldiers, whom they saw as drunken and undisciplined. In 1826, one guard beat another to death. Townspeople wanted to keep the arsenal, but sought a new way of guarding it, so as to eliminate the "undesirable element."
In 1834, the Franklin Society, a local literary and debate society, debated, "Would it be politic for the State to establish a military school, at the Arsenal, near Lexington, in connection with Washington College, on the plan of the West Point Academy?" They unanimously concluded that it would. Lexington attorney John Thomas Lewis Preston became the most active advocate of the proposal. In a series of three anonymous letters in the Lexington Gazette in 1835, he proposed replacing the arsenal guard with students living under military discipline, receiving some military education, as well as a liberal education. The school's graduates would contribute to the development of the state and, should the need arise, provide trained officers for the state's militia.
After a public relations campaign that included Preston meeting in person with influential business, military and political figures and many open letters from prominent supporters, in 1836 the Virginia legislature passed a bill authorizing creation of a school at the Lexington arsenal, and the Governor signed the measure into law.
The organizers of the planned school formed a board of visitors, which included Preston, and the board selected Claudius Crozet as their first president. Crozet had served as an engineer in Napoleon Bonaparte's army before immigrating to the United States. In America, he served as an engineering professor at West Point, as well as state engineer in Louisiana and mathematics professor at Jefferson College in Convent, Louisiana. Crozet was also the Chief Engineer of Virginia and someone whom Thomas Jefferson referred to as, "the smartest mathematician in the United States." The board delegated to Preston the task of deciding what to call the new school, and he created the name Virginia Military Institute.
Under Crozet's direction, the board of visitors crafted VMI's program of instruction, basing it off of those of the United States Military Academy and Crozet's alma mater the École Polytechnique of Paris. So, instead of the mix of military and liberal education imagined by Preston, the board created a military and engineering school offering the most thorough engineering curriculum in America, outside of West Point.
Preston was also tasked with hiring VMI's first superintendent. He was persuaded that West Point graduate and former army officer Francis Henney Smith, then professor of mathematics at Hampden–Sydney College, was the most suitable candidate. Preston successfully recruited Smith, and convinced him to become the first superintendent and Professor of Tactics.
After Smith agreed to accept the superintendent's position, Preston applied to join the faculty, and was hired as Professor of Languages. At first, from 1836 to 1839, the institution was functionally a department of Washington College. The first class consisted of 30 regular cadets, and 13 paying cadets. Thanks to funding by the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati, the school was able to formally separate from Washington College on November 11, 1839, although by agreement it continued to provide services to that school's students for the next six years. Practical military training began at VMI in the spring of 1840.
In 1839, the first cadet to march a sentinel post was Private John Strange. With few exceptions, there have been sentinels posted at VMI every hour of every day of the school year since November 11, 1839.
The Class of 1842 graduated 16 cadets. Living conditions were poor until 1850 when the cornerstone of the new barracks was laid. In 1851 Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson became a member of the faculty and professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. Under Major Jackson and Major William Gilham, VMI infantry and artillery units were present at the hanging of John Brown at Charles Town, Virginia in 1859.

Founding of the VMI Museum

In a letter dated February 27, 1845, addressed to William S. Beale, VMI Class of 1843, Superintendent Smith solicited items to create an Institute museum to inspire and educate cadets. Superintendent Smith accepted a donation of a Revolutionary War musket in 1856, thus establishing the first public museum in the Commonwealth of Virginia. For the first 75 years the museum was a "special collection" administered by the VMI library, a common model still in use by many colleges and universities.
In the early 20th century, the collection was organized as a public resource and took the form of a modern museum. In 1970, the museum was recognized as its own department, and was professionally accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Today the VMI Museum System consists of the VMI Museum on the VMI Post, the Virginia Museum of the Civil War located at the 300-acre New Market Battlefield State Historical Park; and the Jackson House, interpreting the life of VMI Professor Thomas J. Jackson and his household on the eve of Civil War.

Civil War period

VMI cadets and alumni played instrumental roles in the American Civil War, primarily on the Confederate side. On 14 occasions, the Confederacy called cadets into active military engagements. VMI authorized battle streamers for each one of these engagements but chose to carry only one: the battle streamer for New Market. Many VMI Cadets were ordered to Camp Lee, at Richmond, to train recruits under Stonewall Jackson.
During the war, approximately 1,800 VMI alumni served the South, with about 250 of them killed in action. VMI alumni were regarded among the best officers, and several distinguished themselves in the Union forces as well. Fifteen graduates rose to the rank of general in the Confederate Army, and one rose to this rank in the Union Army. Just before his famous flank attack at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Jackson looked at his division and brigade commanders, noted the high number of VMI graduates and said, "The Institute will be heard from today." Two of Jackson's four division commanders at Chancellorsville, Generals Robert Rodes and Raleigh Colston, were VMI graduates as were more than twenty of his brigadiers and colonels.