Virginia Military Institute history

The Class of 1842 graduated 16 cadets.

In 1851, Thomas J. Jackson joined the faculty, serving until the outbreak of the Civil War.

In 1857 admission was expanded to any resident of the United States.

Almost all of the institute’s cadets and faculty fought in the war; the cadet corps fought as a unit for the Confederates in an 1864 battle at New Market, Virginia.

The Lexington campus reopened for classes on 17 October 1865.

The cadet-run Honor Court was established as a continuously operating body beginning in 1908.

Has the Corps participated in Presidential Inaugural Parades?Cadets enjoy a one hundred year history of parade participation, beginning with the inauguration of William H. Taft in 1909.A timeline, with links to images, is available online.

The bachelor of art degree was first awarded in 1912, replacing the older degree of “graduate.” During World War I, cadets practiced building trenches where Foster Stadium is now located.

In five years he fought a handful of small engagements against peasant cacos (guerrillas), failed his second stint as a Marine officer candidate, and finally gained a permanent commission on his third attempt in 1924.

In 1928 Puller was deployed to Nicaragua as part of the United States effort to support the government of Pres.

On December 26, 1932, just five days before the end of the United States intervention, Puller led a Guardia unit in one of the biggest victories of the conflict at El Sauce.

Puller’s next assignment took him to China (1933–36), where he was in charge of the Marine detachment on the USS Augusta under Capt.

He was promoted to captain in February 1936 and returned to the United States later that year to begin a teaching assignment at The Basic School, the training course for newly commissioned or appointed Marine officers.

Puller joined the 4th Marines in Shanghai and was promoted to major in August 1940.

As tensions increased in the Pacific, the American military presence in China was drawn down, and in August 1941 Puller returned to the United States and an assignment with the newly established 1st Marine Division.

The first major Allied offensive of the Pacific War began on August 7, 1942, with an amphibious landing on Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands.

After a respite in Australia, the 7th Marines, with Puller now serving as the regiment’s executive officer, landed at Cape Gloucester in northwest New Britain, on December 26, 1943.

For 10 days in late February and early March of 1951, Puller, now a brigadier general and assistant division commander, stepped in to lead the division when Smith temporarily took over IX Corps.

Following a tour heading up an amphibious training group, he was promoted to major general and took command of the 2nd Marine Division in North Carolina in July 1954.

He fought as hard to stay in the Corps as he had against any enemy, but a Navy medical board deemed him unfit and he was forced to retire in October 1955 at the honorary rank of lieutenant general.

The athletic program benefited from the growth of the Corps with an undefeated football season in 1957.

Civil Rights Activist: Jonathan Daniels in Alabama, 1965

His son, Lewis Puller, Jr., became a Marine infantry officer and suffered horrendous wounds after stepping on a booby-trapped artillery shell in Vietnam in 1968.

Chesty died in October 1971 following a series of strokes.

The first African American cadets graduated in 1972.