Class of 1805–1835 | Class of 1836–1852 | Class of 1852–1981 | Class of 1884–1936
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George Bomford (1782–1848)
CLASS OF 1805
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HIGHLIGHT: Gauges
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Engineering: Promoted the use of the uniformity system for the Army to manufacturing
small arms. War: assistant chief of ordnance for the new Army Ordnance Department | chief of ordnance 1821–1842. Family: Son, James V., attended West Point (Class of 1832).
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Sylvanus Thayer (1785–1872)
CLASS OF 1808
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HIGHLIGHT: Crozet Protractor
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Other: Initiated educational and administrative reforms during tenure as superintendent from 1817 to 1833 |
Remembered as “the father of the Military Academy” | After resigning as superintendent, continued working
as an army engineer until retirement in 1863; brevetted to the rank of brigadier general | Endowed the Thayer
School of Engineering at Dartmouth College in 1867. Family: Lifelong bachelor.
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John James Abert (1788–1863)
CLASS OF 1811
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HIGHLIGHT: Vanity case
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Engineering: Abert is almost synonymous with the army’s Corps of
Topographical Engineers that he headed for 32 years. Exploration:
Facilitated extensive exploration and surveying of the wilderness west of the
Mississippi. Family: Married Ellen Matlack Stretch in 1812; they raised
six children | Son, James William (Class of 1842) followed his father as a
topographical engineer.
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William Gibbs McNeill (1801–1853)
CLASS OF 1817
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HIGHLIGHT: Thomas Viaduct
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Engineering: Served as topographical engineer for the army. Family:
Married Maria Matilda Camman of New York; their seven children all died.
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Samuel Ringgold (1802–1871)
CLASS OF 1818
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HIGHLIGHT: Major Ringgold Mortally Wounded
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: In 1838
created the U. S. Army’s first “horse
artillery” battery. Horses had always pulled
the guns and caissons (ammunition wagons), but in
this new formation, gunners rode their own horses
| Battle of Palo Alto (1846), Ringgold’s guns
almost single-handedly repulsed repeated Mexican
attacks | Ringgold fell to a Mexican cannon ball,
becoming the first American killed in the Mexican
War and the war’s first hero.
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George Washington Whistler (1800–1849)
CLASS OF 1819
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HIGHLIGHT: Thomas Viaduct
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Engineering: Served as topographical engineer for the army | Supervised the construction of
the Moscow-St. Petersburg railroad, Russia’s first. Family: Married Mary Roberdox Swift,
sister of West Pointer Capt. William H. Swift (Class of 1819) | They had three children, but Mary
died in 1827 | Married Anna Matilda McNeill, sister of William Gibbs McNeill (Class of 1817) | Whistler
and Anna McNeill had six children, five of whom died young | Firstborn, James McNeill Whistler,
the noted painter, entered West Point in 1851 but did not graduate.
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David Moniac (1802–1836)
CLASS OF 1822
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HIGHLIGHT: Portrait of Osceola
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: Captain of Creek mounted volunteers in the Second Seminole War | Died
leading a charge at the Battle of Wahoo Swamp.
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Alfred Mordecai (1804–1887)
CLASS OF 1823
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HIGHLIGHT: Bronze gun
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Engineering: Taught engineering at West Point | After Civil War, returned to railroading,
briefly as an engineer in Mexico, then as an official with the Pennsylvania Railroad. War:
In 1861 Mordecai, a North Carolinian, resigned his commission, refusing to break his oath but
unwilling to fight against Southern family and friends. | Spent war years teaching math in
Philadelphia, near the family of his wife, Sara Ann Hays Mordecai. Other: 1832 joined Ordance
Corps and pioneered the application of scientific methods to developing and testing weapons and
ammunition | Played major role reorganizing army artillery along more rational lines. Family:
Married Sara Ann Hays | Son, Alfred, graduated from West Point in 1861 and fought for the Union.
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Dennis Hart Mahan (1802–1871)
CLASS OF 1824
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HIGHLIGHT: Mahan’s civil engineering textbook
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Other: Taught mathematics and later as professor of engineering, redesigned
the Academy’s engineering programs | His textbooks became American standards of
engineering instruction | Taught the course on military science taken by virtually
every West Pointer who fought in the Civil War. Family: Married Mary Helena
Okill, raised five children | Eldest son, Alfred Thayer, chose the U. S. Naval Academy
and became a renowned naval strategist and historian | Younger son, Frederick August,
graduated from West Point in 1867.
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Robert Parker Parrott (1804–1877)
CLASS OF 1824
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HIGHLIGHT: Parrott rifled cannons
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Engineering: Patented a rifled cannon and an expanding explosive shell. Other:
Taught physics at West Point | Superintendent of the West Point Foundry. Family: Married
Mary Kemble, sister of Gouverneur Kemble, owner of the West Point Foundry; they adopted a son.
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Robert Anderson (1805–1871)
CLASS OF 1825
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HIGHLIGHT: Defenders of Ft. Sumter
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: Commissioned in the artillery after West Point, he served in the Seminole
and Mexican Wars | 1860, now a major, commanding the federal forts in Charleston Harbor,
refused to surrender Fort Sumter | Anderson’s defiance of secessionist demands and his
insistence on marching out with colors flying made him one of the first Union heroes of
the Civil War. Family: In 1842 married Eba, who was from Georgia. Gen. Winfield
Scott stood in for Eba’s father at the wedding | Eba Anderson Lawton edited An
Artillery Officer in the Mexican War 1846-7: Letters of Robert Anderson, Captain 3rd
Artillery, U.S.A.
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Robert Edward Lee (1807–1870)
CLASS OF 1829
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HIGHLIGHT: Appomattox chairs
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: Able combat leader in the Mexican War, three times winning recognition for bravery and
initiative | One of the army’s best officers, he was offered command of the Union Army in 1861.
After much soul-searching, he declined | Although personally opposed to secession, he followed his
home state into rebellion | Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia in 1862 | Lee won
remarkable victories against often superior Union forces until his defeat at Gettysburg | Lee’s
surrender at Appomattox in 1865 effectively ended the war, though other Confederate armies remained
in the field. Family: Two years after West Point, Lee married the wealthy Mary Ann Randolph
Custis, Martha Washington’s granddaughter | Mrs. Lee and the couple’s seven children remained
at Arlington, the Custis mansion, while Lee pursued a distinguished career.
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Herman Haupt (1817–1905)
CLASS OF 1835
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HIGHLIGHT: Military railroad photo
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Engineering: Haupt resigned his commission a month after graduation to become a successful
civil and railroad engineer. War: His experience as a railroad engineer brought him back to
the army in the Civil War. | The railroad transportation corps he organized and trained for the Army
of the Potomac became a byword for speedy and efficient construction, repair, and operation of
military railroads. | Haupt resigned after the Battle of Gettysburg, but the men he trained continued
to supply Union armies by rail. Family: Married Ann Cecilia Keller of Gettysburg; the couple
had eleven children, eight of whom lived to adulthood. | A journal kept by Anna Haupt is included with
the Herman Haupt Papers at Yale University.
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Class of 1805–1835 | Class of 1836–1852 | Class of 1852–1981 | Class of 1884–1936
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