Class of 1805–1835 | Class of 1836–1852 | Class of 1852–1981 | Class of 1884–1936
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Joseph Reid Anderson (1813–1892)
CLASS OF 1836
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HIGHLIGHT: Tredegar Iron Works
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: Anderson’s foundry became the Confederacy’s largest ordnance and munitions
supplier during the Civil War. Other: Owner of the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia.
Family: Married to Sara Eliza Archer. They had seven children | Sara Eliza Archer died in 1881 | Married Mary Pegram.
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Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (1816–1892)
CLASS OF 1836
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HIGHLIGHT: Union infantry private
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Engineering: As a young engineer officer after West Point, Meigs worked mainly on
fortifications | Career took a decisive turn when he came to Washington in 1852 | Still
a first lieutenant, Meigs received two remarkable assignments: building the Washington
Aqueduct and overseeing the addition of wings and a new dome to the U. S. Capitol. War:
Named the army’s quartermaster general | Took charge of acquiring and supplying to
the Union Army the food, fuel, clothing, and all the other needs of a fighting force |
Largely thanks to him, the Union fielded the best-supplied army in history to
that date. Other: Assisted in the design of the Smithsonian’s new National Museum,
now known as the Arts and Industries Building; he also served on the Board of Regents.
Family: Married Louisa Rodgers in 1841; they had several children | Son, John R. (Class
of 1863) was killed by guerrillas in 1864.
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John Clifford Pemberton (1814–1881)
CLASS OF 1837
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HIGHLIGHT: John C. Pemberton portrait
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: Career soldier. Service included the Seminole War, the Mexican War, the Kansas border
disturbances and the Morman War in Utah | 1861, resigned his U. S. Army commission to join the
Confederacy. Family: Married Martha Thompson from Norfolk, Virginia. Two of his brothers
fought for the Union in the Civil War.
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Alexander Brydie Dyer (1815–1874)
CLASS OF 1837
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HIGHLIGHT: Portrait, Alexander B. Dyer
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: Military career in ordnance, serving primarily in arsenals throughout the country |
The Mexican War (1846–1848) interrupted Dyer’s arsenal service | Fighting in Nueva Mexico,
Dyer was twice cited for gallantry | In 1861, a native Virginian, Dyer stayed with the Union.
Commanding the Springfield Armory, he oversaw a fourfold increase in rifle production, to 1,000
per day | In 1864, Dyer promoted to the army’s chief of ordnance. He held the position
until his death. Family: Married Elizabeth Breenshea; they had six children | A son,
Alexander Byrdie, Jr. (Class of 1873), was an artillery colonel.
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Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard (1815–1893)
CLASS OF 1838
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HIGHLIGHT: 1st Manassass print
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: Served in Corps of Engineers after graduating from West Point | Staff officer
with Corps of Engineers during the Mexican War | Commander of Confederate forces in
Charleston, Beauregard launched the attack on Fort Sumter that triggered the Civil War.
Other: After the Civil War, Beauregard returned to New Orleans to head the New
Orleans, Jackson & Mississippi Railway | Served as the city’s commissioner of public
works.
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George Henry Thomas (1816–1870)
CLASS OF 1840
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HIGHLIGHT: Thomas command wagon
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: Commissioned
first in the artillery | Rewarded for bravery in
the Seminole War and in the Mexican War | 1855,
joined newly organized 2nd Cavalry regiment | General
in the Union Army during the Civil War | Nicknamed
“Rock of Chickamauga” for heroic stand
amid the wreckage of a defeated Union army in 1863
| Battle of Nashville, won one of the great Union
victories of the Civil War in 1864 | He was a strong
supporter of the use of colored troops in the Civil
War. Other: He hired the first female doctor
in the army (Mary Walker) who later received the
Congressional Medal of Honor. Family: Married
Frances Kellogg of Troy, New York in 1852 | Loyalty
to the Union had its costs. Thomas’s sisters
in Virginia turned his picture to the wall and never
spoke to him again.
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William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891)
CLASS OF 1840
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HIGHLIGHT: Portrait, William T. Sherman
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: Served at southern posts as an artillery officer before the Mexican War | Fought in California
in the Mexican War | Resigned from the army in 1853, but struggled in civilian life until 1859, when he
became head of the Louisiana Military Seminary | Rose to prominence with U. S. Grant in the Vicksburg
and Chattanooga campaigns | When Grant moved east to take command of all Union armies, Sherman launched
the drive through Georgia and the Carolinas that devastated the Confederacy and made him famous.
Family: When Sherman returned east in 1850, he married Ellen Ewing, daughter of the man who
had raised him after his father’s early death | The Shermans had eight children.
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Josiah Gorgas (1818–1883)
CLASS OF 1841
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HIGHLIGHT: Portrait, Josiah Gorgas
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: Began career as ordnance officer at Watervliet Arsenal near Troy, New York, before
touring European arsenals in 1845–1846 | During the Mexican War, he commanded the Veracruz ordnance
depot | Gorgas married Amelia Gayle, an Alabaman, and followed his wife into secession | Chief of
ordnance for the Confederacy, built an extradordinary system of acquisition, manufacture, and
distribution of arms and ammunition | Largely thanks to him, Confederate troops never lacked weapons.
Other: President of the University of Alabama. Family: Married Amelia Gayle in 1853
and they had six children | Amelia Gorgas was a graduate with honors from Columbia Female Institute
in Tennessee | After Josiah’s death in 1883, Amelia became the librarian at the University of Alabama,
where her husband had been president. Amelia Gorgas increased the collection from 6,000 to
20,000 volumes | A son, William, won acclaim for conquering yellow fever.
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Ulysses Simpson Grant (1822–1885)
CLASS OF 1843
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HIGHLIGHT: Grant’s terms of surrender
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: As a
cadet Grant excelled only in horsemanship, but he
proved a brave and resourceful junior officer in
the Mexican War | Grant disliked peacetime army
service and resigned in 1854, despite few prospects
in civilian life | With the Civil War, Grant emerged
as one of history’s greatest generals | None
of the war’s other generals won the surrender
of three enemy armies—at Fort Donelson (1862),
Vicksburg (1863), and Appomattox (1865). Other:
Twice elected president | Completed his masterly
memoirs four days before his death from throat cancer.
Family: Married Julia Dent in 1848 | The
Grants were inseparable and had four children |
Son, Frederick Dent Grant (1850–1912; Class
of 1871), followed his father to West Point.
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George Brinton McClellan (1828–1885)
CLASS OF 1846
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HIGHLIGHT: McClellan Saddle
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Engineering: Promoted the army’s standard saddle. Exploration: Surveyed
transcontinental railroad routes War: Served as a combat engineer during the Mexican
War | Commanded the Army of the Potomac in the Civil War Other: Taught at West Point |
Studied European military organization | Served two terms as governor of New Jersey.
Family: Married Ellen “Nelly” Marcy | Devoted couple wrote each other
daily when separated | Their son, George B. McClellan, donated many family artifacts to the
Smithsonian.
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Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson (1824–1863)
CLASS OF 1846
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HIGHLIGHT: Spotsylvania tree stump
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: Jackson went directly from West Point into the Mexican War | Twice won
commendation for courage in battle, rising to the temporary rank of major |
Resigned in 1851 to become a professor at the Virginia Military Institute | Short Civil
War career began with the brilliant Shenandoah Valley campaign 1862 | An accidental
shooting by his own troops at the Battle of Chancellorville ended his life in May 1863.
Family: Married twice, each time to a Presbyterian minister’s daughter |
Elinor Junkin, his first wife, married him in 1853 but died little more than a year
later | Jackson married Mary Anne Morrison in 1857 | The couple had a daughter, Julia.
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Gouverneur Kemble Warren (1830–1882)
CLASS OF 1850
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HIGHLIGHT: Western map
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Exploration: Participated in surveys of the Mississippi Delta and railroad routes to the
Pacific | Compiled the first accurate map of the trans-Mississippi West. War: Spotted the
Gettysburg battlefield’s key ground feature in time for its seizure by Union forces | His
statue stands on Little Round Top, overlooking the battlefield his topographical eye helped to win.
Other: Lifelong champion of Indian rights | Amassed an important collection of Sioux and
other northern Plains Indian material culture objects. Family: Married Emily Forbes Chase
and raised two children, a son, Sydney, and a daughter, Emily.
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George Crook (1802–1871)
CLASS OF 1852
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HIGHLIGHT: George Crook on his saddle mule
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
War: Distinguished Civil War soldier | Rising to rank of major general.
Other: Innovation on the frontier improved movement of supplies by
substituting pack mules for wagon trains | Used Indian scouts and auxiliaries
extensively, preferring negotiation to armed force.
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Class of 1805–1835 | Class of 1836–1852 | Class of 1852–1981 | Class of 1884–1936
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