Portrait, Dennis Hart Mahan Mahan’s civil engineering textbook Fortification treatise Artillery treatise CLASS OF 1824 As an undergraduate at West Point, Mahan taught mathematics to underclassmen. Graduating at the top of his class, he soon returned to the Academy, remaining on the faculty for more than forty years. Teaching mathematics, and later a professor of engineering, Mahan redesigned the Academy’s engineering programs. His textbooks became American standards of engineering instruction. Mahan also taught the course on military science taken by virtually every West Pointer who fought in the Civil War. Despite its odd title, his textbook, Elementary Treatise on Advance-Guard, Out-Post, and Detachment Service of Troops (1847, often reprinted), was America’s first comprehensive work on tactics and strategy. Professor and Mrs. Mahan, the former Mary Helena Okill, raised five children. Their oldest son, Alfred Thayer, chose the U.S. Naval Academy and became a renowned naval strategist and historian. A younger son, Frederick August, graduated from West Point in 1867. NEXT West Point after the Civil War Sylvanus Thayer 1785–1872 Class of 1808 Dennis Hart Mahan 1802–1871 Class of 1824
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