Virginia Military Institute: Virginia Main Street Communities: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary

Virginia Military Institute
Photo courtesy of Virginia Department of Historic Resources

Organized in 1839, Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is the Nation's earliest State-supported military school and has supplied the country with many outstanding military leaders, most prominently General of the Army George C. Marshall. The campus consists of some 25 major buildings united by a castellated Gothic Revival architectural style. The focal point, The Barracks, is a much-evolved complex originally designed by Alexander Jackson Davis. Davis also designed Gothic Revival faculty houses lining the Parade Ground, of which the Gilham house (1852) and the Superintendent's Quarters (1860) survive. In the 1910s, architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was commissioned for Jackson Memorial Hall and additional faculty houses. The original Gothic character established by Davis has been carefully maintained in these and later works. Lending variety is a scattering of 19th-century and later dwellings including the Gothic Revival Pendleton-Coles cottage where General Marshall was married.

This painting by an 1880 graduate, Benjamin West Clinedinst, depicts the charge of the VMI Corps of Cadets in the Battle of New Market on May 15, 1864. Measuring 18 x 23 feet, it is located in VMI's Jackson Memorial Hall.
Image courtesy of the Virginia Military Institute Archives http://www.vmi.edu/archives/

During the Civil War, 21 VMI alumni and faculty served as generals in the Confederate army, including such noted battlefield leaders as Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Robert E. Rhodes and William Mahone. One of the most famous events that involved cadets from the Virginia Military Institute occurred during the Civil War in 1864. Union General Franz Sigel and 10,000 troops marched up the Shenandoah Valley from Winchester in May of that year with the objective of Staunton, where he could cut the Virginia Central Railroad (now the C&O RR), and thus deprive General Lee's army and Richmond of one of their chief sources of supply. Confederate General John C. Breckinridge, former Vice President of the U. S., took command of the Confederate forces in the Valley, and called on VMI to supply him with much needed man power. The VMI Corps of Cadets fought as a unit at the Battle of New Market, Virginia, on May 15, 1864. Two hundred fifty seven cadets were on the field, organized into a battalion of four companies of Infantry and one section of Artillery. Ten cadets were killed in battle or died later from the effects of their wounds; 45 were wounded. The youngest participating cadet was 15; the oldest 25. The Confederates won the battle, with the VMI Corps of Cadets performing well.

VMI was shelled and burned on June 12, 1864, by Union General David Hunter. Due to the tireless efforts of Superintendent Francis H. Smith and the faculty, VMI reopened its doors to classes on October 17, 1865, and the school continues to educate citizen-soldiers to serve their State and country.

The Virginia Military Institute, a National Historic Landmark, is located in Lexington. The main entrance is located off Letcher Ave., near the intersection of Jefferson St. Tours of the campus are available. The VMI Museum is currently closed for expansion, but the George Marshall Museum, located on the Virginia Military Institute Parade, is open 9:00am to 5:00pm daily, except major holidays. There is a fee for admission. For further information, visit the school's website. VMI has also been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey

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