Virginia Military Institute - Bomb Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

Page 22 text:

? ARRACKS, 1 ' responsibilities. I ' nilowing the Mexican disorder came the War between the States, and then, as loyal Southerners, they united with the Stars and the Rars of the Con- federacy, and did their bit for the Lost Cause. After the Civil War the next respon- sibility of a military nature to face the Cadets was the Spanish-American struggle over Cuba, and the greatest of all — the recent World War, which embroiled prac- tically the entire civilized world. In all emergencies the Institute has steadily forged ahead, and in spite of several severe local set-backs, has emerged greater and better for the vim with which the problem was tackled and completed. The first jiicture, which shows the Institute in its infancy, just before th? Ci il Var, depicts ' . M. I. in 1859. Notice the smallness and barrenness of this photo- graph when compared with the modern West Point of the South. It is only by means of such striking comparisons that the real growth of the Lexington school can be pointed out and appreciated by those who know the Institute only from an external viewpoint. The second photograph makes us realize just how seriously the Ci il Var did affect the grim walls of our Alma Mater. This cut shows V. M. 1. after the raid

Page 21 text:

THE IXSTITLTE, 1«59 ' A History of Construction From its founding in 1839 the Virginia Military Institute has always featured very prominently in the history and activity of the State of ' irginia, and the nation at large. In every crisis, large or small, state or national. Institute men have come to the front as true sons of Virginia and the United States, and, being weighed in the balance, the men have never been found wanting. Since as early as 1848, at the time of the Mexican War, men of V. M. I. ha e borne their part of the national burden, and have nc er attempted to shirk their HUNTER S RAW ' Mi :£r '

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i i t t 1 1. 1111 II ' i«5 - HARRACKS I-RD.M THi; I ' ARADI, (IROUND, 1 9OO of General Hunter, famous Yankee general. The school was burned in 1S62 b - Hunter ' s men for military reasons — to prevent its being used by Generals Robert Edward Lee and Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson as a training camp for Southern soldiers. Today, the Institute still boasts of the fact that one of the walls on the east side of barracks contains a round, old-fashioned cannon ball pumped into its side by one of the Federal artillery batteries under the general command of Hunter, but directly in charge of Col. H. A. DuPont. In spite of the fact that the Institute was totally demolished, only the brick walls being left standing as a grim reminder of what had happened to Virginia and the Cause of the men beIo« ' the Mason-Dixon line, the headquarters of V. M. I. were moved, and with Staunton as a camping ground, cadets and alumni took command of the rawest rookies and turned them into well-trained and disciplined soldiers. In the next illustration we jump to a period nearh ' fifty years later, and see the Virginia Military Institute as it appeared in 19110, the ery beginning of the twentieth centurj-, the age which was to denote such a pronounced improvement in every condition pertaining to the college ; in this cut may be seen the addition of