26 Facts About Sylvanus Thayer

1.

Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Sylvanus Thayer known as "the Father of West Point" was an early superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point and an early advocate of engineering education in the United States.

2.

Sylvanus Thayer was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, the son of Nathaniel Thayer, a gentleman farmer, and his wife Dorcas Faxon.

3.

In 1793, at the age of 8, Thayer was sent to live with his uncle Azariah Faxon and attend school in Washington, New Hampshire.

4.

In 1803 Sylvanus Thayer matriculated at Dartmouth College, graduating in 1807 as valedictorian of his class.

5.

Sylvanus Thayer graduated from the United States Military Academy after a single year and received his commission as a second lieutenant in 1808.

6.

One of Sylvanus Thayer's reforms was to establish a standard four year curriculum with the cadets organized into four classes.

7.

Many of the cadets who attended West Point during Sylvanus Thayer's tenure held key leadership positions during the Mexican War and American Civil War.

8.

Sylvanus Thayer was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1834.

9.

Sylvanus Thayer returned to duty with the Army Corps of Engineers.

10.

Sylvanus Thayer spent the great majority of the next 30 years as the chief engineer for the Boston area.

11.

Sylvanus Thayer was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1838.

12.

Sylvanus Thayer was a member of the Board of Engineers for Coast Defenses, April 2,1833 to December 21,1857, and was President of the Board from Dec 7,1838.

13.

Sylvanus Thayer temporarily commanded of the Corps of Engineers from December 21,1857 to December 22,1858, while its commander, Colonel Joseph G Totten, was on a leave of absence.

14.

In December 1858 Sylvanus Thayer was placed on an extended sick leave of absence.

15.

Sylvanus Thayer did not play an active role in the American Civil War.

16.

Sylvanus Thayer retired from the Army on June 1,1863 with the rank of colonel in the Corps of Engineers.

17.

Sylvanus Thayer was retired under the first act regulating the retirement of Army officers which required the retirement of any officer with more than 45 years of service.

18.

In 1869, as a result of Sylvanus Thayer's enduring legacy at the United States Military Academy, a meeting took place in Braintree between Sylvanus Thayer and the West Point graduate and Civil War hero Brigadier General Robert Anderson.

19.

An outcome of Anderson's 1869 meeting with Sylvanus Thayer was the establishment of the Military Academy's Association of Graduates.

20.

In 1867, Sylvanus Thayer donated $40,000 to the trustees of Dartmouth College to create the Sylvanus Thayer School of Engineering.

21.

Sylvanus Thayer personally located and recommended USMA graduate Lieutenant Robert Fletcher to Dartmouth president Asa Dodge Smith.

22.

The Sylvanus Thayer School admitted its first three students to a graduate program in 1871.

23.

Sylvanus Thayer died on September 7,1872 at his home in Braintree.

24.

Sylvanus Thayer was reinterred at West Point Cemetery in 1877.

25.

Sylvanus Thayer's obituary appeared in the New York Times on September 8,1872.

26.

The house where Sylvanus Thayer was born in Braintree, Massachusetts is preserved and open to the public.