Over The Top: WWI Steam Store Page
New Game announced! Add Over the Top: WWI to your Steam Wishlist!
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
BumpyBumpy the dumpy
The Boys are back in town
Like the old days
bump for the pretzelThanks Francis
Good luck Papa WhetzThanks Midnooter. God bless you young man and may you get all the shekels your precious hands can touch.
Best of luck.Thanks Lee
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE | ABOUT US | HISTORY | RANK STRUCTURE | MUSTER ROLL |
ABOUT US |
HISTORY OF THE VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE Founded, 1839 |
| In the years after the War of 1812, the Commonwealth of Virginia built and maintained several arsenals to store weapons intended for use by the state militia in the event of invasion or slave revolt. One of them was placed in Lexington. Residents came to resent the presence of the soldiers, whom they saw as drunken and undisciplined. In 1826, one guard beat another to death. Townspeople wanted to keep the arsenal, but sought a new way of guarding it, so as to eliminate the "undesirable element." In 1834, the Franklin Society, a local literary and debate society, debated, "Would it be politic for the State to establish a military school, at the Arsenal, near Lexington, in connection with Washington College, on the plan of the West Point Academy?" They unanimously concluded that it would. Lexington attorney John Thomas Lewis Preston became the most active advocate of the proposal. In a series of three anonymous letters in the Lexington Gazette in 1835, he proposed replacing the arsenal guard with students living under military discipline, receiving some military education, as well as a liberal education. The school's graduates would contribute to the development of the state and, should the need arise, provide trained officers for the state's militia. | After a public relations campaign that included Preston meeting in person with influential business, military and political figures and many open letters from prominent supporters including Alden Partridge of Norwich University, in 1836 the Virginia legislature passed a bill authorizing creation of a school at the Lexington arsenal, and the Governor signed the measure into law. The organizers of the planned school formed a board of visitors, which included Preston, and the board selected Claudius Crozet as their first president. Crozet had served as an engineer in Napoleon Bonaparte's army before immigrating to the United States. In America, he served as an engineering professor at West Point, as well as state engineer in Louisiana and mathematics professor at Jefferson College in Convent, Louisiana. Crozet was also the Chief Engineer of Virginia and someone whom Thomas Jefferson referred to as, "the smartest mathematician in the United States." The board delegated to Preston the task of deciding what to call the new school, and he created the name Virginia Military Institute. Under Crozet's direction, the board of visitors crafted VMI's program of instruction, basing it off of those of the United States Military Academy and Crozet's alma mater the École Polytechnique of Paris. |  So, instead of the mix of military and liberal education imagined by Preston, the board created a military and engineering school offering the most thorough engineering curriculum in America, outside of West Point. Preston was also tasked with hiring VMI's first Superintendent. He was persuaded that West Point graduate and former Army officer Francis Henney Smith, then professor of mathematics at Hampden– Sydney College, was the most suitable candidate. Preston successfully recruited Smith, and convinced him to become the first Superintendent and Professor of Tactics. |
 VMI cadets and alumni played instrumental roles in the American Civil War. On 14 occasions, the Confederacy called cadets into active military engagements. VMI authorized battle streamers for each one of these engagements but chose to carry only one: the battle streamer for New Market. Many VMI Cadets were ordered to Camp Lee, at Richmond, to train recruits under General Stonewall Jackson. VMI alumni were regarded among the best officers of the South and several distinguished themselves in the Union forces as well. Fifteen graduates rose to the rank of general in the Confederate Army, and one rose to this rank in the Union Army. Just before his famous flank attack at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Jackson looked at his division and brigade commanders, noted the high number of VMI graduates and said, "The Institute will be heard from today." Three of Jackson's four division commanders at Chancellorsville, Generals James Lane, Robert Rodes, and Raleigh Colston, were VMI graduates as were more than twenty of his brigadiers and colonels. | On 14 May 1864, the Governor of Virginia once again called upon the cadets from VMI to participate in the American Civil War. After marching overnight 80 miles from Lexington to New Market, on 15 May 1864, 247 members of the VMI Corps of Cadets fought at the Battle of New Market. This event marks the only time in U.S. history wherein the student body of an operating college fought as an organized unit in pitched combat in battle (as recognized by the American Battlefield Trust). This event was the 14th time VMI Cadets were called into action during the Civil War. At New Market, in a matter of minutes, VMI suffered fifty-five casualties with ten cadets killed; the cadets were led into battle by the Commandant of Cadets and future VMI Superintendent Colonel Scott Shipp. Shipp was also wounded during the battle. Six of the ten fallen cadets are buried on VMI grounds behind the statue "Virginia Mourning Her Dead" by sculptor Moses Ezekiel, a VMI graduate who was also wounded in the Battle of New Market.  |  General John C. Breckinridge, the commanding Southern general, held the cadets in reserve and did not use them until Union troops broke through the Confederate lines. Upon seeing the tide of battle turning in favor of the Union forces, Breckinridge stated, "Put the boys in...and may God forgive me for the order." The VMI cadets held the line and eventually pushed forward across an open muddy field, capturing a Union artillery emplacement, and securing victory for the Confederates. The Union troops were withdrawn and Confederate troops under General Breckinridge held the Shenandoah Valley. On 12 June 1864 Union forces, under the command of General David Hunter, shelled and burned the Institute as part of the Valley Campaigns of 1864. The destruction was almost complete, and VMI had to temporarily hold classes at the Alms House in Richmond, Virginia. In April 1865 Richmond was evacuated due to the impending fall of Petersburg and the VMI Corps of Cadets was disbanded. The Lexington campus reopened for classes on 17 October 1865. |
RANK STRUCTURE |
Commissioned Officers Colonel - Col Lieutenant Colonel - LtCol Major - Maj Captain - Cpt 1st Lieutenant - 1stLt 2nd Lieutenant - 2ndLt | Non-Commissioned Officers Cadet Sergeant Major - CSgtMaj Cadet Quartermaster Sergeant - CQSgt Cadet Ordnance Sergeant - COSGT Cadet First Sergeant - CFSGT Cadet Sergeant - CSGT Cadet Corporal - CCpl | Enlisted Men Cadet Lance Corporal - CLCpl Cadet Private First Class - CPFC Cadet Private Second Class - CPSC Cadet - Cdt |
MUSTER ROLL - VMI |
Commissioned Officers Colonel Whetzel Lieutenant Colonel Redbeard First Lieutenant CJ | Non-Commissioned Officers Cadet Sergeant Major Kilo Cadet Second Sergeant Raider Cadet Corporal Odin | Enlisted Men Cadet Lance Corporal Fox Cadet Lance Corporal Oppous Cadet Private First Class Chaz Cadet Private First Class Killin Cadet Private First Class Lovelytag Cadet Private First Class Woody Cadet Private First Class Fruit Cadet Private First Class Shrek Cadet Private First Class MrPickles Cadet Private First Class Josh Cadet Private Second Class Hugh McDowwel Cadet Private Second Class Optimus Cadet Private Second Class Locke Cadet Private Second Class Bumpy Baby Cadet Private Second Class Robot Rat Cadet Zulu Cadet Saggy Cadet Matt Cadet John Cadet Nigrone Cadet Eric Cadet Albin Cadet Zlat Cadet Pedestrion Cadet Bae Nae Cadet Byrd Cadet Fireguy Cadet Funkrat Cadet Lone Cadet Cleburne Cadet Grim Titan Cadet FlowBeatBox Cadet IronPally |
