Sylvanus Thayer | |
|---|---|
 Sylvanus Thayer, painting by Robert Weir | |
| Nickname | "Father of the Military Academy" |
| Born | (1785-06-09)June 9, 1785 Braintree, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | September 7, 1872(1872-09-07) (aged 87) Braintree, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Resting Place | West Point Cemetery, West Point, New York |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Branch | United States Army Union Army |
| Years of service | 1808 – 1863 |
| Rank |  Colonel BrevetBrigadier General |
| Commands | Superintendent of the United States Military Academy |
| Battles / wars | War of 1812 |
Sylvanus Thayer (June 9, 1785 – September 7, 1872) was anAmerican military officer, engineer and educator who served as the fifthsuperintendent of theUnited States Military Academy atWest Point from 1817 to 1833. He is remembered as the "Father of the Military Academy" for reforming the institution to its current standards,[1] and was an early advocate of engineering education in the United States.
Sylvanus Thayer was born inBraintree, Massachusetts, the son of Nathaniel Thayer, a gentleman farmer, and his wife Dorcas Faxon.[2] In 1793, at the age of 8, Thayer was sent to live with his uncle Azariah Faxon and attend school inWashington, New Hampshire. There he metGeneral Benjamin Pierce, who, like Faxon, was a veteran of theRevolutionary War. In 1803 Thayer matriculated atDartmouth College, graduating in 1807 as valedictorian of his class. However, he never gave the valedictory address at Dartmouth, having been granted an appointment toWest Point by PresidentThomas Jefferson at the behest of General Pierce. Thayer graduated from the United States Military Academy after a single year and received his commission as asecond lieutenant in 1808. His first assignment was to supervise the construction of Fort Warren (later renamedFort Winthrop) inBoston Harbor, foreshadowing the bulk of his later career.[3]
During theWar of 1812, Thayer directed the fortification and defense ofNorfolk, Virginia, and was promoted to major. In 1815, he was provided $5,000 to travel to Europe, where he studied for two years at the FrenchÉcole Polytechnique. While traveling in Europe he amassed a collection ofscience and especiallymathematics texts that now form a valuable collection forhistorians of mathematics.[4]
In 1817, PresidentJames Monroe ordered Thayer to West Point to becomesuperintendent of the Military Academy following the resignation of CaptainAlden Partridge. Under his stewardship, the Academy became the nation's first college of engineering.[5][6]
While at West Point Thayer established numerous traditions and policies which are still in use in the present day. These include the values of honor and responsibility, strict mental and physical discipline, the demerit system, summer encampment, high academic standards and the requirement that cadets maintain outstanding military bearing and appearance at all times.
One of Thayer's reforms was to establish a standard four year curriculum with the cadets organized into four classes. Starting with the Class of 1823, July 1 was the date each year when the graduating class was commissioned and the entering class was sworn in. The graduation date was moved up to June 15 starting in 1861.
Many of the cadets who attended West Point during Thayer's tenure held key leadership positions during theMexican War andAmerican Civil War.
Colonel Thayer's time at West Point ended with his resignation in 1833, after a disagreement with PresidentAndrew Jackson. He was elected an Associate Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1834.[7]
Thayer returned to duty with theArmy Corps of Engineers. Thayer spent the great majority of the next 30 years as the chief engineer for the Boston area. During this time he oversaw the construction of bothFort Warren andFort Independence to defend Boston Harbor. Thayer's great engineering ability can be observed in both of the above-mentioned forts. He was elected as a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1838.[8]
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. He temporarily commanded of the Corps of Engineers from December 21, 1857, to December 22, 1858, while its commander, ColonelJoseph G. Totten, was on a leave of absence. In December 1858 Thayer was placed on an extended sick leave of absence. He did not play an active role in the American Civil War.
In August 1861,Fort Thayer, an earthwork fort part of theCivil War Defenses of Washington, DC, was built and named in his honor.[9]
Thayer retired from the Army on June 1, 1863, with the rank of colonel in the Corps of Engineers. He 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.
In 1869, as a result of Thayer's enduring legacy at theUnited States Military Academy, a meeting took place in Braintree between Thayer and the West Point graduate and Civil War hero Brigadier GeneralRobert Anderson. An outcome of Anderson's 1869 meeting with Thayer was the establishment of the Military Academy's Association of Graduates (AoG).
In 1867, Thayer donated $40,000 to the trustees ofDartmouth College to create theThayer School of Engineering. Thayer personally located and recommended USMA graduate Lieutenant Robert Fletcher to Dartmouth presidentAsa Dodge Smith. Fletcher became the school's first—then only—professor and dean.
The Thayer School admitted its first three students to a graduate program in 1871. Also in 1871 at the bequest of his willThayer Academy inBraintree, Massachusetts, was conceived. It opened September 12, 1877.
Thayer died on September 7, 1872, at his home inBraintree. He was reinterred atWest Point Cemetery in 1877. Thayer's obituary appeared in theNew York Times on September 8, 1872.[2]
Thayer's papers and manuscripts are divided between the U.S. Military Academy Library, West Point,New York, and the Dartmouth College Library,Hanover,New Hampshire.[2]
In 1852herpetologistsSpencer Fullerton Baird andCharles Frédéric Girard of theSmithsonian Institution named a species of lizard in honor of Thayer,Sceloporus thayeri, which was later placed in the synonymy ofSceloporus undulatus hyacinthinus.[10]
On April 21, 1864,PresidentAbraham Lincoln nominated Thayer for the award of the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general, United States Army (Regular Army), to rank from May 31, 1863, the day before he retired,[11] for long and faithful service.[12] TheU.S. Senate confirmed the award on April 27, 1864.[11]
To honor his achievements, in 1958, theSylvanus Thayer Award was created by the United States Military Academy.He has been honored by theUnited States Postal Service with a 9¢Great Americans seriespostage stamp.
Thayer Street, in theInwood, Manhattan section of New York City, is named after him.[13]
The house where Thayer was born in Braintree, Massachusetts is preserved and open to the public.
SculptorJoseph Kiselewski[14] created a thirty-two inch bust of Sylvanus Thayer for theHall of Fame for Great Americans at New York University in the Bronx, New York City. It was installed in 1966.
The Pale Blue Eye (2022) is a film adaptation of the 2003 novel byLouis Bayard featuringTimothy Spall as Thayer.
| Insignia | Rank | Date | Branch |
|---|---|---|---|
| No insignia | Cadet | 20 March 1807 | United States Military Academy |
 | Second Lieutenant | 23 February 1808 | Corps of Engineers |
 | First Lieutenant | 1 July 1812 | Corps of Engineers |
 | Captain | 13 October 1813 | Corps of Engineers |
 | Major | 20 February 1815 | Brevet |
 | Lieutenant Colonel | 3 March 1823 | Brevet |
| Major | 24 May 1828 | Corps of Engineers |
| Colonel | 3 March 1833 | Brevet |
| Lieutenant Colonel | 7 July 1838 | Corps of Engineers |
| Colonel | 3 March 1863 | Corps of Engineers |
 | Brigadier General | 31 May 1863 | Brevet |
| Colonel | 1 June 1863 | Retired list |
Source:[2]
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Superintendents of the United States Military Academy 1817–1833 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
