2o6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Military Academy at "West Point, on July 28, a position which he held 

 until July 1, 1833; during which time he was thrice promoted, and 

 retired with the respect of those with whom he was immediately con- 

 nected in the departments of instruction, and with a reputation as a 

 disciplinarian unequalled by any of his predecessors. After leaving 

 West Point, he was engaged in superintending the construction of 

 Forts Warren and Independence, in Boston Harbor, — a work which 

 he attended to in person for ten years, in connection with the other 

 duties assigned him in that period ; namely, the general supervision 

 of harbor improvements and coast defences in Maine and Massa- 

 chusetts. Fort Winthrop, now far advanced toward completion, was 

 begun under his direction, as were also the harbor improvements, now 

 in progress under the supervision of General Benham. The interval 

 between 1858 and 1863 was passed on sick leave of al)sence. Upon 

 his resumption of duty, he received the full rank of colonel of engineers, 

 and a month later was brevetted briojadier-weneral for loner and faithful 

 service. General Thayer was twenty-five years of his active service a 

 member of the board of engineers for coast defences, and nineteen years 

 its president; in command of the corps of engineers in 1858; and a 

 member of various special engineer, ordnance, and military boards 

 from 1825 to 1858. He retired from active service June 1, 1863, 

 having been borne on the army register more than forty-five years. 



General Thayer received the degree of A.M. from Dartmouth Col- 

 lege in 1810, and from Harvard University in 1825; LL.D. from St. 

 John's College, Maryland, in 1 830 ; from Kenyon College, Ohio, and 

 Dartmouth College, in 1846; and from Harvard in 1857. He was 

 elected a Fellow of this Academy in 1834. He was also a member 

 of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and of various 

 other scientific societies. 



To General Thayer, as superintendent of the Military Academy, the 

 country owes a debt of gratitude. Dui-ing his administration the whole 

 organization was remodelled ; and the discipline and instruction placed 

 upon that firm basis which has ever since withstood the assaults of its 

 enemies, and earned for our national school its well-merited repu- 

 tation. 



In his later years, while engaged in constructing Fort Warren, he 

 was the same rigid disciplinarian, imperious, despotic, brooking no inter- 

 ference where his will was law, and perhaps more feared than loved by 

 those who served under him. He had that high administrative ability 

 which exacts the utmost from all its agents : his eye was everywhere, even 

 upon the hod-carrier who worked under him ; and any delinquency or 



