J. E. B. Stuart died eight years before the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College came into being in 1872. Still, surprisingly, his influence on the school that became Virginia Tech is profound. The following are some of the men connected to Stuart who influenced the university in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Retired Australian Colonel Patrick W. Carlton wrote in his paper Confederates in the Collegium: The Influence of J. E. B. Stuart’s Leadership on the Development of Virginia Tech “that service with Major General J. E. B. Stuart, Confederate States of America, positively influenced the development of half a dozen ambitious and intelligent young men, whose later service to the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (VAMC) was both useful and noteworthy.”
In 1857, Lt. J. E. B. Stuart was fighting the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers along the North Fork of the Solomon River in Kansas Territory. Stuart saved the life of a young lieutenant, Lunsford L. Lomax. Lomax later served as a major general under Stuart at the Battle of Yellow Tavern on May 11, 1864. Stuart received a mortal wound from one of George Custer’s Michigan Cavalry that day. Lomax served as President of VAMC from 1886 until 1891.
Others close to Stuart served on the Board of Visitors at what became Virginia Tech, including major generals W. H. F. “Rooney” Lee (1873-1878 and 1886-1888), son of Robert E. Lee and Fitzhugh Lee (1878-1881), nephew of Robert E. Lee. Both men served in Stuart’s Cavalry Division in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Finally, close to home, Stuart’s brother, William Alexander Stuart (1872-1874), served on the Board of Visitors.
Other members of the Board of Visitors who served in the Confederate Armies included Brigadier General Joseph R. Anderson, Dr. Harvey Black, and Brigadier General James H. Lane. Lane’s 18th North Carolina had shot “Stonewall” Jackson in a friendly fire incident, which resulted in Jackson’s death from pneumonia. Lane left Virginia after he got into a fight on the dais during graduation and landed at Auburn University.
The first President of VAMC from 1872 until 1879 was Captain Charles L. C. Minor, who served as a volunteer aide in the Second Virginia Cavalry under Stuart. Interestingly, one of the first members of the Board of Visitors was Colonel John Penn of Patrick County, Virginia, who worked in the Virginia Legislature to secure the land grant college for Blacksburg after Virginia rejoined the Union in 1870, during Reconstruction.
Another Thomas Nelson Conrad was the headmaster at the Preston and Olin Institute in 1872 when the boys’ school became VAMC. He served as a professor and became President of the college from 1881 until 1886. Conrad was a chaplain and scout under Stuart in the Third Virginia Cavalry during the War Between The States. VAMC became the land grant school in Virginia after the Morrill Act was passed in the U.S. Congress during the Civil War.
Lieutenant Colonel William Willis Blackford may be the most influential of those who served with J.E.B. Stuart. Blackford wrote War Years With Jeb Stuart, which was published in 1945 under the influence of Douglas Southall Freeman. Blackford began his career in the First Virginia Cavalry and later became an engineer. In 1880, Blackford became the Professor of Mechanics and Drawing and also served as Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds at VAMC. He developed a plan for the campus that many Boards of Visitors and Presidents followed, effectively laying out the campus that is today Virginia Tech.
Finally, there is Private John M. McBryde of the 1st South Carolina Cavalry, who served in the cavalry of J. E. B. Stuart during the War Between the States. He served as President of Virginia Tech from 1891 to 1907. He was not the only man who served under Stuart who made his way to Blacksburg, Virginia. “John McLaren McBryde, known as the “Father of VPI,” laid the foundation for modern Virginia Tech. He increased bachelor’s degree offerings, added graduate programs, created an infirmary, and adopted the motto “Ut Prosim” (That I May Serve). He encouraged the formation and growth of student activities and was at the helm when the first football team was formed and the school colors of orange and maroon were adopted.
In the Spring of 1982, I found myself in the first floor auditorium of McBryde Hall for a class I had enrolled in. Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr., walked into the classroom at 100 McBryde Hall at 9 am to teach the largest Civil War History class in the nation, and my life was changed forever.
Some people associate the Cavaliers, specifically the Virginia Cavaliers. Those cavaliers were from the English Civil War of the 1600s on the side of Charles I, the beheaded Stuart King of England. I often wonder what the founder of Mr. Jefferson’s University would think of the King of England’s followers serving as the mascot of its athletic teams. Those Cavaliers are not the ones Burke Davis wrote about in his biography of J. E. B. Stuart, The Last Cavalier.
For further reading about J. E. B. Stuart and Virginia Tech, look here. Carlton, Patrick W., “Confederates in the Collegium: The Influence of J.E.B. Stuart’s Leadership on the Development of Virginia Tech,” by Patrick W. Carlton, VT Special Collections and University Archives Online, accessed August 17, 2025, https://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/items/show/13118.
Tom Perry can be contacted at freestateofpatrick@yahoo.com. The J. E. B. Stuart Birthplace is at www.jebstuart.org.
