Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/546

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

tion at Washington and Lee University and later at the University of Virginia. After his admission to the bar he began the prac- tice of his profession. In this he did not long continue, however, abandoning his legal work to accept the chair of engineer- ing at the Virginia Military Institute, to which he was elected in 1882 and which he filled until 1890, and in the latter year be- came professor of mathematics. He was professor of mathematics until June, 1907, when, upon the retirement of General Scott Shipp, after fifty-one years of service, he became acting superintendent, one year later being elected superintendent, his pres- ent office. General Nichols is the third superintendent who has directed the affairs of the school, the first, Major-General Francis H. Smith, whose devoted service is constantly recalled to the students of the institute by the academic building erected as a memorial building and bearing his name, and the second. General Scott Shipp, the present superintendent emeritus of the Virginia Military Institute. General Smith and General Shipp for sixty-nine years con- ducted the affairs of the school, and death having called the former, the honorary asso- ciation of the latter with the institute that reaped the harvest of his conspicuous abil- ity is a beautiful tribute.

General Nichols was for several years engaged in the solving of railroad engineer- ing problems in collaboration with the in- specting engineer of the New York Central and Hudson River railroad. Later he was engaged in similar work in connection with the International Railway Congress. Al- though busily engaged with his duties as a professor at the Virginia Military Institute, General Nichols found time for the exhaus- tive preparation of two valuable additions to mathematical literature, an "Analytical Geometry," published in 1893, and a "Differ- ential and Integral Calculus," which ap- peared in 1900. These works, carefully planned and admirably constructed, show well the attributes of the scholar, and in arrangement follow a most logical and natural course, a vast improvement over some of the complicated productions of past years.

General Nichols married (first) October 28, 1886, Edmonia L., daughter of Dr. Liv- ingston Waddell, who died June 29. 1904; (second) November 14, 1905, a widow, Airs.

Evelyn (Junkin) Rust, daughter of Rev. William F. Junkin.

While to most Virginians the story of the institute is an old one, as a matter of gen- eral interest it is well to brief it here. The Virginia Military Institute was established under an act of the general assembly of Vir- ginia, passed in March, 1839, the first corps of cadets being mustered into the service of the state November 11, 1839. This com- pany was immediately substituted for a company of soldiers that had been main- tained by the state at an annual cost of six thousand dollars to garrison the western arsenal at Lexington, in which were stored thirty thousand muskets and a large quan- tity of military supplies. In accordance with a plan advanced by J. T. L. Preston, a citi- zen of Lexington, for thirty-seven years an honored professor upon the active list and afterwards emeritus professor in the insti- tute, in addition to the duties of an armed guard these cadets were required to pursue a course of scientific and military studies. In May, 1839. the meeting of the first board of visitors was held in Lexington, the presi- dent of the board being Colonel Claude Crozet, graduate of the Polytechnic School of France, a soldier under Napoleon in the Russian campaign of 1812, subsequently a professor in the United States Military Academy at West Point, and at the time a citizen of Virgmia. The first act of the new board was to recognize the eminent fitness of General Francis H. Smith, a distinguished graduate of West Point, and at that time professor of mathematics in Hampden-Sid- ney College, for the position of superintend- ent. Prosecuting its special ends and wisely guided, the school grew rapidly in public favor, the legislature from time to time in- creasing its annuity and appropriating large amounts to provide new barracks and to equip the institute, and in 1861 it was filled to capacity.

During the war between the states, cadets from the institute were repeatedly called into active service in the valley of Virginia, and on the lines around Richmond. On the 15th day of May, 1864, at Newmarket, the corps of cadets, organized as a battalion of infantry of four companies, and as a platoon of artillery, serving two three-inch rifle guns, lost over fifty killed and wounded out of an aggregate of two hundred and fifty. On June 11, 1864, the barracks, mess hall.