The United States Military Academy (USMA) is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort during the American Revolutionary War, as it sits on strategic high ground overlooking the Hudson River 50 miles (80 km) north of New York City. It is the oldest of the five American service academies and educates cadets for commissioning into the United States Army.
Secretary of the Army Pete Geren, center, with the U.S. Corps of Cadets senior leadership and Brig. Gen. Michael Linnington, far left, Commandant of the Corps of Cadets, after the congressional retirement review of the Corps of Cadets for Rep. Dave Hobson, center right, and Rep. Jim Saxton, center left, 2008
Artillery cadet in 1805, wearing a mixture of commissioned and non-commissioned uniforms prescribed for artillery cadets
West Point, from Phillipstown (1831) engraving by W. J. Bennett showing the original buildings of the United States Military Academy
Thayer monument
Ulysses S. Grant
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Ulysses S. Grant was an American military officer, politician, and the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As commanding general, Grant led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 and briefly served as U.S. secretary of war. An effective civil rights executive, Grant signed a bill to create the Justice Department and worked with Radical Republicans to protect African Americans during Reconstruction.
Grant's birthplace in Point Pleasant, Ohio
Grant as a young officer, c. 1845–1847
The Battle of Monterrey during which Grant saw military action