The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is a public senior military college in Lexington, Virginia. It was founded in 1839 as America's first state military college and is the oldest public senior military college in the United States. In keeping with its founding principles and unlike any other senior military college in the United States, VMI enrolls cadets only and awards bachelor's degrees exclusively. The institute grants degrees in 14 disciplines in engineering, science, and the liberal arts.

During the American Civil War, the United States Army, the land force that fought to preserve the collective Union of the states, was often referred to as the Union Army, the Grand Army of the Republic, the Federal Army, or the Northern Army. It proved essential to the restoration and preservation of the United States as a working, viable republic.