The UT Military Science Department predates those of all other state universities. Military instruction began in 1844, with the formation of a cadet infantry company led by Professor Albert Lea. In 1860 John McMillan Brooks organized a military company and became the institution’s first military instructor. When the university reopened after the Civil War, it operated much as a military institution.
The terms of the Land-Grant Endowment accepted in 1869 required the teaching of military tactics at the university. In 1871 Lieutenant Thomas Thornburgh was sent by the War Department to be commandant of cadets, and this assignment was followed by several additional army appointments to the post following his resumption of army duties in 1873. A unit of cavalry was introduced in 1895. It was equipped—complete with sabers—and occasionally had mounted practice.
Real military instruction, however, began in 1888, when Lieutenant Edward E. Gayle was sent by the army to the university as professor of military science and tactics. In 1891 Lieutenant Lawrence D. Tyson replaced him. In 1888 four years of military instruction/service on campus did not necessarily lead to a commission.
In 1917, in accord with the National Defense Act of 1916, the university converted its military science program into one in accord with the act, and the Reserve Officer Training Corps was begun. The program was altered to conform to the Defense Act of 1920, as the structure of the US military was updated and refined. Under the new system, freshmen and sophomore men continued to be required to drill as in the past, but juniors and seniors who elected to continue to drill were furnished uniforms and paid approximately $9 per week as they were prepared for the Officers’ Reserve Corps. In return for the funds and uniforms, they were required to devote five hours a week to military work, to attend two summer camps at the government’s expense, and to serve for six months on active duty as a lieutenant. UT discontinued compulsory ROTC participation for freshmen and sophomore men in fall 1967.