William Gilham William Henry Gilham ( January 13 , 1818 – November 16 , 1872 ) was an American soldier , teacher , chemist , and author . A member of the faculty at Virginia Military Institute , in 1860 , he wrote a military manual which was still in modern use 145 years later . He served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War , and became president of Southern Fertilizing Company in Richmond after the War . Childhood , education , military service . William Henry Gilham was born in Vincennes , Indiana on January 13 , 1818 . his father ' s family came from Virginia . He was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York , where he graduated 5th in the Class of 1840 . He became a lieutenant in the 3rd Artillery in the United States Army and fought in the Seminole War in Florida . From September 1841 to August 1844 , he was Assistant Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at the U . S . Military Academy ( West Point ) . He served in the Mexican - American War in 1846 . The degree of A . M . was conferred upon him by College of William and Mary in Williamsburg , Virginia in 1852 . Virginia Military Institute . In 1846 , he became a professor at Virginia Military Institute ( VMI ) , then a recently founded state military college in Lexington , Virginia . During the next five years , he developed VMI ' s departments of Chemistry and Agriculture , taught infantry tactics and served as the Commandant of Cadets . To lighten the load on Major Gilham , in 1851 , VMI hired another professor , Major Thomas Jonathon Jackson , later better known as " Stonewall " Jackson , who was also a graduate of West Point , and a veteran of the conflicts in Florida and Mexico . As a professor , Gilham was interested in geological matters . In 1857 , his " Report on the Soil of Powhatan County , Virginia " was published in Richmond by Ritchie & Dunnavant . A copy of a request he made to the same year for the legislature to fund acquisition of " a complete collection of minerals and fossils for the use of my classes " is in the collection of the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond . Majors Gilham and Jackson taught together at VMI for the rest of the decade . In November 1859 , at the request of the Virginia Governor Henry A . Wise , Major Gilham led a contingent of the VMI Cadets Corps to Charles Town to provide an additional military presence for at the execution by hanging on December 2 , 1859 of militant abolitionist John Brown following his raid on the federal arsenal at Harper ' s Ferry . Major Jackson was placed in command of the artillery , consisting of two howitzers manned by 21 cadets . In response to the raid on Harper ' s Ferry , Governor Wise ordered Gilham to write a manual to train volunteers and militia . Finished in the fall of 1860 , it was entitled " Manual of Instruction for the Volunteers and Militia of the United States " and was initially published in Philadelphia . Family life . According to VMI records , while residing in Lexington , Major Gilham and his wife Cordelia Adelaide Hayden Gilham ( 1826 – 1913 ) had 7 children , 3 born after moving to Virginia . Their daughter Emma Hayden Gilham ( b . 1855 ) married William Nelson Page , a civil engineer who became co - founder of the Virginian Railway . American Civil War . In 1861 , as the American Civil War broke out , the Confederate Army had a lot of new recruits . Promoted to the rank of colonel , Gilham became the Commandant of Camp Lee , at Richmond , Virginia , the camp of instruction for thousands of Virginians . Gilham ' s manual proved to be the ideal book for the training of these young men . Col . Gilham briefly commanded a brigade in the field in 1861 and 1862 , but returned to teaching at VMI . On May 15 , 1864 , the VMI cadets participated in the Battle of New Market . Gilham was present , but did not command the young troops during the battle . After Union troops led by Union General David Hunter raided Lexington , and burned buildings at VMI , the VMI cadets were stationed at Richmond for the remainder of the War . Major Gilham ' s house , a campus landmark , was later rebuilt to original specifications after the War . Post - war . After the War , VMI had no money to pay its instructors . Gilham went to work in Richmond for Southern Fertilizer Company , which occupied the former Confederate Libby Prison facility near Richmond ' s Tobacco Row . One of the company ' s products , Gilham ' s Tobacco Fertilizer , was manufactured there . William Gilham died in Vermont on November 16 , 1872 , aged 54 , of undisclosed causes . He was interred at Lexington , Virginia ' s Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery .