Virginia Military Institute was founded in 1839 as the nation's first state-sponsored military college. Located first in the state arsenal on this site, it educates citizen-soldiers through a rigorous academic program within a military framework and under an unparalleled honor code, with all cadets participating in the Reserve Officer Training Corps and choosing Army, Marine Corps, Navy, or Air Force; typically about half of each graduating class accepts a commission. In 1850, architect Alexander Jackson Davis introduced the Gothic Revival style that created the Institute's distinctive appearance, and in 1851 Maj. Thomas J. Jackson, later known as "Stonewall" Jackson, arrived to teach physics. During the Civil War, the Corps of Cadets was called to service more than 15 times, and the Institute itself came under bombardment. After the war, it rebuilt both its buildings and its faculty, adding Matthew Fontaine Maury, the renowned oceanographer known as the "Pathfinder of the Seas." Its notable alumni include General of the Army George C. Marshall, Class of 1901, World War II Army chief of staff, architect of the Marshall Plan, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient; Adm. Richard Byrd, Class of 1908, who received the Medal of Honor for his explorations of the North and South poles; and Jonathan M. Daniels, Class of 1961, a Civil Rights activist of the 1960s who was murdered and later declared a lesser saint of the Episcopal Church for his sacrifice. The Corps of Cadets now numbers approximately 1,700 men and women from around the country and several foreign nations.