Colonel John Peyre Thomas Sr. (March 17, 1833 – February 11, 1912) was an educator, politician and historian who served as 6th Superintendent of the South Carolina Military Academy (now The Citadel).

[3][4] Thomas was in command of the Arsenal cadet company when the entire 343 man Corps of Cadets from the SCMA joined a Confederate States Army force of 550 at the Battle of Tulifinny in December 1864; they successfully defended a section of the Savannah to Charleston rail line against a Union force of 5,000, allowing more than 100,000 Confederate troops to escape the advancing army of General William T. Sherman.

[8][9] In 1882 by act of the South Carolina legislature the SCMA was reopened with a single campus at the site of the former Citadel Academy on Marion Square in Charleston, with Thomas as superintendent;[10] he resigned in 1885 but continued as a member of the Board of Visitors.

He authored numerous books, among them being The History of the South Carolina Military Academy published in 1893, which covered the first 50 years of the school's existence.

Colonel Thomas died in Columbia, South Carolina, at the age of 78 and is buried in the cemetery of Trinity Episcopal Church.