List of commandants of cadets of the United States Military Academy

The commandant is head of the Department of Tactics and, under the superintendent is responsible for the administration, discipline, and military training of cadets at the academy.

A model for all cadets, the commandant is an academy graduate of impeccable character and bearing who has demonstrated accomplishment in both academic excellence and active military service in the field.

During the superintendency of Sylvanus Thayer, the corps of cadets was organized into a battalion of two companies with an officer of the army appointed as commander.

With a system of divided responsibility, which ultimately rests on one or two comrades, he should control all by strict and increasing exactions.

To make his government successful he should be endowed with the highest soldierly qualities in personal bearing at drill, and even in every act while subject to vision of his corps"[2] ^ a: "Special Collections: Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy".