[1] In 1858, Joseph Tarr Copeland, a U.S. Army general who would later serve in the American Civil War, purchased several acres of land and began to build his retirement home on the shores of Orchard Lake.

Seeing the opportunity at hand, Rogers bought the land with the help of some wealthy Detroiters, and later that year he established the Michigan Military Academy.

[4] On June 19, 1879, William Tecumseh Sherman, General in Chief of the U.S. Army, delivered a variant of his famous "War Is Hell" speech to the graduating class.

A total of 10,000 people arrived to listen to Sherman's speech, and the press reported that it was the largest number of people ever to gather within the township's boundaries (at that time the village of Orchard Lake was part of West Bloomfield Township).

All cadets were taught to use a .45 caliber Springfield rifle, and the academy had an 8-inch siege mortar and Gatling guns at its disposal for military drills.

Rogers and his staff allowed for holiday parties and arranged dances with nearby all-girls schools.

Additional buildings, include a Riding Hall (1881), Cadets Barracks (1884), Engine House (1889), Gymnasium (1896).

There were also several barns, and these and many other buildings were demolished, replaced, or destroyed by fire throughout the academy's short history.

Rogers, who was terminally ill at the time, quickly fired several teachers whom he blamed for instigating the complaints.

Joseph Dabrowski, the director of the Polish Seminary of Detroit, purchased the campus and moved his school there.