Hargrave Military Academy was founded in 1909 by T. Ryland Sanford and John Hunt Hargrave as the Chatham Training School (CTS). The two founders brought in
Charles R. Warren, founder and leader of the former
Warren Training School that had operated in Chatham from 1906 to 1909, to serve as the first head-of-school at Hargrave. In 1925, in honor of J. Hunt Hargrave's extensive financial and organizational support to the school, CTS was renamed to Hargrave Military Academy (HMA). The renaming also served to remove ambiguity about the nature of the school, as Hargrave had already adopted the style and methods of a military high school by the 1920s. HMA has been approved for
JROTC numerous times since then, but many in the Hargrave community, most notably the Board of Trustees, feared that the addition of that program would put too much emphasis on military studies and reduce the emphasis on academics. With enrollment at 586 for the 1970–1971 academic year, the Hargrave Corps of Cadets was organized into two battalions led by a Corps Commander with the rank of cadet colonel. Since 1971, the HMA Corps of Cadets has remained as a single battalion; its commander is a Cadet Lieutenant Colonel. Female cadets were admitted for the first time in the 1975–1976 year, and Geri Lou Huizinga and Lynn Emerson became the first women to graduate from HMA in 1976. Hargrave made the transition back to an all-male school in the early 2000s; the last female cadets graduated in 2009. In 1981, the school presented for the first time the General
Douglas MacArthur Award; the first cadet to receive it was Henry A. Haymes. That same year, school officials turned down the request to film on campus by the producers of the movie
Taps, due to disagreements with film's plot and opposition to the producers’ request to erect a wall around the front of the campus. A four-week summer program began in 2009. In September, Hargrave celebrated the school's 100th founders day under the leadership of Colonel Wheeler L. Baker. In 2021, a Hargrave graduate made history as the Honorable
Sloan D. Gibson, HMA Class of 1971, returned as the first alumnus to serve as President of Hargrave.
Organization Hargrave Military Academy is governed by a board of trustees, who together with the President act as the governors of the school. Hargrave created a
charitable foundation to allow
philanthropists an opportunity to make gifts to the school. Thirteen men have led Hargrave as president since its foundation, while the first leader, Charles R. Warren, held the title of headmaster.
Presidents of HMA: • Headmaster
Charles R. Warren (1909–1911) • Rev.
T. Ryland Sanford (1911–1918) • Col.
Aubrey H. Camden (1918–1951) • Col.
Joseph Hathaway Cosby (1951–1970) • Col. Vernon Thomas Lankford Sr. (1970–1987) • Col. Michael Bruce Colegrove (1987–1989) • Col. Andrew W. Todd (1989–1990) • Col. Thomas N. Cunningham (1990–1997) • Col.
John W. Ripley, USMC (ret.) (1997–1999) • Dr.
Wheeler L. Baker, Col. USMC (ret.) (1999–2011) • Brig. Gen. Doyle Broome, USA (ret.) (2011–2017) • Dr.
Wheeler L. Baker, Col. USMC (ret.) (2017–2018) • Col. Michael Allen Brown, USMC (ret.) (2018–2021) • The Honorable
Sloan D. Gibson, former deputy secretary, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (2021–2022) • Eric F. Peterson (2022–2025) • The Honorable
Sloan D. Gibson, former deputy secretary, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (2025–present) ==Teachings and curriculum==