every graduate. He assigned number one to the first West Point graduate, Joseph Gardner Swift, and then numbered all successive graduates in sequence. Before his death in 1892, General Cullum completed the first three volumes of a work that eventually comprised 10 volumes, titled General Cullum's Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy, and covering USMA classes from 1802 through 1850. From 1802 through the Class of 1977, graduates were listed by General Order of Merit. Beginning with the Class of 1978, graduates were listed alphabetically within each class. Ten graduates have an "A" suffix after their Cullum Number. For various reasons these graduates were omitted from the original class rosters, and a suffix letter was added to avoid renumbering the entire class and subsequent classes.
Former cadets, those who attended but did not graduate but separated under honorable conditions, are also given Cullum numbers in a different configuration.
=== Class ring ===
West …
