Student Participation
On March 16, Socrates Maupin, the faculty chair and a professor of chemistry, noted in his journal: "The Rotunda was broken into last night and the Confederate flag erected on the dome by persons unknown." In a memoir published in 1910, Randolph H. McKim, of Baltimore, Maryland, admitted to being one of those unknown persons. He and six other students "bought the bunting and had the flag made, seven stars and three bars, by some young lady friends who were bound to secrecy," he wrote. On the night in question, the students "sawed their way through five doors to gain access to the roof of the rotunda, where, in their stocking feet, they at length succeeded, not without risk of a fatal fall, in giving the 'Stars and Bars' to the breeze, just as the first faint streaks of dawn appeared on the eastern hills." Albert Taylor Bledsoe, a professor of mathematics and himself a secessionist, convinced the students to remove the flag until such time as Virginia had officially left the Union.
Once that happened, on April 17, and the war had begun in earnest, many students joined volunteer companies organized at the university. The Sons of Liberty was one such group, formed in 1860 with seventy-four men and William Barksdale as its captain. Robert E. Lee Jr. signed up, prompting his father to write his mother on April 30, 1861, "that I could not consent to take boys from their school & young men from their colleges & put them in the ranks at the beginning of a war when they are not wanted & when there were men enough for the purpose." The Sons of Liberty disbanded on May 8 so its men could enlist in the Confederate army. In 1862, the younger Lee joined the Rockbridge Artillery and fought later that year at Second Manassas and Antietam.
Another company, the Southern Guard, formed in January 1861, with 100 men and Edward S. Hutter Jr. as captain; it also disbanded on May 8. The Jefferson Davis Corps had organized by April 19, the same day the Confederate flag—by order of the faculty this time—was raised over the Rotunda. A fourth company, the University Volunteers, was organized in April or May, with sixty-five men and James Parran Crane as captain. On August 13, the University Volunteers became Company G of the 59th Virginia Infantry Regiment, disbanding on December 7 so that its members, who included students from outside Virginia, could join units from their home states.
Alumni and Faculty Participation
A much smaller number of University of Virginia alumni fought for the Union. Some hailed from states that did not secede, such as Bernard Gaines Farrar Jr., a native of Saint Louis, Missouri, who rose to become a brevet brigadier general of U.S. volunteers. William Octavius Eversfield, a Maryland native, received his medical degree from the university in 1860 and went on to serve as an acting assistant surgeon in the Union army. Charles Philip Redmond, who attended the university in 1858, fought for a regiment from his native Iowa, and Charles Augustus Briggs, who attended from 1857 to 1859 and later became a prominent theologian, fought in the 7th New York Infantry Regiment. Not all were from the North, however. Charles H. McElroy, of Fincastle, became a major in the 96th Ohio Infantry Regiment. Stephen D. Kennedy, of Martinsburg, served as a surgeon in the U.S. Navy, as did John Thornley, of Caroline County.
In April 1863 the university granted Schele De Vere a leave of absence so that he could travel to Europe on a diplomatic mission. He apparently never left Virginia, however, possibly because another faculty member, George Frederick Holmes, a professor of history and general literature, wrote a letter to the secretary of state criticizing Schele De Vere.
Enrollment and Facilities
Enrollment declined steeply with the war, from 600 students in 1860–1861 to 66 in 1861–1862, 46 in 1862–1863 (of whom 8 graduated), 50 in 1863–1864, and 55 in 1864–1865. Despite such low numbers, the board of visitors, on July 4, 1863, deemed it "proper & expedient" to keep the school open. Still, even the board found it difficult to meet, managing a quorum only ten times in four years.
The university's facilities, meanwhile, deteriorated with lack of use and upkeep. A few buildings quartered wounded Confederate soldiers; otherwise, to more than one visitor the school looked as if it had closed. On July 25, 1862, the board of visitors demanded the removal of all soldier-patients from university property, financial reimbursement for property damage, which included bloodstains on the floor of the Rotunda, and "a proper rent for the use of the buildings." A year later, however, conditions had not much improved. "The Dormitories are many of them left open, & in the precise condition in which they were left by the soldiers—loose straw on the floors makes them peculiarly liable to fire," the board reported on July 2, 1863. "In some instances the windows have been entirely removed, & in many the glass destroyed. The enclosures are, we are informed, frequently destroyed, & cattle allowed to graze on the lawns."
Occupation
Union cavalrymen looted a number of houses and created conditions under which a number of enslaved African Americans escaped to freedom. On March 6, the day the occupiers left, the university faculty met to inventory the damage. In addition to a cannon destroyed on Observatory Hill, the school had lost two horses, all their feed, and one slave in the service of, but likely not owned by, the institution. By and large, however, "the Faculty and others connected with the University have reason to congratulate themselves that the institution and its inmates fared better than could have been anticipated during the presence of the enemy in our midst."
After the War
To encourage interest among prospective students, the university took out advertisements in more than 100 newspapers across the nation in 1865 and 1866. A notice in the Nashville Union and American, for instance, appeared on December 14, 1865, and reminded readers that "There are at the present time two hundred and thirty students in the University of Virginia, a great majority of whom were in the army during the war." An ad in the Galveston Daily News, on May 3, 1866, noted that "Among the students at the University of Virginia, at Charlottesville, are the following: Benjamin Wood, jr., son of Mr. Wood, of the New York Daily News; A. W. Pope, nephew of the Federal General Pope; Hugh Davis and R. Davis Farish, nephews of Jeff. Davis; W. W. Foote, son of ex-rebel Congressman Foote, of Tennessee; J. W. Wilmer, son of Bishop Wilmer, of Alabama; and Charles E. Rives, son of the Hon. Alexander Rives, of Charlottesville, Va." Even with such advertisements, it took until 1904 for enrollment to surpass antebellum levels.
A Confederate cemetery was established at the university in 1893, and bronze tablets bearing the names of students and alumni killed during the war were placed at the Rotunda in 1906. In 1912, the university issued "Gift of Alma Mater to Her Son" medals to those alumni who had served. The university has largely avoided any formal mention of those students and alumni who served the Union during the war.
Time Line
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1819 - Thomas Jefferson founds the University of Virginia about a mile west of Charlottesville.
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1827 - The University Military School at the University of Virginia is founded.
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1831 - The University Volunteers, a company of cadets, is organized as part of the University Military School at the University of Virginia.
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1836 - After a student riot precipitated by the faculty's attempt to control the cadets' weapons, the University Military School at the University of Virginia is closed.
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1860 - The Sons of Liberty, a company of seventy-four University of Virginia volunteer soldiers, forms.
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Autumn 1860–Spring 1861 - The University of Virginia enrolls 600 students.
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January 1861 - The Southern Guard, a company of 100 volunteer soldiers from the University of Virginia, forms.
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March 16, 1861 - Socrates Maupin notes in his diary that, on the previous night, students at the University of Virginia broke into the Rotunda and raised the Confederate flag.
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April or May 1861 - The University Volunteers, a company of sixty-five soldiers from the University of Virginia, forms.
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April 17, 1861 - Delegates at the Virginia Convention in Richmond pass an Ordinance of Secession by a vote of 88 to 55. Thirty-two of the "no" votes come from trans-Allegheny delegates, who are more firmly Unionist than representatives from other parts of the state.
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April 19, 1861 - By this date, the Jefferson Davis Corps, a company of volunteer soldiers from the University of Virginia, has formed.
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April 30, 1861 - In a letter to his wife, Robert E. Lee objects to the decision by Robert E. Lee Jr., a student at the University of Virginia, to join the Confederate army.
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May 1861 - The University of Virginia reestablishes the University Military School, with 125 cadets.
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May 8, 1861 - The Sons of Liberty and the Southern Guard, two companies of volunteer soldiers from the University of Virginia, disband.
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July 1861 - Charlottesville General Hospital, a sprawling Confederate military medical facility, opens in Charlottesville and takes over various public and private buildings throughout the town, including hotels, churches, and facilities belonging to the University of Virginia. Its first patients are Confederate soldiers wounded at Manassas.
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August 13, 1861 - The University Volunteers from the University of Virginia become Company G of the 59th Virginia Infantry Regiment.
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Autumn 1861–Spring 1862 - The University of Virginia enrolls sixty-six students.
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September 1861 - By this date the University Military School at the University of Virginia, reestablished in May, is defunct.
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December 7, 1861 - Company G of the 59th Virginia Infantry Regiment disbands so that its members, originally students at the University of Virginia, can join units from their home states.
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July 25, 1862 - The University of Virginia board of visitors demand the removal of all soldier-patients from university property, financial reimbursement for property damage, and rent for the use of the buildings.
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Autumn 1862–Spring 1863 - The University of Virginia enrolls forty-six students, of whom eight graduate.
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January 3, 1863 - Socrates Maupin, chairman of the University of Virginia faculty, requests that the secretary of war exempt students from conscription.
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January 8, 1863 - Confederate secretary of war James A. Seddon refuses a request by the University of Virginia to exempt students from conscription.
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April 1863 - Maximilian Schele De Vere takes a leave of absence from the University of Virginia to travel to Europe to assist the Confederacy.
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July 2, 1863 - The University of Virginia board of visitors reports on the deterioration of university facilities.
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July 4, 1863 - Despite low enrollment and revenue problems, the University of Virginia board of visitors deems it "proper & expedient" to keep the school open.
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Autumn 1863–Spring 1864 - The University of Virginia enrolls fifty students.
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February 29, 1864 - Union general George A. Custer menaces Charlottesville and Albemarle County as part of the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid on Richmond. He is repulsed by local militia in a short skirmish on Rio Hill.
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June 11–14, 1864 - Union general David Hunter's forces shell Lexington and burn the Virginia Military Institute before occupying the town for several days during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864.
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Autumn 1864–Spring 1865 - The University of Virginia enrolls fifty-five students.
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March 3, 1865 - Charlottesville and University of Virginia officials surrender the town to Union generals Philip H. Sheridan and George A. Custer. Union forces burn the Charlottesville Manufacturing Company.
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March 6, 1865 - The Union occupation of Charlottesville ends as Union cavalry ride south, in the direction of Scottsville.
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March 6, 1865 - Members of the University of Virginia faculty meet to report on the recent occupation of Charlottesville by Union forces.
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April 4, 1865 - Union troops set fire to the University of Alabama.
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July 1865 - The University of Virginia graduates five students.
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1871 - The University Memorial: Biographical Sketches of Alumni of the University of Virginia Who Fell in the Confederate War by John Lipscomb Johnson is published.
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1893 - A Confederate cemetery is established at the University of Virginia.
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1906 - Bronze tablets bearing the names of University of Virginia students and alumni killed during the Civil War are placed at the Rotunda.
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1912 - The University of Virginia issues "Gift of Alma Mater to Her Son" medal to those alumni who served during the Civil War.
References
Further Reading
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Jordan, E. L., Jr. The University of Virginia during the Civil War. (2016, March 24). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/University_of_Virginia_During_the_Civil_War_The.
- MLA Citation:
Jordan, Ervin L., Jr. "The University of Virginia during the Civil War." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, 24 Mar. 2016. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: January 26, 2016 | Last modified: March 24, 2016
Contributed by Ervin L. Jordan Jr., an associate professor and research archivist at the University of Virginia's Small Special Collections Library. He writes about Civil War Virginia and African American history.