 | CHAPTER XVI Jefferson, Cabell and the University of Virginia |  |
CHAPTER XVI
MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS—THE CIVIL WAR
Early Military Spirit—Volunteer Company—Disbanded
for Insubordination—"Rebel" Enthusiasm Among
the Students—First Flag Raised and First Blood
Shed—Student Companies Formed—Southern Guard
—Sons of Liberty—"Boyish Rush to Duty"—Harper's
Ferry—Faculty and the War—Sheridan's Raid.
Very early in the history of the University students
who cared for that sort of thing were afforded
the opportunity for military drilling. William
Matthews was probably the first drill-master, for
he was engaged in 1826, and Captain Partridge the
next. The services of the latter ended in the spring
of 1833, because the riot of November 12 of that
year did not contribute to popularize military enterprises
with the professors. In 1831 the first volunteer
company was organized, and annually thereafter
until 1833, when the faculty ruthlessly disbanded
it on account of pronounced insubordination,
and no move was made to reorganize it until
1846. Then forty-two students petitioned for permission.
They set forth that the evolutions were a
harmless amusement, and healthful, and pledged
themselves to preserve good order, and not to load
their muskets during the session or to use them improperly.
Another motive, it was said, was a desire
to offer their services as volunteers, at the close
of the session, in the war with Mexico then in progress.
But the faculty, while awarding all credit
to the spirit which actuated the students, felt that
neither the general policy of the University nor the
formation of a company. Sixty years after, it looks
as if the petition could have been granted wisely,
with proper safeguards, and an outlet afforded for
the superabundant energies of the University boys.
Athletics were not then the fortunate factor in college
and university life they have since become, and
quoits and marbles, played under the arcades which
once occupied the spaces now covered by the terrace
rooms that connect the Rotunda with the East and
West Lawns, were about the only athletic resorts of
active young men. Marbles and quoits do not, at
their best, use up much energy, and it is conceivable
that they could be disdained as amusements—as
frequently they were,—for the more exciting sport
of riots.
When South Carolina seceded from the union of
States, the important step was not taken a moment
in advance of the sentiment among the students.
They were ready for it, and full of "rebel"
enthusiasm. The sentiment for disunion was not
due to the teaching of the professors, for not more
than one of them ever uttered or intimated an opinion
in the presence of a student, although all but one
entertained the prevailing convictions. Perhaps
Professor Holcombe's lectures on constitutional and
international law could be justly credited with an
occasional echo of the Southern contention which
had become somewhat noisy. Certainly many students
"cut" in the academic schools and filled his
class-room to overflowing. They heard eloquent
discourses which, if they did not excite, certainly did
not check their secession tendencies.
A picture of those times would be incomplete
without some touch of the humor and fun which
of occasions when the issue involves tremendous
consequences. The late Dr. R. Channing Moore
Page related an escapade which is both amusing and
illustrative:
"One fine afternoon during the last week in February,
1861, two students from Carr's Hill took a
walk together down town. One of them was the
writer of this article, the other was Randolph H.
McKim, of Baltimore. Said McKim on the way
down, `Those fellows over on Dawson's Row, so I
learn from some ladies, are next Saturday going to
hoist a very expensive secession flag, made of silk,
and we must somehow get ahead of them.' What
fun to take all the wind out of their fine silk flag by
putting up a cheap one first.
" `What revenge, too, on those girls for not taking
me in to their confidence,' said McKim, laughingly.
But there was no time to be lost. It must
be done tonight or never. But how?
"On the south side of Main street in Charlottesville
we saw some women working sewing machines.
To buy some cheap cambric of requisite color from a
neighboring store and have it sewed together, stars
and all, was short work. We then went into a
hardware store (Massie's, if I remember rightly)
and bought a large-sized gimlet and a key-hole saw.
`What's that for?' said McKim. The writer recalled
to his mind that some months previously we
had tried to get up to the top of the Rotunda for
another purpose by means of trying to batter down
the back door with a large pine log, but ignominiously
failed. Now, however, we would saw out a
panel and get through all right. Regular burglary!
We now called by a negro carpenter's shop close by
twelve feet long and finely proportioned. The negro,
Isaac Sampson, was directed to bring the staff
up to Carr's Hill by the back way at 11 o'clock that
night precisely.
"But we must have more men for such a grand
undertaking—who should they be? Here are the
names of the whole party in alphabetical order:
George Bedinger, James M. Garnett, John Latane,
Randolph H. McKim, R. C. M. Page, William Wirt
Robinson and William N. Wellford.[1]
The negro
was true to his word and on time with the flagstaff.
It was quickly and without notice taken into
McKim's room. The flag was securely fastened to
it, and at 1 o'clock A. M., February 26, 1861, we
started out to plant that flag on top of the Rotunda.
Everything succeeded with mathematical precision.
The panel in the enormous back door of the Rotunda
was soon removed. Bedinger was the first man
through. We are now in the Library, but how to
get through that door leading out on the Rotunda
near the bell? Butt it down, for it was too thick and
full of nails to saw through. Forming in line we
stood back and took a running start at the door, taking
it by turns who should act as buffer. It was not
long before the door, frame and all went down with
a crash. Then out to the lightning-rod. The wind
was high and it was now bitter cold. Dangerous
work climbing over that dome by a slender lightning-rod!
But we did it. The cupola with the
arrow surmounting it, but since removed, was
reached and the pole securely lashed to the lightning-rod.
The flag was given full swing and went
to the breeze in splendid style. Now to get back
In my haste down the rod the sharp pointed saw
stuck me in the right cheek so that for a time it bled
profusely. The first flag had been raised and the
first blood shed! Just as we passed by the bell it
thundered out 4 o'clock. Upon looking down I noticed
a negro putting out the gas lights. It was a
beautiful star-light night; and though not yet daybreak
the great flag floating from the top of the Rotunda
was distinctly visible. `Hush-sh-sh! we will
be found out, keep quiet, boys.' `Hi! whar dat flag
kum from?' soliloquized the darky out loud. `I
ain't nuvver see dat befo'. Hi! dese certun'y is
cu'yous times.' No sooner had the negro got well
out of the way, however, than we all got back to our
rooms as soon as possible.
"The news spread like wildfire. So great was the
excitement that but little college work could be done
that day. One of the first things to find out was
what the professors thought of it, for with the exception
of Mr. Holcombe in the Law School all had
been very quiet and conservative in their views.
But now the time had come when they must take
that flag down or let it stand—which would they
do? `Old Bled' called it his flag. Dr. Cabell
treated it as a schoolboy's joke; which it really was,
as already stated, in order to get ahead of Dawson's
Row. But there was a military-looking, bred-in-the-bone
Union man named Minor—John B. Minor—
professor of law, and order, too, for that matter.
Perhaps, reader, you have heard of him, yes, and
seen him, too. Well, now here was a man whose
opinion must be had at all costs, but how to get it?
We watched for him when he came out of his house
to go to lecture, for nothing could induce him to
lecture he could not help himself. `Oh! Mr. Minor,
do look at that beautiful flag!' The military-looking
Union man looked up once, and as he went off he
was heard saying to himself:
That in thy place a rag I see."
At least that is what the boys said he said.
What he really did say I believe I know but I am
not going to tell it. Certain it is that if caught we
would have at once been expelled. What became
of the flag?"
One of the participants in the escapade wrote,
many years after,[2]
that as the State had not yet seceded
the chairman of the faculty courteously announced
that if the gentlemen who erected the flag
would take it down nothing more would be said
about it. They would have done so but were anticipated
by other students, and when the flag was
brought to the Rotunda steps it served as the text for
several "red hot" secession speeches after which it
was taken to Carr's Hill by the owners, and there
waved on top of one of the buildings until Confederate
flags were no rarity at the University.
The faculty no longer refused permission for the
organization of a military company. The University
Magazine of February, 1861, affords a
glimpse of the warlike preparations that engrossed
the energies of the students to such an extent that
they had no time for collisions with college authority:
"The complication of political affairs has thickened
around us, the influence of the great national
the frown of threatening emergencies, the
military spirit has become irrepressible. The consequence
is we now have in our midst two companies
of student-soldiery, officered, armed, and uniformed
and already able, we modestly venture, to stand `all
in a row,' with `toes out and eyes front.' Every afternoon
the Lawn presents quite a busy appearance.
Numbers of spectators assemble to witness the skill
of the animated automata in going through the manual—performing
evolutions promptly at the word of
command. And similar scenes enliven the quiet
shades of `The Hill.'
"These companies have adopted as their names
The Sons of Liberty and The Southern Guard. The
period of their formation will be a brilliant era in
the history of the University. We heartily bid them
God-speed, and confidently predict that, should their
country ever call them into service, they will prove
themselves worthy of the proud and patriotic titles
they have selected."
The martial fever spread even to the professors—
not merely to Holcombe, who was the idol of the
young sons of Mars, but probably to all but Professor
Minor, who was a strong "Union man."
"The faculty formed a smaller company—an awkward
squad indeed—which wisely for a time performed
its evolutions in a private room, but later on
grew bold enough to appear on the Lawn to the
boundless amusement of the better drilled students.
Armed with old-fashioned flint-lock muskets of antiquated
pattern, gotten from a revolutionary residue
long kept in the State Arsenal at Lexington, which
they held at all inclinations to the vertical, they presented
the most wonderful variety of movements for
composure to see the pairs of optics converged
upon Mr. Schele when he gave the sharp, convulsive
command, `Attention, squat!' as it sounded to
us. Fortunately for the Confederacy, whose collapse
would, doubtless, otherwise have been hastened,
this squad calculated to be so formidable to its
foes was never called to the field."[3]
The student companies were organized immemediately
after the Presidential election of November,
1860. The first was the Southern Guard. Its
officers were:
Ed. S. Hutter, Captain.
George Ross, First Lieutenant.
Frank Carter, Second
Lieutenant.John M. Payne, Third
Lieutenant.P. Lewis Burwell, First
Sergeant.L. D. Roane, Color Sergeant.
William Pegram, Second
Sergeant.R. E. Lee, Jr., First Corporal.
J. Compton French, Second
Corporal.R. Corbin Wellford,
Third Corporal.
The other members of the company, as far as Captain
Hutter could recall them thirty years after the
organization, were:
Baldwin, Robert J.
Barbour, Phil P.
Barton, David R.
Blankenship, R. E. J.
Boyd, E. Holmes.
Brown, William.
Chapman, G. B.
Chapman, William H.
Coleman, Charles L.
Davidson, Charles A.
DeClouet, Paul L.
Doak, A. V.
Elliott, Percival.
Fairfax, Randolph.
Falligant, Robert.
Field, William G.
Fleming, Mal. N.
French, J. Compton.
Garnett, James M.
Gildersleeve, John R.
Goggin, William L.
Grivot, W. P.
Grogan, K.
Harris, J. W.
Heath, A. C.
Hinton, D. A.
Howard, James McH.
Hunter, R. M. T., Jr.
Ingle, Edward H.
Jennings, R. B.
Kinsey, R. W.
Latane, John.
Lewis, A. J.
Lewis, John H.
Mackall, T. B.
Maury, J. H.
McCabe, W. Gordon.
McKim, Randolph H.
McKim, Robert.
Michie, H. Clay.
Micou, W. B.
Minor, C. N. B.
Minor, W. W.
Moncure, W. P.
Munford, Charles Ellis.
Munnikhuysen, Howard.
Murdock, R.
Neblett, N. M.
Norwood, J. J.
Norwood, Thos. H.
Page, R. Channing M.
Pegram, William J.
Pendleton, A. S.
Pulliam, Samuel H.
Randolph, B. M.
Randolph, W. L.
Rives, C. M.
Rives, G. Tucker.
Roane, L. D.
Robinson, W. W.
Ross, William A.
Schaumburg, Wright C.
Singleton, Richard R.
Smith, W. G.
Stephenson, Lloyd B.
Tayloe, Lomax.
Taylor, Bernard M.
Trueheart, Charles W.
Voss, F.
Walke, I. T.
Weir, Walter.
Wellford, R. C.
Wellford, William N.
Worthington, W. N.
Wrenn, Fenton E.
Wrenn, Virginius.
Wright, T. R. B.
Wynn, William G.
The young soldiers drilled energetically until the
middle of April, 1861. Even the celebration of Mr.
character. In the battalion drill arranged for that
event the following companies took part: The Albemarle
Rifles of Charlottesville, Captain R. T. W.
Duke, afterwards colonel of the Forty-sixth Virginia
Regiment; the Monticello Guards of Charlottesville,
Captain William Barton Mallory; the
Southern Guard, Captain Edward S. Hutter of
Lynchburg, afterwards a major in the Confederate
service, and the Sons of Liberty, Captain James M.
Tosh of Roanoke.
Captain Hutter was requested by the commissioned
officers to take command that day of the battalion,
which consisted of some four hundred men,
handsomely uniformed and well equipped. The
drill began at 4 o'clock on April 13, 1861, and was
witnessed by a great concourse of people on the
Lawn. While the troop was drawn up in line a
messenger handed a telegram to Captain Hutter,
who read it. It was dated that day at Richmond,
and was signed by O. Jennings Wise—"Fort Sumter
has surrendered and the Palmetto flag now floats
over its walls." A mighty shout arose from the
multitude.[4]
Mr. Frank S. Robertson, the orderly sergeant of
the other company, "The Sons of Liberty," tells the
story of its organization, and gives a vivid picture of
the stirring times at the University immediately preceding
the secession of the State. "The ranks were
soon full, officers elected, and the Lawn made lively
by the laughable movements of the awkward squad.
former graduates of the V. M. I. Uniforms were
ordered from Baltimore. `The Sons of Liberty'
(named by Professor Holcombe) wore red shirts
trimmed with black velvet and well-bespangled with
brass buttons, black doeskin trousers, dark blue caps,
and white cross-belts with huge brass buckles. The
other company, the `Southern Guard,' was distinguished
by blue shirts and light blue caps.
"Arms were secured from Richmond, and consisted
of very ancient flint-lock muskets (minus the
flints), cartridge boxes (but no cartridges), and
bayonet scabbards! We drilled by Scott's Manual,
and the noise made by the manipulation of the long
iron ram-rods was in itself enough to frighten the
souls of our adversaries, and possibly upon this we
mainly relied. We bore no banners and we had no
brass bands to stir our souls, but marched to the
monotonous `Hep, hep, hep!' of our officers, and yet
I have never seen troops look more trim and soldierly.
The companies numbered about sixty-five
or seventy each, rank and file, and were commanded
respectively by Captain William Tabb of Amelia
County and Captain Ned Hutter of Lynchburg.
"On the 16th of April, 1861, a rumor went the
rounds that `something was up and we were to be in
it.' Fort Monroe was thought to be the objective
point, and visions of marching through Richmond
filled our hearts with joy. Late in the evening orders
were given to assemble on the Lawn, and things
began to hum with excitement. Shouts resounded
on all sides, hurried good-bys were spoken, red and
blue flashes could be seen everywhere. There were
students in both companies who, for various reasons,
quickly donning the proffered uniforms and filling
the vacant places in the ranks.
"Our Captain (Tabb) was too sick to leave and a
hasty reorganization was necessary. In the various
changes I became orderly sergeant of the company,
and to this is due my having the company-roll in my
possession. It contains, of course, only the names
of those who went to Harper's Ferry and does not
purport to be a roll of the original members.
"About dark the battalion marched to Charlottesville,
where we found the `Monticello Guards' of that
town under arms awaiting a train from Staunton
on which came the `West Augusta Guards' and perhaps
other troops—I do not remember. We formed
a battalion with the Charlottesville company and
were commanded by Major Carr.[5]
"As soon as the train arrived we were loaded in
box cars, and were soon off for the war—sans rations,
blankets, overcoats, haversacks, canteens and
cartridges, with not even a candle to break the total
darkness—two carloads of unprepared but unquenchable
enthusiasm. Was there one of us that
did not during the stern trials that so soon came to
test us recall with a smile—perhaps a tear—that first
boyish rush to duty?
"At Gordonsville we were switched off nolens
volens, from our much wished for march through
Richmond, and landed about daybreak at Strasburg,
with orders to march on by rock turnpike to Winchester,
eighteen long miles away. The good people
the first meal of the many that they spread for the
hungry `Rebs'—and we tackled the sharp macadam
with our tight boots. About dark we reached Winchester,
many of us limping, and some of us entirely
soleless. A band suddenly appeared in our front
and we marched down the streets to the cheery but
somewhat inappropriate tune of `Yankee Doodle,'
while cries of `Hurrah for the Union!' inhospitably
greeted our ears. Only that day, April 17, had the
Ordinance of Secession been passed at Richmond,
and the news had not then reached Winchester. As
soon as we halted, our company was cut up into
squads of ten and, piloted by sympathizing citizens,
we went to their homes and cleared the larders.
About midnight we were again loaded in box cars
and armed with flints, which had just been distributed,
but with no cartridges as yet, we resumed
the `forward' to Harper's Ferry, which we reached
at daylight. The Federal garrison was burning the
arsenal, and many thousand stands of arms at our
approach, and quietly withdrawing without firing a
shot. Our chief object, doubtless, was to secure
those arms for the Confederacy, and we did capture
great numbers that had been secreted by the citizens.
In half an hour after taking possession we were
fully equipped with the latest improved Springfields
and ammunition and were at once sent out to search
for arms or detailed on garrison duty.
"Our company was quartered in an old depot near
the end of the railroad bridge, and fared badly, to
say the least. And then, after a hard but bloodless
campaign of ten days, and without the gratification
of firing even a blank cartridge from our much admired
new arms, we were ordered back to the University
Letcher was most complimentary, and I am sorry I
cannot give the full text of it. He said, however,
that `there was too much talent to be risked in one
body,' and this was the chief reason for the order.
It is only proper to say that his opinion was justified
later, as nearly all of these men became officers."
The following is the roll of officers and privates
now in the possession of Mr. Robertson. The
names marked thus (*) cannot be identified with
certainty, as there are no initials to guide one in a
search in the catalogues of the institution:
James Tosh, Captain.
Robert J. Washington, First Lieutenant.
— Hill, Second Lieutenant.*
W. Page McCarty, Third Lieutenant.
Frank S. Robertson, Orderly.
John P. Lynch, Second Sergeant.
A. B. Paris, Third Sergeant.
William F. Gardner, Fourth Sergeant.
William C. Day, Fifth Sergeant.
John B. Mordecai, First Corporal.
C. B. Vance, Second Corporal.
James McD. Carrington, Third Corporal.
Henry L. Hoover, Fourth Corporal.
Anderson.*
Bacon, R. A.
Battle, C. L.
Beale, J. R.
Bedell, John D.
Bedinger, C. R.
Berkeley, Carter.
Berkeley, William R.
Briscoe, J. B.
Brockenbrough, Austin.
Bronaugh, F. L.
Brown.*
Buford, James W.
Chancey, C. A.
Corprew.*
Couper, R. H.
Dew, B. F., Jr.
Drewry, James H.
Ewing.*
Goffigon, John.
Hall.*
Harvie, C. I.
Henderson, L. A.
Holleyman, G. C.
Hunter, John, Jr.
Larew, Isaac H.
Lauve, Alphonse.
Lee, Charles D.
Lee, Henry.
Moyler, J. Edward.
Nicholas, Robert C.
Payne, John M.
Pearce, Robert S.
Peck, J. Edward.
Pratt.*
Preston, John M.
Radford, William M.
Randolph, M. L.
Redwood, John T.
Richardson, Charles T.
Riddick.*
Smith.*
Swoope, F. M.
Thomas, J. Hanson, Jr.
Venable, Clement R.
White, James L.
Williams, C. U.
Williams, F. S.
Withers, Walter L.
Woodhouse, James G.
Wooldridge, A. B.
Wyatt, J. W.
Privates.
In April or May, 1861, a third student company
was organized—Captain James Parran Crane of
Great Mills, Maryland, afterwards lieutenant-colonel
in the Confederate service, and William W. Old
of Norfolk, later an aid-de-camp, lieutenant. This
company was mustered into service in June or July
of that year, and on the 4th of July left the University
for Wise's Legion, which was operating in
what is now West Virginia. These young soldiers
became a part of Wise's second regiment in command
of the Nicaraguan filibuster Colonel Henningsen
and remained through the campaign in that section.
When Wise was ordered to Roanoke Island
the Secretary of War, Judah P. Benjamin, disbanded
the company in order that the members
States.
Nearly all the members of these companies became
officers in the armies of the South and rendered a
great service to the Confederacy. The University
was almost without matriculates through the four
succeeding years, the number falling from more than
six hundred to about fifty. In 1863 the conscript
officers made further levy on the institution, but it
was found that only eighteen out of the forty were
above eighteen, the minimum age limit of conscription.
The professors were requested to remain at their
posts and continue the active work of the University.
Dr. James L. Cabell and Dr. John Staige Davis
served the Confederacy as surgeons in the large hospital,
on the site of the colored church near the
Union depot in Charlottesville, known as Mudwall,
and in the smaller one in Midway House, on the
site of the present public school building. The first
battle of Manassas, in the summer of 1861, was followed
by the arrival at the University of many
wounded Confederates and a few injured Federals
who, in the absence of a hospital, were cared for impartially
in the halls and dormitories of that institution.
Professor Francis H. Smith, by appointment
of President Davis, with Commodore Maury,
formed a Committee of Weights and Measures, and
Professor Socrates Maupin gave important assistance
in the manufacture of explosives.
Professor Basil L. Gildersleeve went into service,
but did not resign. He taught Greek during the
session and spent his vacation in the field, and was
grievously wounded in 1864 while serving on the
staff of Gen. John B. Gordon.
Two professors resigned. Alfred Taylor Bledsoe,
then professor of mathematics, had been a classmate
at West Point of President Davis, and was
commissioned colonel by him, but before he could
join his regiment he was detailed as Chief of the
Bureau of War. In 1863 he went to England on
an important mission for the Confederate Government.
Professor Lewis Minor Coleman raised, in his
native county of Caroline, a light battery and was
elected its captain. The Board of Visitors refused
to let him resign, but kept the position open to him.
He rose to a lieutenant colonelcy of artillery. The
scholar won renown in many battles before the fatal
field of Fredericksburg saw him mortally hurt by a
fragment of the same shell that killed his pupil,
Randolph Fairfax, who "looked more like a woman
and acted more like a man than any soldier in the
battery."[6]
Life at the University during the years from 1861
to 1865 was not unlike that throughout the South in
the matter of privation and self-denial, borne without
complaining. There were many rumors of
threatened invasion accompanied by plundering, but
no Northern soldiers, except the wounded from
Manassas, came to the University until late in the
war, and then the public property was absolutely,
and private convenience reasonably protected, owing
probably to the wise course pursued by the University
under the guidance of Professor Minor.
When the rumor reached the University that
Sheridan's army, which had been for some days between
Winchester and Waynesboro, had routed
Charlottesville, the faculty deputed its chairman,
Dr. Socrates Maupin, Colonel Thomas L. Preston,
the rector, then residing within half a mile of the
University, and Professor Minor, ut capiat Universitas
nil detrimenti, by soliciting a guard, etc. Mr.
Minor's diary contains a vivid account of the raid
and how he and his colleagues discharged their duty
as representatives of the University at that critical
time:
"Whilst engaged in my school-room (with wandering
thoughts on the part of both teacher and
pupils), Albert tells me that a young gentleman
wishes to see me at the door, where I find George
C—, to announce that our picket line has been
driven in and that the enemy are about Dr. Stephens's
[five miles away], and may be expected in
an hour or two at farthest. Soon after, Dr. Maupin
sent me word that the town authorities (the
mayor [the late Captain C. L. Fowler] and some of
the council) had come up and would join us in our
proposed application for protection. Accordingly,
between 1 and 2 o'clock we repaired to the grounds
opposite Carr's Hill, just by the pool which in happier
hours bore the name of `the pellucid,' and there
awaited the enemy's coming. Our town friends had
already arrived and had displayed a flag of truce,
and in a short time the enemy's scouts were visible at
the old toll-gate approaching with extreme caution.
Videttes were stationed on each commanding eminence
near the road, and it was not until they
reached the brook below the ice-pond that they advanced
with confidence. The flag then became
visible, and ten or fifteen men approached at a gallop
with their pistols in rest, the residue of the
We announced to these men, who were accompanied
by a dirty looking lieutenant, that no defense of
Charlottesville was contemplated, that the town was
evacuated, and that we requested protection for the
University and town.
"They told us General Sheridan was in command,
that General Custer led the van and would be on in
a few moments; and then staying for no further
question put spurs to their horses and rode as fast
as the deep mud would permit toward town—we
feared to plunder. In a few minutes a good-looking
officer rode up, who announced himself as General
Custer's adjutant-general, I believe, and upon our
restating our wishes said a guard would be furnished
the University and private property everywhere
would be protected. Immediately after, General
Custer passed in triumph with three of our battleflags
displayed, when two members of his staff rode
out of the line to repeat the assurance of protection
to the University. The town gentlemen now hastened
to Charlottesville, whither Dr. Maupin and I
also resolved to go that the promise of a guard might
not be forgotten. * * * Upon returning we
found one had been posted, which, however, was in
a short time reduced to a single man. He remained
all the afternoon at the corner opposite the Medical
Hall, and was extremely serviceable and very courteous.
About nightfall the provost marshal came
to relieve him, and was about to leave us defenseless,
but agreed with the man's consent that he
might stay until the morning. I got a place for his
horse and Mrs. C—, who had been occupying the
house at the corner for some months, proposed that
he should stay in their parlor. Between 9 and 10
and then he went to sleep; but I proposed to remain
up all night."
General Sheridan[7]
gives this account of this part
of his raid: "The night of March 2, Custer camped
at Brookfield, Devin remaining at Waynesboro.
The former started for Charlottesville the next
morning early, followed by Devin with but two brigades,
Gibbs having been left behind to blow up the
iron railroad bridge across South River. * * *
I concluded to rest at Charlottesville for a couple of
days and recuperate a little, intending at the same
time to destroy, with small parties, the railroad from
that point to Lynchburg. Custer reached Charlottesville
the 3d in the afternoon and was met at the
outskirts by a deputation of the citizens, headed by
the mayor, who surrendered the town with mediaeval
ceremony, formally handing over the keys
of the public buildings and the University of Virginia."
Sheridan and his men left Charlottesville on Sunday
morning, March 6, 1865. Mr. Minor made
this entry in his diary: "Scarcely had the rearguard
disappeared before our eyes were greeted by
the sight of the soiled but loved gray of a few of
General Rosser's command who have been hovering
for a day or two on the rear and flanks of the enemy.
They captured some stragglers, and amongst others
three or four men left as safeguards at several
houses, but they were released as good faith and the
usages of war require."
These war-time notes have concerned the professors
and students of the eventful session of 1860-61,
but these young men constituted a relatively small
wore the gray. Of the less than nine thousand students
matriculated before hostilities began as many
as twenty-five hundred served in the Army or Navy,
and more than half of these—the exact figure is put
at fourteen hundred and eighty—were officers, a fact
which shows the quality of the men; and four hundred
and eighty-eight of them gave up their lives, an
evidence of their faith and devotion. They were in
all grades of the service from private to major-general,
and even some of the boys at college in 1860
rose to be brigadier-generals.
They also took conspicuous roles in the civil service
of the Confederate States—in the Provisional
Congress, Senate, House, and Cabinet, and in the
preceding Secession Convention; they went to Europe
and Canada on confidential and diplomatic
missions, and performed unnumbered services requiring
a high grade of talent and training and the
first order of integrity and patriotism.[8]
Such was the University's contribution to the
civil and military services of the Confederacy.
"The North sent no such army to the field," wrote a
Federal officer[9]
thirty years after the war. "It
seemed always ready, active, resolute. Without
doubt it was composed of the best men of the South
rushing to what they considered the defense of their
country against a bitter invader; and they took the
places assigned to them, officer or private, and
fought until beaten by superiority of numbers."
the same if they had. How great the sacrifice was
cannot be estimated even now, but the next chapter
contains an intimation of it.
The captain of the "Southern Guard," Major Hutter, contributed
interesting reminiscences to "Corks and Curls" for
1889-90, to which I am indebted.
"As we stood drawn up at the station awaiting the train
that was to bear us away to `fields of glory,' Professor Holcombe
read to us the official announcement of the secession
of the State."—McCabe's Virginia Schools Before and After
the Revolution, page 60.
| CHAPTER XVI Jefferson, Cabell and the University of Virginia | |