University of Virginia Library

I

The University of Virginia and the Confederacy

(See pages 199-219.)

The following is a partial list of the men furnished
to the civil and military service of the South
by the University. The figures are the dates of entrance
as students:

With the rank of major-general: L. M. Laws '36, John
Bankhead Magruder '25, George W. Randolph '37.

With the rank of brigadier-general: Richard L. T. Beale
'37, John C. Carter '54, Philip St. George Cocke '25, Philip
Cook, Jr. '39, Richard B. Hubbard, Jr. '51, Robert D. Johnston
'60, James H. Lane '56, John R. Liddell '32, Elisha F. Paxton
'48, William H. Payne '48, Davidson B. Penn '56, Lucius E.
Polk '50, Carnot Posey '36, Roger A. Pryor '46, William A.
Quarles '45, Paul J. Semmes '33, John W. Shivers '56, Robert
Q. Taliaferro '54, William Terry '46, Robert Toombs '28,
James A. Walker '54. Williams C. Wickham '37, Louis T.
Wigfall '34, William H. Young '59.

With the rank of colonel: Leopold L. Armant '55, William
Roane Aylett '50, John B. Baldwin '36, Robert J. Barrow '34,
William Randolph Berkeley '59, Pinckney Downie Bowler '55,
Alexander J. Brown '55, Hamilton A. Brown '59, J. Thompson
Brown '52, J. Wilcox Brown '51, William P. Burwell '48,
William Byrd '51, William R. Calhoun '44, George W. Carr
'36, Thomas H. Carter '50, H. G. Charles '30, R. E. Chew '52,
James V. Chilton '60, Richard A. Claybrook '36, James Cochran
'48, Richard Dillard '39, Robert P. Duncan '59, William
Elliott '56, J. P. Fitzgerald '57, William Fort '51, Edward P.
Fristoe '52, Lucian C. Gause '53, Jonathan C. Gibson '50,
William E. Green '45, Roger Gregory '49, Benjamin Gunter
'47, Peter Hairston '53, Bolling Hall, Jr. '59, John W. Hambledon
'54, Daniel H. Hamilton '34, George W. Hansbrough '46,
Julian Harrison '44, Randolph Harrison '46, Hilary A. Herbert

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'54, Thomas H. Hobbs '47, E. Lafayette Hobson '52, John
C. Humphreys '40, Daniel R. Hundley '51, Irwin P. Jones '32,
Egbert J. Jones '39, James F. Jones '39, Theodore A. Jones
'52, Hilary P. Jones '52, Delaware Kemper '49, Franklin W.
Kirkpatrick '55, William C. Knight '36, Edward P. C. Lewis
'54, William M. Lowe '60, John Bowie Magruder '56, Charles
Marshall '46, William J. Martin '51, Rawley W. Martin '55,
Richard L. Maury '57, James M. Mayo '59, John D. Morris
'30, John S. Mosby '50, William P. Munford '35, William
Munford '47, Angus W. McDonald '48, Edward F. McGehee
'35, Alexander D. McNairy '60, Kirkwood Otey '49, Henry
T. Parrish '52, Henry Clay Pate '48, Samuel B. Paul '46,
William Johnson Pegram '60, John E. Penn '59, William A.
Percy '55, William E. Peters '50, Robert L. Y. Peyton '42,
John T. L. Preston '28, R. O. Reynolds '53, Alfred L. Rives
'48, Henry M. Rutledge '58, William C. Scott '29, Pliny
Sheffield '57, Charles R. Skinker '57, James H. Skinner '42,
Thomas Smith '56, Thomas L. Snead '46, Ezra E. Stickley '64,
John C. Summers '59, William B. Tabb '59, Tazewell Taylor
'26, Lawrence B. Taylor '36, John H. Thomas, Jr. '59, John
T. Thornton '43, Stephen D. Thurston '51, Harrison B. Tomlin
'33, Thomas H. Watts '37, Powhatan B. Whittle '47, William
B. Wooldridge '45, William O. Yager '53.

They likewise took conspicuous and important
roles in the civil affairs of the Confederate States.
In the Provisional Congress which assembled at
Montgomery, Alabama, in February, 1861, seven
members had been students at Virginia. They
were:

• Alabama, David P. Lewis '37, Richard W. Walker '38.

• Georgia, Robert Toombs '28.

• Louisiana, Alexander de Clouet '56.

• Mississippi, Wiley P. Harris '36.

• South Carolina, William W. Boyle '36.

• Texas, Louis T. Wigfall '34.

Among the additional members sent to that Congress
upon its assembling at Richmond in July,
1861, were seven alumni, namely:

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356

In the Confederate Senate there were ten:

Eighteen former students of the University were
members of the first and second Congress of the
Confederate States, from the 22d of February, 1861,
to the overthrow of the Confederacy in April,
1865:

• Alabama, James S. Dickinson '34.

• Georgia, David P. Lewis '37.

• Kentucky, Robert J. Breckinridge '37.

• Louisiana, Lucius J. Dupre '39.

• Mississippi, Henry C. Chambers '39.

• Missouri, Caspar W. Bell '39, William M. Cooke '40, Thomas
  L. Snead '46.

• North Carolina, John A. Gilmer '59.

• South Carolina, Louis M. Ayer '39, William W. Boyce '36.

• Virginia, John M. Baldwin '36, Muscoe R. H. Garnett '38,
  Thomas S. Gholson '26, James P. Holcombe '36, Frederick
  W. M. Holliday '34, Roger A. Pryor '46, Williams C. Wickham
  '37.

President Davis found five of his Cabinet officers
among the alumni of the University:

One of the two Confederate Commissioners to
Europe, James M. Mason, had been a member of
the Board of Visitors of the University, and his secretary,
James Edward McFarland, was a student in
1843.

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357

In 1864 a commission of three persons, "eminent
in position and intelligence," was appointed to visit
Canada with a view to negotiation with such persons
in the North as might be relied upon to aid in the
attainment of peace. President Davis named
Clement C. Clay of Alabama, James P. Holcombe
of Virginia, and Jacob Thompson of Mississippi,
for this mission. Clay and Holcombe were alumni
of the University.[1] There seems to be some uncertainty
as to the membership of this commission.
Greeley in his "American Conflict" (Vol. II, p. 664)
mentions Clay, Holcombe, and George N. Saunders,
and believed that Clay and Holcombe "had full powers
from Richmond." Mr. Holcombe's daughter,
Mrs. Ada Holcombe Aiken (Alumni Bulletin,
Vol. III, p. 85) coincides with Mr. Greeley, and yet
it seems from Mr. Holcombe's letter to Secretary
Benjamin (Series 4, Vol. 111, 583, War of the
Rebellion) that the former was in Canada, not as a
colleague of Clay and Thompson, but as an agent
of the Confederate Government to secure the return
of escaped prisoners and to provide transportation
to their respective commands within the Confederacy.
For this purpose he made arrangements at
Windsor, Niagara, Toronto, and Montreal to forward
such as might require assistance to Halifax,
from which point they were to be sent to Bermuda.
In regard to Clay and Thompson he said, "I have
availed myself of every opportunity to co-operate
with those gentlemen and I think that I have been
able to render useful service."

They opened a correspondence with Horace
Greeley at Niagara on the 12th of July, 1864, with

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358

The "Peace Congress" which convened in Washington,
of which ex-President Tyler was president,
was called into existence by this resolution passed by
the legislature of Virginia on the 19th of January,
1861: "Resolved, That on behalf of the Commonwealth
of Virginia, an invitation is hereby extended
to all such States, whether slave-holding or nonslaveholding,
as are willing to unite with Virginia
in an earnest effort to adjust the present unhappy
controversies, in the spirit in which the Constitution
was originally formed, and consistently with its
principles, so as to afford to the people of the slaveholding
States adequate guaranties for the securing
of their rights, to appoint commissioners to meet on
the 4th day of February next, in the city of Washington,
similar commissioners appointed by Virginia,
to consider, and if practicable, agree upon
some suitable adjustment." Two of the commissioners
on the part of Virginia were University of
Virginia men—John W. Brockenbrough '25 and

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In the convention which met in Richmond on the
13th of February, 1861, and on the 17th day of
April passed the ordinance of secession, or, to use
its formal title, "An ordinance to repeal the ratification
of the Constitution of the United States of
America, by the State of Virginia, and to resume all
the rights and powers granted under said Constitution,"
thirty-eight members had been educated in
this University—viz:

Of these, Manilius Chapman, William C. Scott,
and Chapman J. Stuart refused to sign the ordinance
of secession. Scott, however, promptly responded
to the first call of Virginia to arms, was
made colonel, and commanded one of the first Virginia
regiments sent into West Virginia early in the
summer of 1861, and was at Laurel Hill, Rich
Mountain, and Carrick's Ford. He survived the
surrender only a few days.

Four of the six commissioners appointed in April,
1861, to arrange a temporary agreement between

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360

The convention which passed the ordinance of
secession appointed a commission to audit all claims
for expenditures arising from the organization,
equipment, and support of the land and naval forces
called out for the defense of the Commonwealth.
One of the three commissioners was John Randolph
Tucker '39, Attorney-General of Virginia.