Then someone thought of their great University at Oxford, silent now, its students gone to war, its campus lying quiet and green and peaceful in the April sun and shower. So word came down to Oxford that fifteen hundred wounded Confederates were coming by train from Corinth. The able-bodied mem of Oxford were gone to the war but, as they could, the women made ready for the wounded on the Campus. In Lafayette and the neighboring counties cots, bedding, cooking vessels, equipment of all kinds were hastily assembled. Dr. T.D. Isom of Oxford was called home from his work with the army in Virginia to take charge of the hospital.
Time fails to tell of the struggle to give the wounded adequate care.
One can read of it in a pamphlet in the University library. But on this campus nearly seven hundred died. At first the little town tried to make coffins for them but soon the number was overwhelming and they buried them in trenches like their comrades on the battle field, with a wooden marker at each head. Later the markers were burned by mistake and the location of each trench or grave lost. Early in December General Grant's army occupied Oxford.