The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-07-08
COLLEGES AND THE CoNFEDERACY
Professors as Recruiting OMcers-stu-
dents who Dropped Books and
Took Tin KnapsaCks.

l 0entS VINO UrOppeu hOOAs anu
| Took UP Knapsacks.
I lRev. DR.. Jones in Philadelphia Weekly Times. ]
The colleges of the South were de-
serted, and professors and students alike
enlisted TIE Learned arn edp professions a
ed for the camp. The hum of the work.
shop ceased, the pillow was left In the
furrow, the ledger was left unposted, in
many Instances the pastor enlisted with
the men OF his flock, and the delicate
sons Of luxury We'd with the hardy sons
of toll In meeting patiently the hard
ships, privations and sufferings OF the
camp, the march, the bivouac, or the
battlefield. remember that the
| first time I ever saw the Rock
bridge Artillery"-that famous battery
Brigade" at the first battle of Manassas,
with Rev. DR.. {afterward GeneraD PEN
dleton as its captain-it had as private
soldiers in it's ranks no less than seven
Masters Of Arts OF the University Of
Virginia (the highest evidence of real
scholarship Of any degree conferred by
any institution in this country, large
number Of graduates of other colleges.
and number of others OF the very pick
Of the young men of the State, among
them son of Gen. r. i. Lee. and a
score or more Of theological students.
Two companies OF students Of the uni
versity OF Virginia. were mustered into
service, and fully nine-tenths of the five
hundred and fifty students who were at
the University that session promptly
entered the Confederate servfce-most
Of them the Army of Northern Vir-
ginia-as private soldiers.
When Rev. DR.. Junkin, of Pennsyl-
vania, who was then president of Wash
ington College, Lexington, Virginia,
called meeting Of his faculty to devise
means OF Furnishing the students for
raising o secession flag on the dome of
the college the day after Virginia Sc
coded, he found the faculty. in hearty
sympathy with the students, and while
the doctor resigned his position and
went North, the students formed vol
unteer company and marched to the
front under Professor White as their
captain. Even DR.. Junkin's own sons
threw themselves heartily into the Con-
federate struggle, while his son-in. law
left his quiet professors chair at Lex
ington to become the world famous
"Stonewall Jackson"
The president OF Hampden- Sidney
College, Virginia (Rev. DR.. Atkinsonj,
company OF his students. Major T. J,
Jackson marched the corps of cadets of
the Virginia Military Institute from the
parade ground at Lexington at precisely
twelve o'clock on the day he received
orders from the Governor of the Com
monwealth, and all these young men
entered active service. Indeed, every
college In Virginia and throughout the
South suspended its regular exercises,
and the midnight lamp" of the stu
dent was exchanged for the camp fires
OF the boys in gray"
There might have been seen in the
ranks OF one Of the companies young
man who met every duty as a private
soldier with enthusiasm, but who car
ried in his haversack copies OF the
Greek classics, which he read on the
march or around the camp fires, who
has, since the war, borne off at Ger
man university the highest honor ever
won there by an American, who now
fills the chair Of Greek in one Of the
most important universities at the
South. and who has already won a
place in the very front rank of Amer
lean scholars. l remember another
"a Master Of Arts OF the University
ing on an oil-cloth during an
interval in the battle Of Gold Harbor, in
1864, oblivious Of everything around
him. and deeply absorbed in the study
of Arabic, in which, as in other Oriental
languages, he has perfected himself
since the war at the University Of Ber-
lin, and by his own studies In connec-
ton with the professorship he fills, un-
til be has now no superior, and scarcely
an equal In that department in this
country. In winter quarters it was
very common to organize schools in
which accomplished teachers would
guide enthusiastic students into the
mysteries Of Latin, Greek, modern lam
guages, and the higher mathematics.