Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-07-13
THE CONkRDERACY.
Professors ~ Recruiting Omeera-
students Who Dropped Books and
Took Tn Knapsacka

FluUFNaNh W no UEOUueO b0UkH and
Took Up KnapsackS.
Rev DR.. Jones in Philadelphia Times.l
The colleges of the South were
deserted, and professors and stu.
dents alike enlisted. The "1earnod
professions" were suspended, and
the Office abandoned for the camp.
The hum of the workshop ceased,
the plOw was left in the furrow, the
ledger was left unposted, in many
instances the pastor enlisted with
the men of his flock, and the deli
cate sons of luxury We'd with the
hardy sons of toll in meeting pa
tiently the hardships, priyatiens and
sufcrings of the camp, the march,
the bivouac, or the battlefield. |
remember that the first time ever
saw the "Rockbridge Artillery
that famous battery which was at
tached to the "Stonewall Brigade
at the first battle of Manassas, with
Rev. DIR. (afterward General) PEN
dleton as its captain-it had as pri-
vate soldiers in its 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, a large number OF
graduates Of other colleges, and a
number Of others of the very pick
Of the young men of the State,
among them son of Gen. R. E.
Lee, and a score or more of theo-
logical students. Two companies
of students of the University 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
seryice-most Of them the army of
Northern Virginia-as private sol
diers.
When the Rev. DR.. Junkin, Of
Pennsylvania, who was then presi-
dent Of Washington College, Lex
ington, Virginia, called a meeting
of his faculty to devise means Of
Furnishing the students for raising
a secession flag on the dome Of the
college the day after Virginia
seeded, he found the faculty in
hearty sympathy with the students,
and while the doctor resigned his
position and went North, the stu
dents formed a volunteer 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 Lexington to become the world
famous "Stonewall Jackson" The
president of Hampden-Sidney Col
lege, Virginia (Rev, DR.. Atkinson),
entered the service at the head of
company of his students. Major
Y. j. Jackson marched the corps of
the Virginia Military Institute from
the parade ground at Lexington at
precisely twelve o'clock on the day
he received orders from the Cover
nor of the Commonwealth, 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 tho scamp
fires Of the boys IN gray"
There might have been seen in
the ranks Of ono of the companies
u young man who met every duty
as private soldier with enthusi-
asm, but who carried in his hayer-
sack copies of the Greek classics,
which he read on the march or
around the camp fires, who has,
since the war, bore off at a German
university the highest hopor ever
Won there by an American, who
now fills tho 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 American scholars, | remember
another "a Master of Arts Of the
University of Virginia), whom !