page_title: History of the College of William & Mary
section_title: Civil War, Reconstruction, becoming a state institution
hierarchical_section_title: History of the College of William & Mary / Civil War, Reconstruction, becoming a state institution
context_page_description: The history of the College of William & Mary can be traced back to a 1693 royal charter establishing "a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and the good arts and sciences" in the British Colony of Virginia. It fulfilled an early colonial vision dating back to 1618 to construct a university level program modeled after Cambridge and Oxford at Henricus. A plaque on the Wren Building, the college's first structure, ascribes the institution's origin to "the college proposed at Henrico." It was named for the reigning joint monarchs of Great Britain, King William III and Queen Mary II. The selection of the new college's location on high ground at the center ridge of the Virginia Peninsula at the tiny community of Middle Plantation is credited to its first President, Reverend Dr. James Blair, who was also the Commissary of the Bishop of London in Virginia. A few years later, the favorable location and resources of the new school helped Dr. Blair and a committee of 5 students influence the House of Burgesses and Governor Francis Nicholson to move the capital there from Jamestown. The following year, 1699, the town was renamed Williamsburg.
context_section_description: At the outset of the American Civil War (1861–1865), enlistments in the Confederate Army depleted the student body and on May 10, 1861, the faculty voted to close the College for the duration of the conflict. The College Building was used as a Confederate barracks and later as a hospital, first by Confederate, and later Union forces. The Battle of Williamsburg was fought nearby during the Peninsula Campaign on May 5, 1862, and the city fell to the Union the next day. The Brafferton building of the College was used for a time as quarters for the commanding officer of the Union garrison occupying the town. On September 9, 1862, drunken soldiers of the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry set fire to the College Building, purportedly in an attempt to prevent Confederate snipers from using it for cover. Much damage was done to the community during the Union occupation, which lasted until September 1865.
  Following restoration of the Union, Virginia was destitute from the War. The College's 16th president, Benjamin Stoddert Ewell finally reopened the school in 1869 using his personal funds. He later sought war reparations from the U.S. Congress, but he was repeatedly put off. Ewell's request was finally honored, and Federal funds were appropriated, but not until 1893. Meanwhile, after some years of struggling, the College closed in 1881 due to lack of funds.
  It has become legendary that, every single morning of the long seven-year period between the College's closure in 1881 and reopening in 1888, President Ewell would arise and ring the bell calling students to class, so it could never be said that William and Mary had abandoned its mission to educate the young men of Virginia.
  In 1888, William & Mary resumed operations under a substitute charter when the Commonwealth of Virginia passed an act appropriating $10,000 to establish a state normal school for white men at the college. Dr. Ewell, who had grown quite old and spent much of his private financial resources attempting to reopen the College, was finally able to retire, with the future of his beloved College on a new and more stable course again. He was no doubt honored and satisfied that former U.S. President John Tyler's son would be taking the reins.
caption: College Building in 1859
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