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Persistence through Peril: Episodes of College Life and Academic Endurance in the Civil War South

Online ISBN:
9781496835055
Print ISBN:
9781496835031
Publisher:
University Press of Mississippi
Book

Persistence through Peril: Episodes of College Life and Academic Endurance in the Civil War South

R. Eric Platt (ed.),
R. Eric Platt
(ed.)
University of Memphis
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Holly A. Foster (ed.)
Holly A. Foster
(ed.)
University of Southern Mississippi
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Published online:
19 May 2022
Published in print:
30 September 2021
Online ISBN:
9781496835055
Print ISBN:
9781496835031
Publisher:
University Press of Mississippi

Abstract

Literature that recounts the history of nineteenth-century Southern higher education includes Civil War-related issues as part of a larger, longitudinal narrative. In cases concerning the war years (1861-1865), existing publications focus on the closure, destruction, and reformation of regional colleges and universities due to student enlistment, the burning of buildings by Union troops, campus conversions to military barracks or army hospitals, etc. Few, however, focus completely on the Civil War South—even fewer provide detailed case examples that extol the persistence of some Southern colleges during the fray. Though most Southern institutions of higher education did close during the war, a handful of academies remained open, weathering the storm and providing instruction to remaining students. While related literature provides interesting insights regarding college student military service, the role some professors played as Confederate officers, and the reemergence of Southern higher education following the war, this text showcases how some colleges and universities remained open while battles rages in nearby fields, towns, and ports via in-depth case “episodes” of eleven Southern institutions of higher education: South Carolina Military Academy (The Citadel), Wofford College, Mississippi College, Spring Hill College, Tuskegee Female College, (present-day Huntingdon College), Mercer University, Wesleyan College, the University of Virginia, the Virginia Military Institute, the University of North Carolina, and Trinity College (now known as Duke University). This volume provides pertinent information that underscores events that occurred at each institutional site prior to, during, and after the deadliest internal conflict in American history.

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