Shown here is an image from the exhibit "We Are All In Great Distress": William & Mary Leading up to the Civil War, on display in the Marshall Gallery located on the first floor of Swem Library from October 19, 2011 through April 9, 2012. This exhibit is part of "From Fights to Rights: The Long Road to a More Perfect Union," Swem Library's project to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement.
The following is a transcription of the label text presented in this case:
We Are All in Great Distress:
The College of William & Mary Leading up to the Civil War
The years before the Civil War were not always stable ones for William & Mary. The authors of The College of William & Mary: A History (1993) named their chapter on this time period “From Fiasco to Recovery to Disaster” and referred to the 1850s as a time of “familiar vicissitudes.” The
university contended with changes in presidents, resignations and deaths of professors, an end to the chair of law, and the continuing needs for repairs to buildings and fundraising. During this period of changing circumstances, students still found time for extracurricular activities: the Phoenix, Philomathean, and Licivyronian literary societies; resurrecting a Phi Beta Kappa chapter; and publishing the first William & Mary student newspaper, The Owl (1854). Life in Williamsburg continued much as it had for decades.
The 1858-1859 session opened with 47 students. The campus buildings had been extensively repaired at a cost of $6,500 and despite a decline of enrollment, the future seemed as secure as it ever had for William & Mary. Then, in the early hours of February 8, 1859, the Wren Building went up in flames after a fire began in the north wing and within four hours the building was gutted. President
Benjamin S. Ewell was credited as being one of the first on the scene, rushing up to the second floor to wake several students who were living there.
U.S. President John Tyler was educated at the College of William & Mary and served as chancellor from 1859 until his death in 1862. Circular letters, such as this example directed to Brown University, were sent to colleges and universities across the country in the wake of the 1859 destruction of the Wren Building,
including its library of 8,000 volumes, some of which dated from the post-American Revolution gift of the King of France, Louis XVI.
Tyler Family Papers, Mss. 65 T97 Group H
Board of Visitors Records, UA 1
On April 17, 1861, the Virginia convention, called to act for the state during the secession crisis in February, voted to secede. At a faculty meeting called on May 10, the faculty resolved that with war imminent, most of the students already gone from the College and the rest preparing to follow, “the exercises of the College be that day suspended.” A circular announcing to the public that the College would reopen in October “if the state of the country shall permit” was printed and distributed.
Afterward, Confederate military authorities took possession of the campus for use as a barracks and hospital. The faculty held further meetings in 1861, but hopes to reopen early the next year were dashed. In February 1862, the bursar was directed to turn over all bonds and other papers of value to Hugh Grigsby for safekeeping at his home in Charlotte County.
To read more from the faculty meeting minutes, see
digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13457
Benjamin S. Ewell was first appointed a major in the Virginia Volunteers in May 1861 and then promoted to colonel in June of the same year.
Head-Quarters of the Virginia Forces
Richmond Va 28 June 1861
Col. B.S. Ewell
32nd Reg. Va Vols
WmsBurg
Colonel
I have the honor to inform you that you have been promoted to be Colonel of Vols. Enclosed you will find your commission. Lieut Col M.B. Cary & Major I. M. Gaggin have been assigned to your regiment, which shall be designated as the 32d Regt. Va. Vols. You will please make a report to these Headquarters of the number of companies composing your command together with their names and captains.
Respectfully Your obb. Servant
Geo Deds
Benjamin Stoddert Ewell Papers, Mss. 39.1 Ew3
Ewell Letter Transcription:
Va. Military Institute
June 30, 1859
My dear Ewell
I received in due time your letter accompanied with a catalogue of
Professors & Students of Wm & Mary College and asking me, in
consideration of the connection with the old college, almost from its foundation, of my family name as well as that of my wife; that I should come to the aid of the college, in this her time of need, since the loss of the old building by fire.
You know tha