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STUDENTS AND SOLDIERS. In the memorableconflict on theplains of Manassas the University Greys covered themselves with imperishable glory. BOARD OF TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT, 1861 o one knows how the University Greys began. Most likely it was in a dormitory room in December 1860," writes Howard Bahr, "before a meager fire lit against the cold; a circle of lads... pledging fealty to one another and to a cause {that] would consume them all, one way or another in the end — but this was the beginning and they couldn't know that yet." The student soldiers first called their company the University Blues, but later changed the name to the Greys in favor of the color of the Confederacy. The Greys elected 19 year-old William B. Lowry captain, began collecting arms, and conducting close order drills. The motto of the Greys was Duett amorepatria (The love of my country leads me). During the excitement following the establishment of the Confederate States of America on February 4, 1861, Chancellor Barnard and the faculty found it almost impossible to keep the boys in class and focused on their studies. Several times in the spring of 1861 the faculty suspended and readmitted Captain Lowry for excessive absences. After the firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, students who did not join the Greys or the Lamar Rifles, another Lafayette County unit, went home to enlist in companies being raised in their communities. Chancellor Barnard pleaded with the parents of university students to keep their sons in school and petitioned Governor Pettus not to muster the student units into military service. Confederate President Jefferson Davis endorsed Barnard's petition. Sending young boys off to war, Davis said, was like "grinding the seed corn of the republic." Imbued with a romantic notion of war, the student soldiers would heed neither their chancellor nor their president. On May i, 1861, the University Greys boarded a train bound 1861-1870 CHAPTER 5 n 1861-1870 • i c y for Corinth, Mississippi, the "Crossroads of the Confederacy." A large crowd gathered at the depot to see them off.Old men wept, young ladies waved and blew kisses, and mothers wondered if they would ever see their sons again. By the end of the summer, several of the Greys would lie still and cold on the plains of Manassas, casualties of a war they feared would be over before they could join it. At Corinth ten companies from north Mississippi, including the Greys (Company A) and the Lamar Rifles (Company G), formed the nth Mississippi Volunteer Infantry Regiment. By mid-May the regiment was at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The University Greys were an unruly lot, but they were well-dressed and good shots. The inspector general at Harpers Ferry noted that they "take much pride in their appearance." When a farmer complained that a member of the Greys shot one of his hogs, and that he heard it squealing, he was told that he must be mistaken . If a University Grey shoots a hog, he was advised, it doesn't squeal. At Harpers Ferry the nth Mississippi wasbrigaded with the 2nd Mississippi Infantry Regiment, under the storied Colonel William Falkner, the model for William Faulkner's Colonel John Sartoris. In a battle on the plains of Manassas near Bull Run Creek on July 21, 1861, Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard, observing Colonel Falkner (with a large black plume in his hat) charging the federals, shouted to his own troops, "Men, follow yonder knight of the black plume and history will not forget you." During the First Battle of Manassas (also known as the First Battle of Bull Run) seven members of the University Greys were killed or died of wounds suffered in the battle. In the heat of the First Battle of Manassas General Beauregard observed a column of troops approaching his position, but could not determine if the troops were Union or Confederate. In the early stages of the war some troops on both sides wore blue uniforms, and the first national flag of the Confederacy, known as the Stars and Bars, was so similar to the Stars and Stripes that it could not be distinguished from the American flag at a distance. Beauregard ordered his men to fire on the approaching column, only to learn that they were Confederate troops. After the First Battle of Manassas, General Beauregard adopted a new battle flag that could be easily and quickly distinguished from the American flag. The Confederate...

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