So The South Could Repel A Fanatical Domination

The University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee was founded on Monteagle Mountain July 4^th 1857 by ten Episcopal Dioceses.

Delegates from the dioceses of ten Episcopal Churches located in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas were led up the Cumberland Plateau in Sewanee, Tennessee on July 4^th 1857 by Bishop Leonidas Polk.  They were there to found a regional Episcopal College which would be free from Northern influence.  Tennessee Bishop James Otey stated that the University would "materially aid the South to resist and repel a fanatical domination which seeks to rule over us."  John Armfield whose business; Franklin and Armfield traded in slaves, bought the land on which the University would be built.  He also made a promise to the school of a $25,000 annum.

The cornerstone of the University was laid on October 10^th 1860.  Bishop Polk led the consecration ceremony.  In 1863 a Union regiment from Illinois blew up the marble cornerstone, many of the pieces were taken as souvenirs.

The building would be started over again in 1866 after the Civil War ended.  It opened with its first students September 18^th 1868.  Confederate General Robert E Lee was offered the vice-chancellor’s post but declined it in favor of Washington College.

Sherman Ordered Town Destroyed

The Battle of Meridian was fought February 14^th through the 20^th 1864 in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, with Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman inflicting a great deal of damage to the town.

Following the Union victory at Vicksburg and the burning of the Mississippi state capital, Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman turned his forces east toward Meridian, Mississippi.  Meridian was home to a Confederate arsenal, prison of war camp, hospital and a railroad center.  The Union plan was to take Meridian and then move onto Selma and Mobile, Alabama.

About 20,000 Union troops under Sherman moved out from Vicksburg on February 3^rd 1864 and another 7,000 cavalry under Brigadier General William Sooy Smith left from Memphis, Tennessee traveling along the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.  The two forces were supposed to meet at Meridian.

Confederate Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk merged his troops near Morton, Mississippi.   Sherman made some feints to keep Polk guessing about his real target.  Confederate Calvary under Major General Stephen D Lee skirmished with the Union troops as they moved toward Meridian.  When Polk realized that Sherman was moving on Meridian he evacuated on February 14^th 1864 falling back to Demopolis, Alabama, to launch an attack into the Union rear.

Smith didn’t make it to Meridian as he ran into Confederate troops led by Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest at West Point, Mississippi, and was forced to retreat into Tennessee.  Sherman’s army in Meridian didn’t know about Smith’s retreat and he waited in Meridian until February 20^th 1864.  Deciding at that point to move back to Vicksburg, Sherman ordered that Meridian be destroyed.  The Union troops burned and tore up 115 miles of track, 61 bridges, 20 trains, and 3 sawmills.  The Union troops left the city without any food, Sherman said that “Meridian with its depots, store-houses, arsenal, hospitals, offices, hotels, and cantonments no longer exists.”

The Church Seceded Too

As southern states seceded from the Union, dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the south began forming the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Confederate States of America on January 30^th 1861.

As southern states began to secede from the Union in December 1860, the dioceses of the Episcopal Church in those states began to struggle over what their status was going to be.  The first diocese to separate from the main church was Louisiana’s.  The Episcopal bishop of Louisiana, Leonidas Polk on January 30^th 1861 issued a proclamation, saying, "The State of Louisiana having, by a formal ordinance, through her Delegates in Convention assembled, withdrawn herself from all further connection with the United States of America, and constituted herself a separate Sovereignty, has, by that act, removed our Diocese from within the pale of 'The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.”  Although some bishops disagreed with Polk as to the causes, they did agree that the separation was made compulsory by changing politics.

The Confederate dioceses requested that representatives from all the dioceses of the seceded states meet at Montgomery, Alabama on July 3^rd 1861.  At the meeting a draft of the new constitution and canons were drawn up.  The meeting ended with the declaration that the “secession of the States ... from the United States, and the formation by them of a new government, called the Confederate States of America, renders it necessary and expedient that the Dioceses within those States should form among themselves an independent organization.”

After the end of the Civil War, with the southern states back in the Union the members of the Confederate Episcopal Church, rejoined the Episcopal Church of United States at a general convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

No One Celebrated

The Confederates took the advantage at the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee [aka the Battle of Murfreesboro] by attacking first. At dawn on December 31st 1862 while many of the Union men where having breakfast, two of Lieutenant General William J Hardee’s and one of Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk’s divisions strongly assaulted the right wing under Union Major General Alexander M McCook. By ten that morning the Rebels had managed to push the Union troops back about three miles, almost to the Nashville Pike. Only the units fighting tenaciously under Brigadier General Philip H Sheridan and Brigadier General James S Negley keep the battle from being a total Federal rout. At noon along the Nashville Pike troops under Major General Thomas Crittenden used infantry and artillery to push back a Confederate attack. The noise of battle was so loud that soldiers had to put cotton in the ears. As night came on the fighting died off. No one celebrated the New Year that night, as the two armies stayed in position for the next day.

Worth looking at
Stones River Bloody Winter Tennessee

Personal Recollections And Experiences Concerning The Battle Of Stone River (1889)

http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/40stones/40stones.htm