'Bama and the Koran

[malanai]

<p>Fascinating. I had no idea. </p>

<p>Source: [Alabama</a> Heritage …from the Vault](<a href=“http://www.alabamaheritage.com/vault/UAburning.htm]Alabama”>http://www.alabamaheritage.com/vault/UAburning.htm)</p>

<p>

Morning, April 4 [1865], found General Croxton in peaceful possession of Tuscaloosa, but his mission was not yet completed. Under orders from Croxton, Colonel Thomas M. Johnston of the Second Michigan Cavalry led two hundred men east on Broad Street and out the Huntsville Road. About a mile from town on the left, Johnston and his men spotted the wooden fence enclosing the University grounds. Across the way, visible through the spring-green trees, were the University buildings. To the soldiers’ right stood the President’s Mansion, an imposing, Greek revival structure, surrounded by fields. The blue-coated column wheeled left, passing through a wooden gate onto the tree-lined, gravel road leading through the campus. Before them stood the University of Alabama as it would never be again.</p>

<p>In the center of the campus and immediately in front of the approaching Federals, about eighty-five yards away from the main road, stood the Rotunda, home of the University’s library and natural history collection. Standing in front of the Rotunda were several members of the faculty, including André Deloffre, University librarian and professor of French and Spanish, and Dr. William S. Wyman, professor of Latin and Greek. Colonel Johnston, mounted on a white horse (it was said he sat stiffly), approached the group and made his purpose known. The University was to be burned.</p>

<p>Librarian Deloffre pleaded for the library. Surely this one building could be spared. Colonel Johnston agreed that it would be senseless destruction to burn one of the finest libraries in the South. Hurriedly he scrawled a message to General Croxton asking permission to spare the building, noting that it had no military value. No record exists of the conversation between Johnston and the professors as they waited for a reply, though Dr. Wyman later described Johnston as a “man of culture and literary taste.”</p>

<p>When at last the courier returned, the general’s answer was disheartening. “My orders leave me no discretion,” wrote Croxton. “My orders are to destroy all public buildings.”</p>

<p>What happened next has become a part of the University of Alabama’s mythic fabric. It is said that Colonel Johnston, lamenting the destruction of such a fine library, decided to salvage one volume as a memento. Perhaps he sent one of his aides, or perhaps he sent Librarian Deloffre, or perhaps he went himself, to take one book from the library. The book saved was an English translation of The Koran: Commonly Called The Alcoran Of Mohammed, published in Philadelphia in 1853.

</p>

<p>Take a look at UA in 1859. Pictured is the Quad, Rotunda, and dorms. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.civilwaralbum.com/misc18/2010a/ua1lg.jpg[/url]”>http://www.civilwaralbum.com/misc18/2010a/ua1lg.jpg</a></p>

[bamafana]

<p>Some of that story I had heard, but the book saved being the Koran, I had not! Very interesting Malanai! Thank you for posting.</p>

[Southlander]

<p>At that time, the university was a military school for men only. I believe the President’s wife saved the President’s mansion by defying the soldiers to come into her home. The Rotunda itself also escaped the flames. I don’t remember how the Gorgas home escaped destruction, except that it’s possible the fact that it was a home (as was the President’s Mansion).</p>

[malanai]

<p>^^^Yes, I learned from the link in the original post that during the Civil War, UA came to be known as “The West Point of the Confederacy.” But what apparently led up to the “militarization” of the school was this:</p>

<p>

Opened in 1831 and modeled on universities in the more settled states to the east, the institution had been founded to provide a classical education to the state’s youth and to prepare them for service to church, state, and society. But in the young state of Alabama, ideals of scholarship and strict codes of conduct had met head on with the realities of frontier education. The sons of Alabama’s pioneers were accustomed to doing as they pleased, and early on the boys discovered that the University’s regulations could be disobeyed with impunity.</p>

<p>Despite the best efforts of the University’s first two presidents, Alva Woods and Basil Manly, University students continued to play fast and loose with the rules, often sneaking from their rooms at night to go to town. Drinking, gambling, and general rowdiness prevented many from attending to their studies, and the situation did not improve over the years. Indeed, in 1857, one student killed another student in a gunfight. Something had to be done.

</p>

<p>What? Impudent disobedience, drinking, gambling, general rowdiness, and slacking among college students?</p>

<p>The more things change, the more they stay the same. ;)</p>

[SEA_tide]

<p>This is a very interesting story. When I have time to visit the Hoole Library (Special Collections), I’ll ask to see it. I also need to visit the Gorgas House and am sad that I didn’t wasn’t able to attend a tour of it led by the late caretaker.</p>

<p>To the best of my knowledge, 5 buildings were not burned. I have also read that the story of why the President’s Mansion was spared may not be accurate.</p>

[Proudmama3]

<p>On our tour the guide said that the Presidents wife ran to the house when she heard they were going to burn it. There she found union soldiers stacking furniture to burn. She ordered them to stop and naturally they did as they were respectful of a lady. She then served them tea. True southern charm.</p>

[Cuttlefish123]

<p>I heard that version of the story too, Proudmama, on one of the UA tours. Delightful!!</p>

[malanai]

<p>As many of you know:

Woods Hall, built between 1867 and 1868, was named Alva Woods Hall in 1884 in honor of UA’s first president and was the first building constructed after the Civil War. Prior to 1884 it was just called the “barracks”. It was first used a dorm for military cadets, but also held classes and a dining hall on the ground floor. It was constructed out of the bricks from the buildings which were destroyed in the Civil War as well as new bricks that were shipped in.

</p>

<p>Source: [Woods</a> Hall - The University of Alabama](<a href=“Page Not Found | The University of Alabama”>Page Not Found | The University of Alabama)</p>

<p>During our campus tour, our guide pointed out charred bricks atop one of the campus buildings that were reclaimed from buildings burned by the Union at the end of the Civil War. For the life of me I can’t remember which building this is, but I’ve posted a photo that I took of it and perhaps one of our experts out there can identify the structure.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vibe/the-university-of-alabama/?entry=image_1_4z4irl93[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vibe/the-university-of-alabama/?entry=image_1_4z4irl93&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[Atlanta68]

<p>That is Woods Hall. So that “charred brick” is from the Civil War? wow.</p>

[malanai]

<p>^^^I had a feeling you’d be the guy who nailed this, Atlanta68. According to our tour guide, the charred bricks were intentionally placed atop the building as a reminder.</p>

[BamaMomof3]

<p>I thought it was Woods, but was waiting for D to get home from work to confirm. Since she is an art major, she practically lives there! The building was a big selling point since she loved the history and uniqueness of the building, especially for art. She found other schools’ art buildings “cold”.</p>

[hokiefan]

<p>I just want to say thanks to everyone who is contributing to this thread. I am finding it so educational and enjoyable. Roll Tide.</p>

[ImPreLawRTR]

<p>Most of the material for the early buildings came from university land. Slaves quarried sandstone near the Black Warrior River, burned and made bricks on the spot, and cut lumber from The University’s own timber tract.</p>

[malanai]

<p>Here’s a link to a photo of the rescued Koran:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=TL&Date=20100910&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=100909583&Ref=AR&MaxW=728&logo=/images/watermark.gif&logoxpos=0&logoypos=0[/url]”>http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=TL&Date=20100910&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=100909583&Ref=AR&MaxW=728&logo=/images/watermark.gif&logoxpos=0&logoypos=0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

A copy of the Quran dating from 1853, its spine missing, its pages browning and its front cover almost detached, sits today in a library at the University of Alabama.</p>

<p>“We don’t know who chose it, why they chose it or how it got back to the university. All we know is that for a long, long time, we’ve had this book,” said Clark Center, W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library curator.</p>

<p>. . . “Maybe he took it home and sent it back, maybe he went in, chose something and handed it to the librarian,” Center said. “I think, for a long time, the story was just verbal; it was just accepted that the book was here. The first time I’d seen it in writing was 1931 in the Centennial issue of The Crimson White. ”</p>

<p>Center said that he had no doubt the book was an original from the Rotunda and that it had probably been purchased by the library to help them cover the topic of religion as broadly as possible, since the university’s students had never been exposed to the Quran before.</p>

<p>“The stamps inside of it are consistent to those from other pre-Civil War books. It had definitely been here since before the war,” he said. “Religion was a big part of life back then. Most of the university’s students were Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and even Catholics, and most had never seen something like that.”</p>

<p>The book now sits in the university’s W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library.</p>

<p>Center said the book helped modern-day historians better understand the university’s past.</p>

<p>“It shows that the university, in the antebellum period, was attempting to give its students a broad education to enable them to learn points of view that were not necessarily their own,” he said.

</p>

[buzymom3]

<p>Wow what amazing history…this is one of the reasons why D chose UA. She fell in love w/ the history and lore of the school and South. From the Civil War to Bear Bryan to ‘Roll Tide’, the love of history down South is just so different than up North. </p>

<p>Most of you know we are from Chicago…while on campus visiting we took the tour w/ the Capstone Guides twice. Both times as the Guide told the story of the burning of campus and showed everyone the 4 buildings that were left standing I felt like I should apolgize for my ‘Northern People’. LOL Truly felt a bit guilty and tried not to let my Chicago accent be too apparent.</p>

<p>For those of you interested in Southern history, geography, sociology…My college is doing a one book, one college event. The book is: Tony Horwitz’s Confederates in the Attic. It is part travelogue, part history lesson and has lots of humor. Love this book!</p>

[malanai]

<p>

Bear Bryan

</p>

<p>Ahem, that’s Bear Bryant, ma’am. :)</p>

<p>Some say the “t” sounds silent to the Northern ear. ;)</p>

[feenotype]

<p>In the 1840s, a prospective student was required to have working knowledge of Greek AND Latin. Times have changed, no?</p>

[malanai]

<p>^^^That they have, feeno. Why there’s hardly a college student left anymore who can translate the Roman driving ethic: “Ego, ergo, I go!”</p>

[robotbldmom]

<p>busymom3; I read that book several years ago, a quick interesting perspective. didn’t feel that some of his observations were accurate, but then again it is his perspective and not mine. Just saying that it is not a history book per se.</p>