Union College
"Hurrah for the Southern Confederacy
The white building in front of you and the red brick house behind you are the former Union College, a Presbyterian school founded in 1820 as Union Academy and the earliest private school still standing in West Virginia. The white dormitory-dining hall has 24 rooms; classes were held in the brick building.
On May 22, 1862, Confederate Gen. Henry Heth marched through Union toward Lewisburg, where he lost a battle the next morning. Between 30 and 40 “sick and exhausted” soldiers were left here, and the townspeople cared for them at the Academy, the courthouse and a church.
Two years later, troops again visited Union: Federal infantry and cavalry under Gens. George Crook and WilliamW. Averell. Susan Waddell, the wife of Academy president James A. Waddell, wrote in her diary about Union soldiers raiding her house for supplies to feed the 10,000 troops now occupying Union: “After much consultation they took half a barrel {of flour}, pretending to do so with great reluctance. I must do them justice to say they robbed us in the politest manner imaginable.”
Soldiers covered the academy’s interior walls with graffiti (later painted over) depicting Confederate troops, cannons, and other scenes. One figure on horseback was identified as Lt. Col. George M. Edgar, who raised the 26th Battalion Virginia Infantry in Monroe County and also taught here at the academy. The words “Hurrah for the Southern Confederacy” were also found.
Marker is at the intersection of South Street and Pump Street on South Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
