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Sewanee,
or University Place as it was known at the time, was the product both of
the industrial designs of the emerging coal and timber interests, and of
the institutional planning of the Episcopal Church. Leonidas Polk,
before he became a Confederate general, was an Episcopal bishop and a
resident of the area, and was instrumental in putting together the idea
to build a church college on the mountain. Thus, just before the war,
one found in the same area of the plateau the railroad line serving the
Sewanee Mining Company along with its labor camps, and churchmen
breaking ground for what would become the University of the South.
Plans for
the school were finalized in 1857, construction began in 1860, but then
the war intervened. It must have been an ironic moment for General Polk
when his corps crossed up the Cumberland Plateau from Cowan and near to
the place of his school. The bishop would never see the place again, of
course, for he would be killed in battle the next year. The
cornerstone was supposedly destroyed by advancing Union troops. It
would take the postwar period to restore and actually begin the
university, formally named the University of the South. Today, the
Sewanee campus has streets named for each Confederate state.
Historic Civil War Resources:
Mountain
Goat Trail
- The end of the trail, once the original railroad corridor from Cowan
to the coal town of Tracy City on top of Mounteagle, is now abandoned
railway corridor used for recreation. The trail begins near the
Cumberland Mountain Tunnel and ends at Sewanee.
Morgan’s Steep
– The site overlooks the valley below from the Cumberland Plateau. The
viewshed remains unobscured.
All
Saints Chapel
– Completed in 1952, the stained glass windows of the chapel on the
Sewanee campus depict the destruction of the university by Union troops
as they swept over the mountain.
University of the South Cemetery
– Buried in the cemetery are several prominent Confederate generals and
soldiers, including Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby-Smith and Brigadier
General Francis Shoup. Unmarked graves in the cemetery are believed to
be those of soldiers killed during the Tullahoma Campaign. Women in
Sewanee decorated their graves for years after the war. Also buried
there is Bishop Charles Quintard, who served in the Army of Tennessee as
chaplain and was instrumental in rebuilding the University after the
war.
Bell
Buckle, Fairfield,
Beech Grove, Wartrace,
Shelbyville,
Tullahoma,
Manchester,
Estill Springs/Allisonia,
Decherd,
Winchester,
Cowan, Sewanee |
