WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1941
THE DAILY TAR HEEL
PAGE THREE
Black-Bound Volumes, Musty Files
Tell of Carolina's Tragic War History
1914, '17 Editions
Tell Vivid Story
Of Wartime UNC
Twenty-four years have yellowed
the pages, made them almost a fragile,
given them a near-mustiness. But for
all their age, those pages tell a story
that no history book could tell and
about history.
Whether it be the yellowness or the
fragility or the mustiness, they give
one a feeling of depression, of tragic
hopelessness that there must be some
thing so overwhelmingly pernicious
and compelling about war that sane
ness and common sense just can't
stand again.
Tucked away on the shelves of the
University library newspaper room
are two rows of black-bound volumes
volumes that tell vividly, tragically,
just what happened when war comes
to a university. "
They are the old bound editions of
the Daily Tar Heel the Tar Heel of
1914 and of 1917.
Dr. Edward Kidder Graham was
president of the University in 1917, a
year that wfll not be forgotten by
those in school at that time. The .Tar
Heel carried a speech which he made
at the opening of school, a speech that
could be .repeated this year in its
exactness and it would be true.
"The immediate problem of an edu
cational institution such as this is
to readjust itself to the strange and
new conditions, and to adapt as ef
ficiently as possible its present means
and resources to the gradually de
veloping needs, both immediate and
future of the national government,"
Dr. Graham said. "The single thought
of the University is to co-operate in
every intelligent way with the govern
ment." Urged to Stay in School
Urging the students of 1917 not
to withdraw from school, President
Graham continued, "It is our desire,
and we believe the desire of the gov
ernment and the largest and be?t in
terest of the nation, that our students
should remain where they are now
until specially called out. They can
serve best where they can learn most.
General Leonard Wood has said that
the most useful service the college men
can render is to stay at their univer
sities. The committee on engineering
education, the committee on medical
schools also, has strongly expressed
the same convictions." . '
In the Fall of 1917, military train
ing was introduced to the University.
The training was arranged as a course
for five hours' credit toward gradua
tion in the academic department.
"Every since the war was declared,"
the pages of that campus paper said,
"Carolina has been living up to her
old traditions in furnishing men in
all branches of service, and the course
in military science gives the men who
are not yet called a chance to become
well prepared for any emergency.
Four weeks later, the campus paper,
in an editorial, said that, "Four weeks
of intensive military training has
brought out four rudely efficient com
panies. College men are rightfully
expected to assimilate training more
rapidly than those who. have not had
equal opportunities. There is a spirit
of seriousness bred of responsibility.
It has expressed itself in a construc
tive manner in campus customs. ; Col
lege men have struck a new and deep
er note than has been sounded before.
Tardiness at meetings and classes
has been reduced by half. Fun and
pleasure there is plenty; but it is rid
of its boisterousness."
"The height of patriotic fever," re
cords one student writer, "was reached
in the fall .of 1918, when the Univer
sity ceased to be a university and be
came a government, camp, the Stu
dents Army Training corps taking
over the campus, lock, stock and bar
rel." The 750 University students
who were enrolled in the corps were
part of 150,000 men in 500 American
colleges who were inducted into the
organization at the beginning of the
fall term.
Rush to Camp
Over 250 alumni and students, al
most at the first outbreak of war, had
rushed to the first officers' training
camp at Fort Oglethorpe, the univer
sity's representation being 10 per cent
of the total number from five southern
states." One hundred and fifty men
attended the second Oglethorpe camp.
From then until hostilities ceased, the
stream of university students to the
camps was steady and continuous.
A United States army officer, Lieu
tenant G. W. S. Stevens, moved into
the Sigma Chi fraternity house, his
military headquarters, and assumed
control of the University S. A. T. C.
The dormitories were referred to a3
barracks, Swain Hall (the boarding
place) was known as the mess hall,
and old .Memorial Hall became the
armory. President Edward K. Graham
was regional director of the S. A. T.
C. for the South Atlantic states.
The University reorganized its cur
riculum. A course in military French
was added by the French department,
and other departments changed their
courses or added new ones, until the
university was prepared to train stu
dents for the infantry, field artillery,
heavy artillery, air service, ordance
and quartermaster service, engineer
corps, signal corps, chemical warfare
service, motor transport and truck
service, naval service and marine
corps. Students were grouped by ages
instead of classes, and eleven hours
of military training and three recita
tion hours in the study of the issues
involved in the war were required.
These classes in War Issues were the
largest of any in the university. "
The nation had gone to war. " It
called upon the university to contrib
ute its share and found the response
most gratifying.
There are no Tar Heels to tell of
other wars but the university has tak
en its stand. David L. Swain, presi
dent of the university during the War
Between the States, wrote this state
ment in a letter to President Jefferson
Davis of the Confederacy: "The fresh
man class of eighty members pressed
into service with such impetuosity,
that but a single individual remained
to graduate at the last commencement;
and he in the intervening time had
entered the army, been discharged on
account of impaired health, and was
permitted by special favor to rejoin
his class." Swain was recounting the
university's contribution to the strug
gle. Simultaneously, he was telling
the story of the bravery and loyalty
of college men for all time.
President Swain was writing of the
circumstances in 1861 and afterward,
of the loyal spirit with which the stu
dent body and faculty had taken up
arms when their State called on them.
Similar words might have been writ
ten by President Kidder Graham when
the nation sent out its call in 1917.
President Frank Porter Graham could
look for the same hearty response if
war comes another time.
"Pinned by Bayonets"
The University had been a center of
Union sentiment, but, as Professor R.
D. W. Connor once wrote, "the Union
which inspired this sentiment was a
union based upon mutual esteem and
confidence and a regard for constitu
tional guarantees. A union pinned
together by bayonets and upheld by
force of arms had no charms for them,
for 'they believed even less in the
doctrine of coercion than in the doc
trine of secession. Consequently when
President Lincoln, in April, 1861, iss
ued his call for troops, the ringing
reply of Governor Ellis, a University
man, 'You can get no troops from
North Carolina,' found a ready re
spon in the hearts of University men
everywhere."
Military Tactics became a part of
the university course and the students
those who had not already taken
up arms on the battlefield were
drilled and taught the use of military
equipment. '
As students gather today in Me
morial Hall for programs of various
sorts, they can see all around them
the memorial tablets erected in honor
of the 312 students and alumni who
were killed or died in service in the
Confederate army. A total of 1,062
University men fought under the Stars
and Bars.
The highest military rank held" by
a university man' was that of lieutenant-general,
attained by Leonidas
Polk, who was outranked in length
of service only by Longstreet and Kir-by-Smith.
Another son of the univer
sity, Bryan Grimes, reached the rank
of Major General. She had 13 briga
dier generals, many lesser officers,
and hundreds of privates.
"Whe the war began," declared Dr.
Stephen B. Weeks in an address at
the centennial celebration of theopen
ing of the institution, "the boys of the
University rushed away to the 'strug
gle like men who had been bidden to
a marriage feast.. There was great
vivacity of spirit, even gaiety of tem
per displayed, and Governor Swain
was proud of their enthusiasm." -
The faculty, too, quickly responded
to the call. Five volunteered for the
war. The other nine, with one. ex
ception, were either clergymen or be-
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yond age. The University had for the
year 1860-61 five tutors, all of whom
volunteered. Four of them never re
turned. World War No. 2
Typical of the colleges in North
Carolina should be the University. Old
Trinity, Davidson, Wake Forest and
other schools were just as loyal dur
ing the War Between the States, and
the World war. Now that there is
talk of World War II these schools
along with the University are again
doing their bit. June 1941 saw the
Daily Tab Heel express the feeling
of college students at this time in this
manner: "Finish the job at hand,
which means your college education,
if possible, and don't give it a lick
and a promise. Stay in there and
really punch. Come back next year
and go as far as you can. Your duty
to your country is not to go, if and
when you're called, but also to prepare
young for larger service while await
ing call."
A look at the new $370,000 Uni
versity airport, which will be com
pleted in September, gives assurance
that University officials are looking
tothe future, ready to help the na
tional defense program in any way
possible.
Full of meaning and significance in
this year of 1947 24 years later.
Tse Daily Tas Heels, files of this
year will eventually grow old and
yellow too. Perhaps ' they will not
carry a story cf a country at war,
but they will carry a story that will
give ample proof that the youth of
'42 were prepared to meet the crisis
We hope some day some one will be
able to skim over their pages and read
that the class of '42 learned a lesson
from those old yellowed volumes -of
1917.
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