Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Civil War ignites SpCLflk ofdedication As students left tofight, Horseshoe used as hospital to escape Sherman’s fire By Hilary Schramm/THE GAMECOCK PHOTOS COURTESY OF USC ARCHIVES After the Civil War erupted, troops took over the Horseshoe. The students were leaving to Join the Confederate Army, and the school was shut down. One could say South Carolina College was impacted by the Civil War. After all, the uni versity was shut down after most of the student body enlisted in the Confederate army, and the Horseshoe was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers on both sides of the conflict. South Carolina College students fol lowed not only the goings-on at the State House down the road, but also what was happening back in their hometowns along the coast and in other Southern states. As early as 1860, students were writing to then parents about leaving college and joining the army. In 1861, an attack on Fort Sumter prompted an exodus from campus. Some students helped guard Sullivan’s Island, but most returned after three weeks when the governor ordered them back to school. By the end of the fall term in 1861, most students were ready to join the Confederate army. Almost all students enlisted, leaving only 72 enrolled for the spring 1862 semester after an extended admissions pe riod. The president tried to resign, but his efforts were ignored. Instead of staying with the dwindling college, he left for Mississippi to tend to his sick wife, and pro fessor Maximilian LaBorde took over man agement of the college through the Civil War years. On March 8,1862, S.C. Gov. Francis Wilkinson Pickens issued a conscription notice to all young men in South Carolina. The students quickly realized that all but about 12 of them would be drafted if they didn’t join voluntarily, and by Monday, March 10, all but three or four students had withdrawn from South Carolina College. Professors attended their empty class rooms according to the tolling of the bell, but by 5 p.m. the same day, LaBorde de clared an interim and classes ceased. On June 25,1862, the Confederate gov ernment took possession of the main Horseshoe buildings except for the South Caroliniana Library, which remained open. V By November, LaBorde declared to the Board of Trustees that more than 2,000 sol diers had been treated on the campus. In 1863, more buildings around the pe riphery of the Horseshoe were appropriat ed for the Confederate government’s pur poses. The government also tried to take over the land within the walls of the col lege and graze stock on it, but faculty mem bers protested. Since the arrangement stat ed the government was renting the build ings, not the grounds, facultymembers won and the Horseshoe did not became a stockyard. In April 1864, the college and the Confederate government agreed to a rental fee of $31,250 per year for all the buildings in the Horseshoe, plus added fees for two other buildings in use. When Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union army in 1865, the Confederate gov ernment owed the college $99,410. On Valentine’s Day 1865, Columbia be gan to shut down as Sherman’s troops grew closer and closer. On the night of Feb. 17, most of Columbia was destroyed in flames. According to William Gilmore Simms in his article for The Phoenix (published shortly after the fire), Professors LaBorde, Reynolds and Rivers stood at the gate of campus and prevented troops from coming in. Confederate troops later helped them protect the area. Sparks were flying as the city burned and two campus buildings caught fire. The fire was extinguished, but the campus was dam aged from Sherman’s destructive march. In May 1865, the U.S. Military took pos session of campus buildings. A report to the Board of Trustees in 1865 said, “These buildings have been used by Confederate and U.S. authorities successively as hospi tals, prisons for blacks and whites, store- . houses and quarters for refugees, and lat terly in part for freedmen.” While damage to USC during the Civil War was great, faculty members andSouth Carolina residents carefully rebuilt the col lege, and the new University of South Carolina would continue to grow. use and Clemson students have always hated each other, but in 1902 that malice was on a different level BY GRAHAM CULBERTSON THUOAIIECWK uouege ended with a i*b victory — for Carolina, their first since the an College faithful had plans to cele rated with aClmU^Sr South Carolina CoUege display, flew a ban jerwkha victorious Gamecock crowing over a defeated tiger. The night of the victory, a band of Carolina students delivered on an earlier promise and marched through the streets of Columbia ear •rying the banner. This was to repay ■the Clemson students, who had marched through Columbia after each of their victories with garnet and black cloth attached to their shoes. But just as Carolina had promised a parade, the Clemson con tingent had previously vowed to steal the banner if it was used as a symbol of victory. Between 300 and 400 Clemson cadets came to Columbia each year and camped out at the state fair grounds before the annual game. And that year, 1902, they were ready for battle. All of the camping kotc students garnered tneir bayo nets and swords and marched on the South Carolina College campus to halt the triumphant parade and con fiscate the banner. About 30 USC students, armed with “rocks sticks, knives and maybe a couple of guns," went to face the hundreds of Clemson ROTC stu dents armed with swords and bayo nets, USC archivist Elizabeth West said. The two sides met on Sumter Street at the entrance to the Horseshoe. The Carolina students, led by assistant football coach Christie Benet, dug hasty fortifica tions behind the then-six-foot wall day: sate their way fo the painted doth, and finally the st shreds fell to (he ground in dark and silence.” JSC now bums an artificial tiger in yearly effigy. South Carolina College faculty members canceled the football game until 1909, for fear of future violence. “Tiger, tiger burning bright By the State House late at night. Why did Howard’s foolish har$ Bring thee from thy Guernsey Land?” ■ if PHOTO COURTESY OF use ARCHIVES FILE PHOTO FROM GARNET & BLACK The 1988 Tlgerburn gets under way with the traditional lighting of the paper tiger’s mouth. This annual event readies students for the Carollna-Clemson game. PHOTO COURTESY OF USC ARCHIVES The rivalry between USC and Clemson remains high as a banner Is flown from the McKIssIck Museum In 1943. FILE PHOTO FROM GARNET & BLACK The tiger burned brightly, however briefly, before the Intervention of the Columbia Fire , Department at'TIgerburn in 1958.