|
|
"A collaborative political resource." |
BATTLE OF BATON ROUGE Civil War still rages in the halls of Louisiana State University after a resolution passes to honor Union general
|
| Parent(s) |
Container
-
|
| Contributor | Brandonius Maximus |
| Last Edited | Brandonius Maximus Jul 09, 2006 12:07pm |
| Category | General |
| News Date | Jul 09, 2006 12:00pm |
| Description | A state senator from Oak Ridge fired the first volley in a battle over naming a building on the Louisiana State University campus after Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, and now an emotional war is raging with no end in sight.
In the waning days of the recent legislative session, Sen. Robert Barham, R-Oak Ridge, an active LSU alumnus, got colleagues to pass a nonbinding Senate resolution requesting the LSU Board of Supervisors to "give consideration for the naming of an appropriate building in honor" of Sherman, the first president of the institution that would become LSU. The measure passed without objection or debate.
Sherman, anathema to generations of Southerners for his "total warfare" and "scorched earth" policies in pillaging Atlanta during the Civil War on his notorious "March to the Sea," served as a captain in the Mexican war. He later resigned his commission to become superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy, the institution that evolved into LSU, when it opened its doors near Pineville on Jan. 2, 1860.
Because of the Civil War, the school closed in 1861 and Sherman joined the Union army as a colonel.
Barham argued that he is not trying to re-fight the Civil War, just give credit to a man who helped run LSU's precursor. Naming a building after him would be a fitting tribute, Barham said, while conceding wryly: "I do not think that naming a building after him at the (LSU) fire training academy would be appropriate."
|
| Article | Read Article |
|
|
