Editing University of Mississippi (section)

===Founding and early history===
{{multiple image
| align = left
| total_width = 400
| image1 = Frederick Augustus Porter Bernard cph.3b31295.jpg
| alt1 = Frederick A. P. Barnard, a spectacled and bearded man
| image2 = 1861 Lyceum.jpg
| alt2 = The Lyceum in 1861
| footer = [[Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard|Frederick A. P. Barnard]], the last [[Antebellum South|antebellum]] chancellor, and the [[Lyceum (Mississippi)|Lyceum]] in 1861
}}

The [[Mississippi Legislature]] chartered the University of Mississippi on February 24, 1844<!---DO NOT CHANGE THIS DATE!!!-->.<ref name="Fowler 1941, p. 213">[[#Fowler|Fowler (1941)]], p. 213.</ref> Planners selected an isolated, rural site in [[Oxford, Mississippi|Oxford]] as a "sylvan exile" that would foster academic studies and focus.<ref name="cohodas5">[[#Cohodas|Cohodas (1997)]], p. 5.</ref> In 1845, residents of [[Lafayette County, Mississippi|Lafayette County]] donated land west of Oxford for the campus and the following year, architect [[William Nichols (architect)|William Nichols]] oversaw construction of an academic building called the [[The Lyceum (Mississippi)|Lyceum]], two dormitories, and faculty residences.<ref name="Fowler 1941, p. 213"/> On November 6, 1848, the university, offering a [[Classics|classical]] curriculum, opened to its first class of 80 students,<ref name="cohodas5"/><ref name="history"/> most of whom were children of elite slaveholders, all of whom were white, and all but one of whom were from Mississippi.<ref name="cohodas5"/><ref>{{cite news|last=Andrews|first=Becca|date=July 1, 2020|title=The Racism of "Ole Miss" Is Hiding in Plain Sight|url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/07/racism-university-mississippi-nickname-ole-miss-confederate-history-elma-meeks/|work=Mother Jones|access-date=August 1, 2021|archive-date=July 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709002552/https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/07/racism-university-mississippi-nickname-ole-miss-confederate-history-elma-meeks/|url-status=live}}</ref> For 23 years, the university was Mississippi's only public institution of higher learning<ref>{{cite web|title=History|url=http://www.olemiss.edu/info/history.html|publisher=University of Mississippi|access-date=December 14, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130404053703/http://www.olemiss.edu/info/history.html|archive-date=April 4, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> and for 110 years, its only comprehensive university.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/colleges/university-of-mississippi-main-campus/?sh=1210fd8365a7|title=University of Mississippi Main Campus|website=Forbes|access-date=June 28, 2021|archive-date=June 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629020429/https://www.forbes.com/colleges/university-of-mississippi-main-campus/?sh=1210fd8365a7|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1854, the [[University of Mississippi School of Law]] was established, becoming the fourth state-supported law school in the United States.<ref name="law">{{cite web|url=https://law.olemiss.edu/about/history/|title=History|website=School of Law|publisher=University of Mississippi|access-date=July 4, 2021|archive-date=July 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210703014433/https://law.olemiss.edu/about/history/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Early president [[Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard|Frederick A. P. Barnard]] sought to increase the stature of the university, placing him in conflict with the more conservative board of trustees.<ref name="Cohodas 1997 pp. 6">[[#Cohodas|Cohodas (1997)]], pp. 6–7.</ref> His hundred-page 1858 report to the trustees on his proposals resulted in little besides the university head's title being changed to "chancellor".<ref>[[#Cohodas|Cohodas (1997)]], p. 7.</ref> Barnard's northern background—he was born in [[Massachusetts]] and graduated from [[Yale]]—and [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] sympathies resulted in heightened tensions: a student assaulted his slave and the state legislature investigated him.<ref name="Cohodas 1997 pp. 6"/> Following the presidential election of [[Abraham Lincoln]] in 1860, Mississippi became the second state to secede, with the [[Mississippi Secession Ordinance|articles of secession]] drafted by the university's mathematics professor [[Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar]].<ref>[[#Cohodas|Cohodas (1997)]], p. 8.</ref> Students organized themselves into a military company called the "University Greys", which merged with the [[Confederate States Army]].<ref name="cohodas9">[[#Cohodas|Cohodas (1997)]], p. 9.</ref> Within a month of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]'s outbreak, only 5 students remained at the University of Mississippi, and, by fall 1861, the university closed. In its final action, the board of trustees awarded Barnard a [[Doctor of Divinity|doctorate of divinity]].<ref name="cohodas9"/>

Within six months, [[Confederate States of America|Confederates]] converted the campus into a hospital. It was evacuated in November 1862 as General [[Ulysses S. Grant]]'s [[Union Army|Union forces]] approached. Although Kansan troops destroyed much of the medical equipment, a lone remaining professor persuaded Grant against burning the campus.<ref>[[#Cohodas|Cohodas (1997)]], p. 10.</ref>{{efn|group=note|Chancellor Barnard's friendship with General [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] may also have helped save the campus.<ref>[[#Sansing|Sansing (1999)]], p. 112.</ref>}} After three weeks, Grant and his forces left, and the campus returned to being a Confederate hospital. Throughout the war, over 700 wounded died and were buried on campus.<ref name="cohodas11">[[#Cohodas|Cohodas (1997)]], p. 11.</ref>