1869 USA University of Mississippi 1862 Civil War era postal cover

University of Mississippi Civil War era postal cover for cancelled 1862 session, mailed from Oxford Mississippi to Genesee College Lima NY during Reconstruction Era 1869. The University suspended normal operations in 1861–1862 after most of its student body enlisted in the Confederate Army. 

No contents.

UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI
AT OXFORD
15^th Session opens 24^th September  Closes last Thursday in June, 18(63)

The 15^th session was scheduled to run from 1862-1863 but was interrupted by the Civil War. Note that the session # and year are had crossed out.

Postal cancelation 'OX---- MISS  -9'  on 3 cent locomotive stamp (#114).

Addressed to:

Ed. M Sawyer (1)
P.O. Bix 410
Genesee College (2)
Lima N.Y

(1)  EDWARD M SAWYER Born 20 Dec 1845 at Starkey NY Student from Dundee NY 1867-69 MYSTIC BS MS 1872 

(2) Genesee College, a Methodist institution founded in 1849 was the direct predecessor of Syracuse University (the faculty and students moved to Syracuse in 1870)

Slightly cut down at right

University of Mississippi Oxford MS

On November 6, 1848, the university opened to its first class of 80 students, most of whom were children of elite slaveholders, all of whom were white, and all but one of whom were from Mississippi. For 23 years, the university was Mississippi's only public institution of higher learning, and for 110 years, its only comprehensive university.

Following the presidential election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Mississippi became the second state to secede, with the articles of secession drafted by the university's mathematics professor Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar. Students organized themselves into a military company called the "University Greys", which merged with the Confederate States Army. Within a month of the Civil War's outbreak, only 5 students remained at the University of Mississippi, and, by fall 1861, the university closed.

Within six months, Confederates converted the campus into a hospital. It was evacuated in November 1862 as General Ulysses S. Grant's Union forces approached. Although Kansan troops destroyed much of the medical equipment, a lone remaining professor persuaded Grant against burning the campus. 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.

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