Sherman Spares Chapel Hill

Andy and the Ghost

Thomas Wolfe

Gimghoul Castle

Birds of a Feather

What's a Tar Heel?

Carrboro

UNC's First Computer

Manning Drive

Horace Williams House

HW House Residents

Area Street Names

Mount Mitchell

Sherman   >

Swim Test

Need a Ride?

Cemeteries

If it ain't Broke...

Joy in the Morning

Hinton James

A Noble Tradition?

Painting the Town Blue

Di and Phi Societies

General William Tecumseh Sherman spared the University and the town of Chapel Hill from the fate of many Southern cities during his Civil War campaign through a direct order. Weeks after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, then-University President David Lowry Swain, accompanied by former-Governor William A. Graham, personally approached Sherman about the fate of the locale and the capital of Raleigh. Sherman listened and then dispatched Maj. General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick with the message "If you reach the University, do not disturb its library, buildings, or specific property." When Gen. Smith B. Atkins later took possession of Chapel Hill, Sherman's orders were obeyed.

Ironically, Swain soon later became vilified by the community when his daughter, Eleanor, married Gen. Atkins, prompting students to hang both parties in effigy [5].