24 Southern Historical Society Papers.
vice for the New England colleges, was 23 per cent; Yale leads the list with twenty-five per cent. Between 1825 and 1864, 1384 students received the degree of A. B. from the University of North Carolina; of these, we know that 537, or nearly forty per cent., were in the service of the Confederate States.
But this comparison is unjust to the University of North Carolina, for I have mentioned already the enthusiasm with which her students rushed away to battle without finishing their work. There were eighty members of the Freshman class of 1859-60. But a single one (Titus W. Carr), remained to complete his studies and he was ren- dered unfit for service by feeble health. The class of 1860 had eigh- ty-four members; two of them died in 1860; of the remaining eighty- two, it seems from the best evidence at hand, that eighty entered the Confederate service; of these 80, 23, or 28.75 per cent were killed. There were few graduates the next year. Five members of the fac- ulty had gone as we have already seen. The ha' Is of the Univer- sity which had presented such a scene of bustling activity a few years before, were now almost deserted. There was danger that the Institution would be compelled to close from the sheer lack of stu- dents.
Further, the enforcement of the conscription acts threatened to bring about the same result. The trustees then determined to ap- peal to President Davis in behalf of the institution and its students. Mr. Davis had said at the beginning of the war, that ' ' the seed corn must not be ground up." At their meeting in Raleigh, October 8, 1863, the trustees resolved, "That the President of the University be authorized to correspond with the President of the Confederate States, asking a suspension of any order or regulation which may have been issued for the conscription of students of the University, untill the end of the present session, and also with a view to a gen- eral exemption of young men advanced in liberal studies, until they shall complete their college course.
1 ' That the President of the University open correspondence with the heads of other literary institutions of the Confederacy, proposing the adoption of a general regulation, exempting for a limited time from military service, the members of the two higher classes of our colleges, to enable them to attain the degree of Bachelor of Arts."
In accord with these instructions, Gov. Swain addressed the fol- lowing letter to President Davis :
