University Greys

The stained glass window in Ventress Hall dedicated to the University Grays. Oxford, Mississippi

Corporal L. Purnell of Co. I, 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment

The University Greys (or Grays) were Company A of the 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Part of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Greys served in many of the most famous and bloody battles of the war.

Formation

The rifle company joined the 11th Infantry at its inception on May 4, 1861, after Mississippi seceded from the Union. Their name "University Greys" derived from the gray color of the men's uniforms and from the fact that almost all of the Greys were students at the University of Mississippi. Nearly the entire student body (135 men, with the final total men ever enlisted numbering 150) enlisted; only four students reported for classes in fall 1861, so few that the university closed temporarily.

Engagements

The most famous engagement of the University Greys was at Pickett's Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg, when the Confederates made a desperate frontal assault on the Union entrenchments atop Cemetery Ridge. The Greys penetrated further into the Union position than any other unit, but at the terrible cost of sustaining 100% casualties—every soldier was either killed or wounded.

After Gettysburg, the depleted Greys were merged with Company G (the "Lamar Rifles"). The unit continued to fight until the last days of the war.

Officers

Officers of the University Greys:

• Captain William B. Lowry, wounded at Seven Pines, 1862.
• Captain Simeon Marsh, resigned August 1863
• Captain John V. Moore
• First Lieutenant Calvin B. McCaleb, resigned December 1861.
• First Lieutenant John H. Graham, resigned due to disabling wounds, 1862.

In popular culture

The story of the University Greys is memorialized in an opera composed by Dr. Arthur Kreutz, who was Professor of Music at the University of Mississippi, using text from the book of the same name by Zoe Lund Schiller. The opera was published by Ricordi of New York in 1961. A copy of the score resides in the library of the Northern Illinois University. The opera was given its first performance in 1961 at the University of Mississippi under the auspices of the Department of Music.

In William Faulkner's 1936 novel Absalom, Absalom!, the characters Henry Sutpen and Charles Bon join the University Greys at the outbreak of the Civil War.

In Ventress Hall at the University of Mississippi, a stained glass window in Ventress Hall depicts a mustering of the University Greys.

See also

• List of Mississippi Civil War Confederate units
• 11th Mississippi Infantry Monument

Further reading

• 11th Mississippi Infantry: A Brief History by Steven Davis – covers the history of the regiment
• 11th Mississippi Infantry – Company A – roster of the Greys and other companies in the regiment, including status as killed, wounded, etc.
• History of the Ole Miss Engineering School – includes information about the Greys, though its figure for the total killed appears to disagree with the roster linked above