History of Auburn University

Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state.

The Institute was chartered by the Alabama Legislature on February 1, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts school under the guidance of the Methodist Church.

The first President of the institution was Reverend William J. Sasnett, and the school opened its doors in 1859 to a student body of eighty and a faculty of ten. The early history of Auburn is inextricably linked with the Civil War and the Reconstruction era South. Classes were held in "Old Main" until the college was closed due to the war, when most of the students and faculty left to enlist. The campus was used as a training ground for the Confederate Army, and "Old Main" served as a hospital for Confederate wounded.

To commemorate Auburn's contribution to the Civil War, a cannon lathe used for the manufacture of cannons for the Confederate Army and recovered from Selma, Alabama, was presented to Auburn in 1952 by brothers of Delta Chapter of the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity. It sits today on the lawn next to Samford Hall.

The school was reopened in 1866 following the end of the Civil War and has been open ever since. In 1872, control of the institution was transferred from the Methodist Church to the State of Alabama for financial reasons. Alabama placed the school under the provisions of the Morrill Act as a land-grant institution, the first in the South to be established separate from the "state" university. This act provided for 240,000 acres (971 km²) of Federal land to be sold in order to provide funds for an agricultural and mechanical school. As a result, in 1872 the school was renamed to the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama.

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