I planned for today’s column to be a history of Union Academy in Columbus, but the scope of the column narrowed as I became fascinated by the trials of its first few years.
That interest became even more directed when I realized no one knew the original location of the school, other than it was in the former Confederate Wayside Hospital on Southside. The story of the school’s first year came alive reading the diary of Cyrus Green, a teacher there, and period newspaper accounts. Papers from as far away as New Hampshire picked up the story of Union Academy.
In 1866, Cyrus Green came to Columbus to teach at a school for the recently freed slaves. The school, which later became known as Union Academy, was established in late 1865 by the Freedman’s Bureau and operated by the American Missionary Association. Green traveled to Columbus by train, leaving his home in Plainfield, Indiana, on the morning of Feb. 6, 1866, and arrived in Columbus at 7 a.m. on Feb. 9.
On first seeing the school, he described it thus: “The rooms proposed to be occupied as school rooms which are in a Hospital Building known as Wayside Hospital built by the Confederates and in which the sick and wounded of both armies have at different times been lying. The rooms are good for the purpose and taking into consideration the state of things at present. Other rooms are the officers’ quarters near the hospital and the barracks are just behind.” The next day he spent preparing the room in which he would teach.
The following day was Sunday, and he held Sunday school for about 40 people. After lunch, he decided to go walking in nearby pine forests but found them wet and uncomfortable.
Monday morning was the start of school, which he described as “favorable.” A Methodist minister later paid a pleasant visit to the school. That night 30 adults attended class. They had been unable (or possibly afraid) to leave their homes during the day.
That apparently was an early sign of trouble to come. First the US military authorities took several rooms in the former hospital for their own use, and then came threats from some members of the white community over the education of former slaves.
Green recorded in his diary: “We heard a hint this evening that there was talk among the southern Chivalry and Yankee haters of setting fire to the Wayside hospital and this put an end to our work here. Hope there is no danger, yet it may be so.”
The threats came to a head in late April when the school received a threatening letter.
The national press began to pick up the threats to the school. The New Hampshire Sentinel on May 10 reported: “Certain evil disposed persons having sent a threatening letter to Dr. Wilson, principal of the Freedman’s school at Columbus, Miss., the common council of that city passed resolutions condemning the act, and guaranteeing protection to Dr Wilson and his assistants, so long as they may conduct themselves with propriety in obedience to the laws of the land.”
The threats were also reported in Columbus papers, with Green referring to an article in the Columbus Sentinel. “This morning’s paper The Sentinel has an article on the subject of the note we received. The prevailing ideas in it are fear for their town, dread of the recalling of the military and that they do not think the work we are doing here an evil but far from it — written in a kind of persuasive tone mingled with threats of the Civil Powers should they attempt to carry out their design.” While police patrols were increased, there was still concern and an armed guard of Black citizens was posted around the school.
Nothing apparently came of that threat and several white citizens came by the school to offer their support. Two who were named were Johnson and Whitfield. In March, another white citizen had offered support in a different fashion. T.C. Billups had visited the school with his wife to get information about the education provided there and purchase textbooks as, “They propose to start a school on their own plantation and educate their former slaves.”
After Green had departed Columbus, the former hospital-turned-school was destroyed by a fire. The Columbus Index reported on Feb. 2, 1867, that there was a division of opinion as to whether the fire was set by whites to destroy the school or was an accident. An elderly Black man, Jo Mitchell, who had been sleeping in the building, died in the fire.
Another report stated that as a show of support for the school by the white community, $400 was quickly pledged toward a new school. In 1869, a new school was constructed. Before it was completed, the former Confederate barracks were apparently used for classrooms.
Green left Columbus in June, and his last diary entries in Columbus provide a key to locating the site of the first Union Academy. All that was known about the location of Wayside Hospital/Union Academy was that it was on Southside, probably near the Confederate arsenal complex. Green reported walking from the Freedman’s Chapel two blocks to the railroad depot. A section of the former Confederate barracks was turned into a chapel and the barracks were behind the hospital.
An illustration from 1866 shows a two-story house in a grove of trees near the hospital. The c. 1870 bird’s eye view of Columbus shows a two-story house in a similar setting on the north side of Block 13 south of the railroad, and an 1862 drawing places the barracks just north of Block 13 on Block 12. The Wayside Hospital/Union Academy was probably on or adjacent to Block 13 about 3 blocks southeast of the old Mobile and Ohio Railroad depot.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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