The Men of Randolph-Macon College and the Civil War

In 1861, talk of secession transformed into armed conflict. Many of the men educated at Randolph-Macon College in the preceding 29 years immediately responded to the calls of their state militias to serve, while others later enlisted or were conscripted into the Confederate or Union armies. Others served in public office, or were ultimately drawn into the conflict in the last days in reserve units in local defense. These are their stories.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

William Arthur Shepard, class of 1857 (A.B.) and 1858 (M.A.),

A native of Boston, MA, William Arthur Shepard entered the college as both a student and as Adjunct Professor of Chemistry. Upon graduation in 1857, he remained as Assistant Professor of Chemistry until June 1861. He enlisted in Company E of the 12th Virginia Infantry on July 22, 1861. After recovering from a wound received at Chancellorsville, he was detailed to the Commissary Department in Weldon, N.C., discharged from the 12th VA, and commissioned as major in the Quartermaster Department.

After the war, Shepard taught in Petersburg, VA, before rejoning the R-MC faculty in 1870 as Professor of Chemistry in its new Ashland location, where he died in 1895. Shepard in buried in Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg.