Alexandria, Nov. 30, 1859.
Dear Sir: . . . Only
six members of the Board of Supervisors convened on Monday 28th and the same
number again on yesterday. Dr. [S. A.] Smith was sick, but his presence would
not have made a quorum. So we did nothing — only talked. There was this done
however; that as the only means of getting the money from Doctor Smith with
which to prepare the building for the reception and accommodation of cadets, I
gave him my individual obligation to hold him harmless, which we all thought a
rather unnecessary piece of fastidiousness on the part of the Doctor. . .
Major Sherman will
now go to New Orleans on Saturday to make the requisite purchases. . .
I was also
requested in the same capacity, to call another meeting of the Board for
Saturday, Dec. 10th, which I have done, but do not anticipate any different
result, as Mr. Sanford is in Virginia.
As it is manifest
that Mr. Henry Gray will never attend any of our meetings, I wish very much
that you would oblige us by at once appointing Doctor Lewis Magruder in his
stead. He is a gentleman of education and intelligence, a son-in-law of Mr. R.
C. Hynson, stirring, active man, with a growing family, and will make a good
and attentive member, is a warm advocate for the military feature of the
school, to injure which in indirect modes the two or three opponents of it in
the Board are now making efforts. If you can at once dispatch an appointment to
Doctor Magruder, it will reach him in time for the next meeting, and greatly
relieve me, for I cannot make head against Manning and Smith, with Ryan1
playing “fast and loose” between us all the time.
_______________
1 Judge T. C. Manning, Dr. S. A. Smith, and
Michael Ryan, all members of the Board. Manning and Smith were the chief
opponents of the military system. — Ed.
SOURCES: The article is abstracted in Walter L.
Fleming’s, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 64-5
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