Today marks 150 years since Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse, which ended the bloodiest war in United States history.
Even now, Americans still live with the echoes of the Civil War. As many as 850,000 men died in the conflict. For every 10 soldiers who marched off to battle, one would never again come home.
The Civil War holds special significance in the history of Hillsdale College. At its outbreak, hundreds of students answered the call for troops. Nearly the entire male student body left its studies and took up arms. According to former Professor of History Arlan Gilbert, more than 500 Hillsdale men served in the war, the highest percentage of any non-military school in the country.
Of those hundreds, there were many who never returned to their alma mater. The Soldiers’ Monument commemorates those Hillsdale students who lost their lives in the war. For those who made it home, life was never the same.
Four Hillsdale students returned with the Medal of Honor, the highest possible award for gallantry. Asher LaFleur, who later became Hillsdale’s mayor, returned without his leg. Others returned with mental scars rather than physical. Still others, like two-time Medal of Honor recipient Frank Baldwin, found academic life impossible and left for a military career.
Today, the tremendous sacrifices of those who fought so long ago are remembered. The impact of the Civil War is and should continue to be reflected upon.
Above all, Americans must recognize the continued resolve that “these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
