Hillsdale educates its students to prepare them for service, including service during a war, according to Peter Jennings, associate professor of leadership studies. 

Jennings gave a lecture on March 24 called “Hillsdale Honor: The Civil War Experience.” 

“All institutions of higher learning pursue truth. At least they’re supposed to,” Jennings said. “We pursue truth but we also defend liberty.” 

Jennings emphasized the importance of Hillsdale’s tradition of defending liberty.

“Tradition is about handing down something, something of great worth,” Jennings said. “This thing of great worth is handed down from one generation to the next. It’s a kind of gift.” 

He said that it is important for each generation to pass the tradition to the next generation without corrupting it. He also addressed where this tradition originated. 

“Our tradition of defending liberty was born in the Civil War, in the hour of our country’s greatest peril,” Jennings said.

He recounted details of the Battle of Gettysburg, and included many references to individual students’ sacrifice, like a woman who served as a nurse, staying on the floor with a dying soldier for 24 hours until he passed. Many Hillsdale students volunteered in the 4th Michigan infantry regiment. 

“When the 4th Michigan volunteer infantry regiment is called up to join the fight, they are 1,000 strong, but after two years of war — Bull Run, Peninsula campaign, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville — they are 342,” Jennings said.

He then explained the size of the Wheatfield where most of the Battle of Gettysburg took place, explaining the size in a way students can understand by relating it to aspects of campus.

“The Chapel to Lane and Kendall Hall to the library and the science building, it’s about 20 acres,” Jennings said.

He described the field as a “harvest of death”  in the lecture.

“Think about this: 20 acres of ground about the size of our main campus here, a plot of ground that small,” Jennings said. “20,000 men fought for three hours. At the end, 6,000 men lay dead or wounded on that field. Of the 4th Michigan, only 55 of the 342 were left standing.” 

One of Jennings’ students who attended the talk, junior Jackson Westrick, said that Christians are obligated to serve and even die, if necessary. 

“My biggest takeaway from Dr. Jennings’ speech was that our education should not only give us a clear sense of what is good, right, and just, but it should also give us a strong sense of obligation to defend them, and it should develop within us the courage required to do so,” Westrick said.

Another attendee of the lecture, sophomore Elizabeth Cavrell, said there is a lot of value in learning the college’s history. 

“Dr. Jennings’ lecture gave me a greater appreciation for Hillsdale’s role in this country and its history, and, personally, it just further cemented my belief that this college is where I was meant to come,” Cavrell said. “The courage that Hillsdale’s young students showed in the Civil War is incredible.”

Jennings drew connections to the Civil War monument between Lane and Kendall Hall.

“The soldier atop our monument memorializes the patriotic fighting spirit of our student soldier boys, a spirit that defiantly, proudly, even cheerfully accepts the duty, takes the responsibility, and challenges the world in fighting for just principles in defense of liberty on behalf of the republic,” Jennings said.