History of the University of Missouri-Columbia-- Part 3: The Civil War

The Civil War also had other detrimental effects on the university as well.  Classes were suspended for ten months, partly because  of the troop occupation, and also because the university was short on staff. 

Only one staff member, chairman of the math department, Edward T. Fristoe, joined the Confederacy.  Students joining one side or the other cut the enrollment from 112 in 1860 to just 40 during the war.

After the Union troops left in 1865, the curators filed a claim against the federal government for damages incurred while the soldiers were there.  Horses and wagons ruined the grounds, holes were cut into walls and floors by prisoners trying to escape, books from the library were used for fires, and over 100,000 specimens in mineral and fossil cabinets were reportedly damaged.

It was also reported that Union soldiers found a box of blank diplomas and held their own commencement, awarding themselves university degrees.

And Gee Whiz, I Never Even Went To School.  --Old Secesh