Opelika, Alabama
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Opelika, AL; Rousseau, General Lovell Harrison; Auburn, AL
The city of Opelika, Alabama was incorporated on February 9, 1854. Because of the many rail lines that snaked through the city, warehouses were built during the war to store cotton and other goods. When General Lovell Harrison Rousseau’s men stormed through Auburn and Opelika in July 1864, they destroyed railroads and other property including Opelika’s warehouses.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-4
Joshua Shiver
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Rousseau and Wilson's Raids
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Union Army; Rousseau, Major General Lovell Harrison; Sherman, General William T.; Decatur; Johnston, Major General Joseph; Atlanta; Confederate Army; Texas Hospital; Wilson, General James H.; Phenix City; Columbus, GA
On July 10, 1864, Major General William T. Sherman ordered Major General Lovell Harrison Rousseau to depart from Decatur, Alabama with approximately 2,500 men. Their goal was to sever the Montgomery and West Point railroads - a vital link for funneling supplies from central Alabama to Confederate Major General Joe Johnston's overwhelmed and outnumbered forces in Atlanta. Along the way, Rousseau's men were to destroy every scrap of government supplies or materials that could be used to aid the Confederate defense of Atlanta.
Local slaves in the Auburn/Opelika area funneled information to Rousseau and his men about the area's weak defenses. In Auburn, only a handful of patients at the Texas Hospital were able to offer even token resistance. As Rousseau and his cavalry rumbled through the streets of Auburn and then Opelika, they burned warehouses, burned train depots, the post office, and disabled the local rolling stocks. Union soldiers returned once again on April 15, 1865, this time under the command of Major General James H. Wilson. They swept through Auburn, Opelika, and Phenix City, before finally making their way across the 14th Street Bridge into their intended target, the massive industrial city of Columbus, Georgia.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-5
Joshua Shiver
<a href="http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-3596" target="_blank">Encyclopedia of Alabama: Rousseau's Raid</a><br /><a href="http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1375" target="_blank">Encyclopedia of Alabama: Wilson's Raid</a><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1864/08/03/news/gen-rousseau-s-raid-highly-interesting-particulars-expedition-departure-decatur.html" target="_blank">New York Times July 27, 1864: Gen. Rousseau's Raid</a><br /><a href="http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/civilwar/unionroutes.html" target="_blank">Routes of Union Activity in Alabama (Maps)</a>
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Auburn and Opelika at the End of the Civil War
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Auburn, AL; Opelika, AL; East Alabama Male College
The emancipation of slaves, a widespread labor shortage, and the collapse of the Confederate financial system all coalesced to bring the cities of Auburn and Opelika to ruin at the end of the Civil War. It would be ten years before a new home would be constructed in Auburn and the area’s educational system was completely wrecked. What was once a bustling and growing village would soon fall into stagnation. Though the East Alabama Male College reopened in 1866, it did so with fewer students and many unpaid professors.
Joshua Shiver
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-12-5
Joshua Shiver
<a href="http://diglib.auburn.edu/150th/series/au_civil_war.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Auburn University Sesquicentennial Series: Auburn in the Civil War Era by Ralph Draughon Jr.</a><br /><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41680?msg=welcome_stranger" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Book: Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama by Walter L. Fleming<br /></a>Storey, Margaret M., <em>Loyalty and Loss: Alabama's Unionists in the Civil War and Reconstruction</em>. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004.
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George W. Andrews Federal Building
Lee County, AL; Opelika, AL; Government; National Register of Historic Places
Keith S. Hebert
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2015-4-28
Keith S. Hebert
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Southern Union State Community College
Education; Lee County, AL; Southern Union Community College; Bethlehem College; Hodge, John M.; Southern Christian Convention of Congregational Christian Churches; Piedmont Junior College; Southern Union College; Southern Union State Junior College; Opelika State Technical College; Alabama State Board of Education; Brown, Robert
Southern Union State Community College began its institutional life as Bethlehem College on June 2, 1922. John M. Hodge, a Wadley banker, donated forty acres to the Southern Christian Convention of Congregational Christian Churches as a site for the campus. From 1923 to 1964, Bethlehem College remained under religious auspices, operating as Piedmont Junior College (1928-1929), Southern Union College (1930-1933), and The Southern Union College (1933-1964). On October 1, 1964, the State of Alabama took possession of Southern Union State Junior College, which became part of a new organization of two-year colleges under the governance of the Alabama State Board of Education. The Alabama State Legislature created Opelika State Technical College in 1963 in order to fill a vocational and technical educational niche in one of Alabama’s heavily industrialized areas. The Lee County Commission donated 63 acres for Opelika State Technical College’s campus, and the college opened on January 10, 1966. Robert Brown served as its first president, heading the technical college until 1992. On August 11, 1994, the Alabama Board of Education decided to assimilate Southern Union State Junior Colleges three campuses in Wadley, Valley, and Opelika, with Opelika State Technical College in Opelika. The community college still operates on campuses in Wadley, Valley, and Opelika.
Taylor McGaughy
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Union_State_Community_College
Text Sources: “Southern Union State Community College,” Encyclopedia of Alabama, http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2946
The Heritage of Lee County Book Committee, The Heritage of Lee County, Alabama (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2000), 80.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-11-26
Taylor McGaughy
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