University of Alabama Civil War sites

(2010) Enlarge The Mound

Enlarged Views: Hit Back Button to return

(2010) Enlarge The Mound

(2010) Enlarge Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library & Rotunda Plaza: The Rotunda was a 3-story, 34 year old structure (at the time of it's burning) surrounded by a dome with a colonnade of 24 columns surrounding it. The building contained a natural history collection and an auditorium on the ground floor and a library on the gallery above. In the 1980's the original footprint of the Rotunda was unearthed and mapped out before it was covered back up. The current Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library is laid over half of the Rotunda footprint. A plaza was built in front of the existing stairway to the Library and shows the footprint of the Rotunda. The Rotunda housed the Universities extensive book and manuscript collection, containing over 7,000+ volumes and being the largest collection of it's kind in the South at the time of the Civil War, all of which were burned save for one volume. The Yankee Soldiers that burned the building were pleaded with not to do so as members of the faculty made their case that the Rotunda had nothing to do with the training of Cadets as the building held historical literary works. The Yankee soldier, also appreciative of the literary works, sent a messenger back to Croxton to ask if the Rotunda could be spared. Croxton stated he was under direct orders from Wilson to burn the University down and that included all of it's buildings so the Rotunda could not be spared. Upon hearing this the orders were carried out and the Rotunda was burned. Before this happened however, one faculty member was allowed to enter the Rotunda and pick one book to be saved as a memento of the occasion. It it not known why, but the book that was saved was a copy of 'The Holy Quran' which is in the possession of the University of Alabama to this day

(2010) Enlarge Rotunda Plaza marker

(2010) Enlarge Amelia Gayle Gorgas marker

(2010) Enlarge Rotunda Plaza Foundation & Capstone Monument on the Quad: The is a view from the Rotunda Plaza looking towards the President's Mansion which can be glimpsed at across the Quad from behind Denny Chimes. Note the period photo at the beginning of this album. The view in the period photo is the same exact view as this but looking in the opposite direction from the President's Mansion to the Rotunda Building