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The only Civil War general to serve as Chancellor of The University of
Mississippi, Alexander Peter Stewart walked away from a $6,000-a-year job
with the St. Louis Mutual Life Insurance Company to take the job
here--which paid about $2,500 a year. Stewart's tenure was marked by
firsts. Baseball was introduced to the University in 1876. The
University's first Ph.D. was granted in 1877. The University became
coeducational in 1882. And the first woman faculty member was appointed
in 1885. Born in 1821, Stewart was a graduate of West Point Military
Academy, and he taught mathematics at Cumberland University in Tennessee
before the start of the Civil War. Stewart entered the Confederate
Army as a major, was promoted rapidly, and was appointed lieutenant
general on June 23, 1864. Stewart was a commander in the Army of
Tennessee and was distinguished in the battles of Shiloh, Perryville,
Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge.
