Page "University of Mississippi" Paragraph 5

With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, classes were interrupted when the entire student body and many faculty from Ole Miss enlisted in the Confederate army.

Their company, Company A, 11th Mississippi Infantry, was nicknamed the University Greys, and suffered a 100 % casualty rate during the Civil War.

A great number of those casualties occurred during Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, when the University Greys made the deepest encroachment into Union territory.

Some of the soldiers actually crossed the Union defensive fortification wall, only to be killed, wounded or captured.

On the very next day, July 4, Confederate forces surrendered at Vicksburg, Mississippi ; the two battles together are commonly viewed as the turning point in the war.

When Ole Miss re-opened, only one member of the University Greys was able to visit the university to address the student body.