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UNIVKRSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, CHAPEL HILL, N. C, October 75, 1863.

" To his Excellency. JKI i KRSON DAVIS,

r>< sii/fiif of the Confederate States.

SIR The accompaning resolutions, adopted by the trustees of this institution at their regular meeting in Kaleigh, on the eighth instant, make it my duty to open a correspondence with you on the subject to which they relate.

A simple statement of the facts, which seem to me to be pertinent, without any attempt to illustrate and enforce them by argument, will, I suppose, sufficiently accomplish the purposes of the trustees.

At the close of the collegiate year 1859-60 (June yth, 1860), the whole number of students in our catalogue was 430. Of these, 245 were from North Carolina, 29 from Tennessee, 28 from Louisiana, 28 from Mississippi, 26 from Alabama, 24 from South Carolina, 17 from Texas, 14 from Georgia, 5 from Virginia, 4 from Florida, 2 from Arkansas, 2 from Kentucky, 2 from Missouri, 2 from California, i from Iowa, i from New Mexico, i from Ohio. They were distrib- uted in the four classes as follows: Seniors 84, Juniors 102, Sopho- mores 125, Freshmen 80.

Of the eight young men who received the first distinction in the Senior class, four are in the grave, and a fifth a wounded prisoner. More than a seventh of the aggregate number of graduates are known to have fallen in battle.

The Freshman class of eighty members pressed into service with such impetuosity, that but a single individual remained to graduate at the last commencement [Titus W. Carr]; and he in the interve- ning time had entered the army, been discharged on account of im- paired health, and was permitted by special favor to rejoin his class.

The faculty at that time was composed of fourteen members, no one of whom was liable to conscription. Five of the fourteen were permitted by the trustees to volunteer. One of these has recently returned from a long imprisonment in Ohio, with a ruined constitu- tion, [G. B. Johnston]. A second is a wounded prisoner, now at Baltimore. A third fell at Gettysburg, [I. M. Royster]. The remaining two are in active field service at present.

The nine gentlemen who now constitute the corps of instructors are, with a single exception, clergymen, or laymen beyond the age of conscription. No one of them has a son of the requisite age, who has not entered the service as a volunteer. Five of the eight sons