30,000 Yankees encamped at College Hill

Stories of courage and honor surround the Yankee’s occupation in the  College Hill area after Gen. Ulysses S. Grant crossed the Tallahatchie River near Abbeville and went on to Oxford.

Grant’s second in command was Gen. William T. Sherman. He had crossed the Tallahatchie at Wyatt’s Crossing, just to the west of Abbeville, and had moved his 30,000 troops into the area around College Hill. (September 10, 2010, Page 3B)

First UM commencement didn’t have graduating class

Oxford and Ole Miss historian Jack Lamar Mayfield, in honor of this week’s graduation at the University of Mississippi, takes a look back at the school’s first commencement exercises in 1849, a commencement without any graduates from the new school. (May 7, 2010, Page 2B)