Centre During the Age of Lincoln
Exhibition Designed by Anastasia Knight, Class of 2003
 | JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE Major General, Orphan Brigade, C.S.A Class of 1838 |
 | ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, JR. Orphan Brigade, C.S.A |
 | JOSEPH HORACE LEWIS General, Orphan Brigade, C.S.A Class of 1843 |
 | JEREMIAH T. BOYLE Brigadier General, U.S. Army Class of 1838 |
 | JAMES S. JACKSON Brigadier General, U.S. Army Class of 1843 |
Breckinridge Family
The Breckinridge family has many ties to Centre's history. One might think that Breckinridge Hall is named for Centre's beloved John C. Breckinridge, State and U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and Vice President of the United States of America, but is in fact named for his uncle, Robert J. Breckinridge, president of the Danville Theological Seminary. Breckinridge Hall was built in 1892 as a dormitory and classroom building for the Seminary, which had previously occupied rooms in Old Centre as well as a building in present day Constitution Square. Breckinridge sent four sons into the Civil War. Robert Jr. and W.C.P [William Campbell Preston] both joined the Orphan Brigade. Their two brothers enlisted in the Union Army.Board of Trustees Minutes, June 29, 1864
The quiet of the College was hardly disturbed in the earlier part of the session, and nothing either in their habits of study or the general deportment of the students calls for special remark. More recently the community, and of course the students, were thrown into a high state of excitement for a few days by a raid into our state which threatened at one time to visit our section. Such things cannot fail to be injurious to regular habits of study.
Centre Alumni Known to be Involved in the Battle of Perryville
Dr. Enos Stevens Swain, Class of 1857, surgeon for the U.S. Army
Brigadier General James S. Jackson, Class of 1843, U.S. Army
James I. Hall, Class of 1847, C.S.A., treated at the hospital in the present day Old Crow Inn
Junius Hall, Class of 1858, C.S.A., treated at the hospital in the present day Old Crow Inn
Centre Alumni Killed in Action During the Civil War
Adam Beatty, Class of 1839
James Bell Bullitt, Class of 1860
John Coleman, Class of 1846
Robert Henry Cowan, Class of 1854
Dandridge Spotswood Crockett, Class of 1860
Andrew Jackson Dunlap, Class of 1842
Robert Emmet Dunn, Class of 1860
John Rochester Ford, Jr., Class of 1857
Abner Gaines, Class of 1851
David A. Gillespie, Class of 1856
William Matthew Hadden, Class of 1850
James S. Hall, Class of 1848
Junius LeRoy Hall, Class of 1858
Edward Hughes, Class of 1860
James S. Jackson, Class of 1843
John William Jacobs, Class of 1854
John G. Keenon, Class of 1848
John Henderson McDannold, Class of 1850
James Edwin McGuire, Class of 1861
Samuel McKee, Class of 1853
William L. Morehead, Class of 1853
Hobson Powell, Class of 1857
Willis Slaughter Roberts, Class of 1857
John Matthew Sharp, Class of 1841
Samuel Brown Todd, Class of 1848
Robert James Waggener, Class of 1856
All images in this display, save a few, have been taken from the Centre College Archives. The image of John C. Breckinridge can be found in Edwin Porter Thompson's History of the Orphan Brigade, Rare Book Room E 564.4 .T48. The images of Robert J. Breckinridge, Jr., and Joseph Horace Lewis can be found in volume 9 of Clement Anselm Evans' Confederate Military History, Book Stacks E 484 .E9. The images of Jeremiah T. Boyle and James S. Jackson are located in volume 10 of Francis Trevalyen Miller's Photographic History of the Civil War, Book Stacks E 468.7 .M64 1957.