Male College on February 1, 1856, coming under the guidance of the Methodist Church in 1859. The first president of the college was Reverend William J. Sasnett, and the college started operations with a student body of eighty and a faculty of ten in 1859.
Auburn's early history is inextricably linked with the Civil War and the Reconstruction-era South. Classes were held in "Old Main" until the college was closed due to the war when most of the students and faculty left to enlist. The campus was a training ground for the Confederate Army, and "Old Main" served as a hospital for Confederate wounded.
To commemorate Auburn's contribution to the Civil War, a cannon lathe used for the manufacture of cannons for the Confederate Army and recovered from Selma, Alabama, was presented to the college in 1952 by brothers of the Delta chapter of the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity. It sits today on the lawn next to Samford Hall.
=== Post-Civil War ===
The school reopened in 1866 after the end of the Civil War, its only closure. …
