Catholic students, the Medical School was founded in 1851.
The American Civil War greatly impacted Georgetown as 1,141 students and alumni enlisted in one army or the other, and the Union Army commandeered university buildings in order to defend the national capital from a feared a Confederate attack. By the time President Abraham Lincoln visited the Georgetown campus in May 1861, 1,400 troops were living in temporary quarters there. The number of lives lost in the Civil war caused enrollment levels to remain low until well after the war. Only seven students graduated in 1869, down from over 300 in the previous decade. When the Georgetown College Boat Club, the school's rowing team, was founded in 1876 it adopted two colors: blue, used for Union uniforms, and gray, used for Confederate uniforms. These colors signified the peaceful existence of students who held various loyalties.
Enrollment did not recover until the late 19th century, during the presidency of Patrick Francis Healy from 1873 to 1881. Born in …
