politicians and literary figures as United States Supreme Court justice John Archibald Campbell, novelist William Gilmore Simms, and professor Frederick Barnard. The addresses to those societies reveal a vibrant intellectual culture in Tuscaloosa; they also illustrate the proslavery ideas that were so central to the university and the state.
Discipline and student behavior were major issues at the university almost from the day it opened. Early presidents attempted to enforce strict rules regarding conduct. Students were prohibited from drinking, swearing, making unauthorized visits off-campus, or playing musical instruments for more than an hour at a time. Still, riots and gunfights were not uncommon. To combat the severe discipline problem, president Landon Garland received approval from the legislature in 1860 to transform the university into a military school.
=== From the Civil War to World War II ===
Many of the cadets who graduated from the school served as officers in the Confederate Army during the …
