Early in November, Profs.  Smith, Yallas, St. Ange, and I, met a committee of the Board of Supervisors, composed of T. C. Manning, G. Mason Graham, and W. W. Whittington, at General Graham’s house, and resolved to open the institution to pupils on the 1st day of January, 1860.  We adopted a series of bylaws for the government of the institution, which was styled the “Louisiana Seminary of Learning and Military Academy.”  This title grew out of the original grant, by the Congress of the United States, of a certain township of public land, to be sold by the State, and dedicated to the use of a “seminary of learning.”  I do not suppose that Congress designed thereby to fix the name or title; but the subject had so long been debated in Louisiana that the name, though awkward, had become familiar.  We appended to it “Military Academy,” as explanatory of its general design.

On the 17th of November, 1859, the Governor of the State, Wickliffe, issued officially a general circular, prepared by us, giving public notice that the “Seminary of Learning” would open on the 1st day of January, 1860; containing a description of the locality, and the general regulations for the proposed institution; and authorizing parties to apply for further information to the “Superintendent,” at Alexandria, Louisiana.

The Legislature had appropriated for the sixteen beneficiaries at the rate of two hundred and eighty-three dollars per annum, to which we added sixty dollars as tuition for pay cadets; and, though the price was low, we undertook to manage for the first year on that basis.

Promptly to the day, we opened, with about sixty cadets present.  Major Smith was the commandant of cadets, and I the superintendent.  I had been to New Orleans, where I had bought a supply of mattresses, books, and every thing requisite, and we started very much on the basis of West Point and of the Virginia Military Institute, but without uniforms or muskets; yet with roll-calls, sections, and recitations, we kept as near the standard of West Point as possible.  I kept all the money accounts, and gave general directions to the steward, professors, and cadets.  The other professors had their regular classes and recitations.  We all lived in rooms in the college building, except Vallas, who had a family, and rented a house near by.  A Creole gentleman, B. Jarrean, Esq., had been elected steward, and he also had his family in a house not far off.  The other professors had a mess in a room adjoining the mess-hall.  A few more cadets joined in the course of the winter, so that we had in all, during the first term, seventy-three cadets, of whom fifty-nine passed the examination on the 30th of July, 1860.  During our first term many defects in the original act of the Legislature were demonstrated, and, by the advice of the Board of Supervisors, I went down to Baton Rouge during the session of the Legislature, to advocate and urge the passage of a new bill, putting the institution on