Marion Military Institute | Battle of Perryville
Marion Military Institute
By: Arthur Wilkerson
"Marion Military Institute, the oldest military junior college in the nation, was established in 1842 as “Howard English and Classical School” by the Alabama Baptist Convention and was later known as “Howard College.” Then located about four blocks north of the current campus, Howard had a very modest beginning in a single, small building, the same site where Judson College had its beginning. A fire in 1844 completely destroyed the school building and prompted the movement of academic classes to Siloam Baptist Church while Marion citizens allowed the faculty and students to live in their homes. Howard returned to its original site in 1846 after the completion of a new school building. After a second fire in 1854, Howard students were again housed within the community and classes were moved back to Siloam Baptist Church where school was carried for one year until a new dormitory was completed on the site of the current campus.College Cadets circa 1880
At the beginning of the Civil War, the Alabama Baptist Convention reported that the war was bearing especially hard on Howard College, so a military department was added to improve its popularity. Howard’s president, three professors, and about forty students volunteered for service in the Confederate Army. In 1863, the Medical Director of the Confederate Army made application for use of the college as a hospital. Permission was granted, and the college was suspended soon afterward. Lovelace Hall, built in 1854, and the Chapel, built in 1857, served the Confederacy as Breckenridge Military Hospital from 1863 to 1865. Classes were reinstated in 1864 to educate disabled Confederate soldiers and have since continued uninterrupted.
In 1887, Howard College moved to Birmingham and later became Samford University. The remaining faculty and students under President J.T. Murfee reorganized as “Marion Military Institute,” an independent, non-profit military school. The name honors General Francis Marion, the Revolutionary War “Swamp Fox.”
The ROTC program was first offered at MMI in 1916 when the institute was designated as an “Honor Military School with Distinction” by the Department of Defense. The U.S. Army Early Commissioning Program was established at MMI in 1968. In 1971, MMI enrolled women as full-time students for the first time during the regular school year and, since then, has remained fully coeducational."
As will all things political and otherwise, certain editorial liberties have been taken by each subsequent administration to "alter" history to suit their own needs. Some of this is factually incorrect, such as naming the school after General Francis Marion, when in fact it was named after the city of Marion, which was named after the Swamp Fox. After daylight I will post an article to that effect. Clearly there was a connection to the people who helped to "carry" Howard College during its lean years and those who later received the land and facilities, which in turn, was given over to Colonel James Thomas Murfee to establish a school to train white male students. From this, I believe is where the connection comes to tie in MMI with Howard and, in my opinion, does nothing to cast dispersions on relating their beginnings back to 1842. One has to go to the Alabama Baptist magazines of the time to read about the movement of the college to Birmingham and the ensuing founding of MMI.