| rdfs:comment | - The Lyceum was a two-story brick building with an Ionic portico, very similar in design to the Lyceum that Nichols built several years later at the University of Mississippi. It housed laboratories and classrooms. The Rotunda, completed in 1833, was a three-story brick structure surmounted by a dome and surrounded by a two-story colonnade of twenty-four Ionic columns. An auditorium, used for ceremonies and church services, occupied its first two floors. The third floor housed the university's 7,000-volume library and natural history collection. Near the northwest side of the Rotunda stood a guardhouse, now known as the Little Round House. It was the only structure on the Quad with a direct military purpose. Four of the dormitories were three-story brick buildings, Washington and Franklin h
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| abstract | - The Lyceum was a two-story brick building with an Ionic portico, very similar in design to the Lyceum that Nichols built several years later at the University of Mississippi. It housed laboratories and classrooms. The Rotunda, completed in 1833, was a three-story brick structure surmounted by a dome and surrounded by a two-story colonnade of twenty-four Ionic columns. An auditorium, used for ceremonies and church services, occupied its first two floors. The third floor housed the university's 7,000-volume library and natural history collection. Near the northwest side of the Rotunda stood a guardhouse, now known as the Little Round House. It was the only structure on the Quad with a direct military purpose. Four of the dormitories were three-story brick buildings, Washington and Franklin halls on the west side of the Quad and Jefferson and Madison halls on the east. Two one-story frame buildings, Johnson and Lee halls, were built in 1863, one between Washington and Franklin and another between Jefferson and Madison. The Alabama Legislature converted the university over to the military system on February 23, 1860. This decision proved disastrous, as it turned the school into a military target during the Civil War. During the war the university became known as the "West Point of the Confederacy," sending roughly 200 cadets into the field each year. On April 3, 1865 Union Brigadier General John T. Croxton and 1500 cavalrymen approached Tuscaloosa with orders to destroy all targets of military value in the town. On April 4 Croxton sent Colonel Thomas M. Johnston and two hundred men to burn the university. In the midst of carrying out his orders, university faculty pleaded with Johnston to spare the Rotunda and its library. Johnston sent a message via courier to Croxton, asking if he might spare the building. Croxton replied “My orders leave me no discretion... My orders are to destroy all public buildings.” By the time that his men had completed their orders only seven university buildings remained: the Gorgas House, President's Mansion, Observatory (not on the Quad), the Little Round House, and a few faculty residences.
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