University Greys Memorial Window Contextualization Plaque Text

Tiffany window plaque

In 1889, the Psi chapter of Delta Gamma gave a memorial to the University of Mississippi campus. The memorial honored the “University Greys,” a name that referred to Company A of the 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment of the Confederate Army. This company was primarily composed of students from the University who left their alma mater on May 1, 1861.

The memorial in the form of a stained-glass window from the Tiffany Glass Company, New York, was placed here in the University Library in 1891. The $506.50 cost was raised by Delta Gamma and the University Alumni Society.

The window, twelve feet high and nine feet wide, was designed to have three main panels. The first panel depicts the students drilling as soldiers in front of Barnard Observatory. The middle panel portrays a battle scene, with the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia flying amid the carnage. Some newspaper reports stated that the battle scene was the first battle the “Greys” fought at Manassas. However, the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia was not present at that early battle. Others believe the battle scene is the famous Pickett’s Charge on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, in which the “University Greys” suffered one hundred percent casualties—killed, wounded, or captured. The third panel depicts the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

The smaller panels include an anchor, which is the Delta Gamma badge with the Psi chapter guard, and one with the Latin phrase, “Cum Pietate Alumnorum,”* in honor of the University of Mississippi alumni who served in the Civil War.

*The translation of CUM PIETATE ALUMNORUM: “With the gratitude of the alumni” or “With the devotion of the alumni.”