Superintendent William T. Sherman

Sherman reached Alexandria in November 1859 as the seminary's first superintendent, and he worked as a schoolmaster as much as a soldier. He taught engineering, handled a board divided between a strict military college and a literary school, and leaned on General Graham, the school's driving force, and a faculty that included David F. Boyd. Classes began January 2, 1860. He was uneasy about secession and warned that leaving the Union over fear of abolitionism would bring worse conflict. When Louisiana moved out of the Union in January 1861, he resigned and went north.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum — 2.1 mi
  A National Guard museum in a replica WWII barracks at Camp Beauregard, built around the huge 1940-41 war games in Central Louisiana. Free.
• Forts Randolph and Buhlow State Historic Site — 2.4 mi
  Two Confederate earthen forts on the Red River at Pineville, built with enslaved labor and never attacked, beside the remains of Bailey's Dam.
• Arna Bontemps African American Museum — 3.4 mi
  The restored Alexandria house where the Harlem Renaissance writer Arna Bontemps was born in 1902, on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.
• Kent Plantation House — 4.5 mi
  Rapides Parish's oldest known standing building, a Creole house with a February tour and a 2023 memorial that put the enslaved first.

More markers nearby

• State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy — steps away
• Jefferson Highway — 1.4 mi
• Central Louisiana State Hospital Cemetery — 1.9 mi
• Camp Beauregard - 761st Tank Battalion — 2.1 mi