James Ward Wood |
William Nelson Scott |
William Archibald Walsh |
Stanhope McClelland Scott |
In the fall of 1865, after fighting for
the CSA in the Civil War, James Ward Wood was discharged
and moved to Lexington to attend Washington College
under the supervision of Virginia's #1 son, Gen. Robert
E. Lee. He was joined by a family friend, William Nelson
Scott, that had moved to Lexington when his father accepted
a position as head master of the Ann Smith Academy for
Girls.
Prior to entering Washington College,
Wood worked in a general store where he was told of
stories about a secret men's' organization called Freemasonry.
After searching and studying more about this type of
secret fraternal group, Wood approached Scott on the
idea of beginning a fraternity. They had called on a
new acquaintance that they had spent time with between
classes. His name was William Archibald Walsh. With
Walsh and William Nelson Scott's younger brother, Stanhope
McClelland Scott, the four founded Kappa Alpha Order
on December 21, 1865 (Originally known as Phi Kappa
Chi). Stanhope was a mere 15 years old, and had not
enrolled in Washington College until the following Spring.
In the Spring, Wood was asked by members
of Phi Kappa Psi to change the name of the fraternity
from Phi Kappa Chi because they felt it was too similar
to their own name. Wood changed the named to K. A. Though
no one really knows why he chose K. A., many suspect
it was to draw attention from the recently closed fraternity,
old K. A. (or Kuklos Adelphon).
The preceding fall saw the addition of
seven additional members, thus pushing the enrollment
to 18. One of the new initiates was Samuel Z. Ammen,
a Master Mason, that took great interest in the ritual
of K. A. With his efforts towards developing the ritual,
Ammen transformed the K. A. fraternity into Kappa Alpha
Order, an order of Christian knights pledged to the
highest ideals of character and achievement.
The Knight Brothers designed the Order
and emulated their behavior after their College's President,
and a man for which all of the South greatly loved and
admired, Robert Edward Lee. After a shaky first year
and a half, Ammen and a recently initiated brother,
Jo Lane Stern, took a walk to discuss the future of
their young order. Sitting on the steps of White and
Sons General Store, Stern and Ammen decided to keep
up the fight. From then on their prospects improved.
Since then, Kappa Alpha Order has grown to over 125
chapters and demands to be recognized on every campus
where it exists.
Robert
Edward Lee, born January 19, 1807, at his
family's plantation (Stratford Hall) in Westmoreland
County, Va., was destined for greatness. Through his
father, General Henry Lee, the celebrated "Light
Horse Harry Lee" of Revolutionary War fame, and
his mother, Ann Hill Carter, he was a member of two
of the most distinguished families of early America.
The Lees and Carters belonged to the politically
and socially influential planter aristocracy of the
South. Lee counted among his ancestors members of Virginia's
colonial House of Burgesses, two signers of the Declaration
of Independence, members of Congress, a cabinet official,
several governors of Virginia, diplomats and military
officers. Lee's family background presented him a strong
tradition of patriotism, service and duty.
As a child, Lee moved from Stratford Hall
to Alexandria, Va., which is located across the Potomac
River from Washington, D.C. In Alexandria, he matured
quickly as he was forced to accept obligations brought
on by his mother's poor health and his father's frequent
absences from home and subsequent death in 1818. Wishing
not to become a burden upon his family, Lee sought a
commission to West Point and entered the academy in
1825. From the beginning, he demonstrated the qualities
of leadership and command that would characterize his
long service as a soldier. When he graduated four years
later, he was cadet corps adjutant, head of his class
in tactics and artillery and second in general standing.
In 1831, he married Mary Ann Randolph Custis, daughter
of George Washington's adopted son, George Washington
Parke Custis. Mary, an heiress to extensive properties,
owned Arlington House, a massive white columned home
dominating a hill overlooking Washington from the Virginia
side of the Potomac. For the next 30 years, Arlington
was their beloved home.
His career as a U.S. Army officer began
with his commission as lieutenant upon his graduation
and his first assignment was with the Army Corp of Engineers
at Fortress Monroe, Va. In 1834, he was transferred
to Washington to assist the Army's chief engineer. Three
years later, he was sent to the Midwest where he helped
establish the border between Ohio and Michigan and in
1837, he traveled south to Missouri to make a study
of the Mississippi River, which was beginning to meander.
If not corrected, the river would form a new channel
which would leave St. Louis without water facilities.
After Lee mapped the Mississippi, from the mouth of
the Missouri River to a point several miles below St.
Louis, his plans for controlling the river were approved
by Congress and the completed work now stands as a monument
to his endeavor. In 1846, when the Mexican War broke
out, Lee was transferred to Northern Mexico. When the
northern campaign ended, he joined General Winfield
Scott at Veracruz, where he received favorable mention
for his first combat under fire. Later, at Contreras,
Scott wrote of him, "The gallant and indefatigable
Captain Lee performed the greatest feat of physical
and moral courage performed by any individual in my
knowledge pending the campaign." Lee had won his
military spurs in Mexico. Entering the Mexican campaign
as a captain, Lee exited as a colonel and as General
Scott's chief aide.
After the war was over and the U.S. Army
had defeated General Santa Anna, Lee returned to Virginia
and, soon after, resumed his engineering duties by assisting
in the construction of Fort Carroll in Baltimore. In
1852, he became superintendent of Westpoint and conducted
a successful administration of the institution's affairs.
After a three-year stint at the Point, Lee returned
to the West and was assigned to a cavalry unit in Texas.
While in Texas, Lee spent most of his time protecting
settlers from Mexican bandits, renegade Indians and
outlaws. He was also able to assist in the building
of an Episcopal church in San Antonio.
In 1859, while home on furlough, he was
ordered to Harper's Ferry, Va., to free the hostages
of abolitionist John Brown. On October 17, Lee's marines
arrived at the small town and, at sunrise the next day,
they stormed the facility and released the prisoners
unharmed. A number of Brown's party were either killed
or injured and Brown himself was captured and later
hanged. Little did Lee realize it, but this incident
was a tremendous factor in speeding the impending war.
After his furlough ended, Lee returned to Texas, but
was there only a short while. With the impending crisis
of succession looming on the horizon, he was recalled
to Washington in 1861. Before leaving Texas, he wrote
to his son, Custis, "As an American citizen I take
great pride in my country, her prosperity and her institutions,
and would defend any state if her rights were invaded.
But, I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country
than a dissolution of the Union." He also wrote,
"Secession is nothing but revolution . . . I shall
return to my native state and share the miseries of
my people, and save in defense will draw my sword on
none."
Upon arriving in Washington, President
Lincoln appointed him colonel of the U.S. Army's First
Cavalry, and two weeks later, Lee accepted. During this
time, Virginia was standing by the Union, but the relationship
was tenuous at best. Shortly after Lincoln's appointment,
Lee was interviewed by General Scott and Mr. Francis
Blair and was offered command of the entire Union Army.
As Virginia's secession became eminent, Lee wrote Scott
and resigned his commission. It read in part, "Since
my interview with you on the 18th I have felt that I
ought not longer retain my commission in the Army .
. . It would have been presented at once, but for the
struggle it has cost me to separate myself from a service
to which I have devoted all the best years of my life,
and all the ability I possessed . . . I shall carry
with me to the grave the most grateful recollections
of your kind consideration and your name and fame will
always be dear to me. Save for defense of my native
state, I never desire again to draw my sword."
Two days after resigning from the U.S.
Army, Lee journeyed to Richmond and, on April 23, 1861,
he was publicly made commander of the troops of the
state of Virginia. Virginians were his people, their
war was also his war. For Virginia, he became Robert
Edward Lee, Major General, C.S.A. For the Confederacy,
he later became the commanding general of all Confederate
troops. To the Confederacy, Lee contributed his considerable
talent as a military leader. His skill as a strategist
and his capacity to analyze a combat situation, combined
with his ability to arouse intense devotion in troops,
furthered the Confederate cause. Even though the tactics
and maneuvers Lee employed will forever be studied in
war colleges, his bold leadership could not overcome
the overwhelming odds the South faced. The numerical
superiority, production capabilities and unlimited supply
sources of the Union were too much for the talented
Lee to overcome.
The struggle of the Civil War was a tragic
American epic with heroism, sacrifice and anguish on
both sides of the conflict. Through four years of war,
Lee moved down the long, bloody road that led from the
Seven Days' Battle and Second Manassas, past Antietam
and Fredericksburg, to Chancellorsville, Gettysburg,
Petersburg and Richmond, and ended at Appomattox Courthouse.
Most battles were victories and few were defeats. However,
all wars produce their dead and maimed, glories and
agonies, politicians and martyrs, anecdotes and drama,
poverty and wealth, and infamy and immortality. To Lee,
war meant one thing - duty.
Of course, Lee was not happy with the
outcome of the war, but he knew that man must progress
and move forward. He bore malice towards none. The example
he set was that the war was over, and that Americans
must reunite and become the best citizens they could
be. Lee often said, "Let the past be but the past.
Let us move forward and bear no malice." Even so,
the end of the war brought a dramatic change to Lee's
life. The Custis-Lee fortune was greatly reduced and
Arlington House was lost. His military career terminated,
he lost the right to vote and he was barred from serving
in public office for which he was eminently qualified.
However, Lee held no bitterness or animosity, nor did
he indulge in self-pity.
Determined to set an example for fellow
Southerners, he hoped the emotions of the war years
would soon be forgotten and the work of rebuilding Virginia,
the South and the United States into a great, unified
America could be accomplished. The day after the surrender
he told General U. S. Grant that, "he (Lee) should
devote his whole efforts to pacifying the country and
bringing the people back to the Union." Lee was
at once criticized by fellow Confederate generals and
politicians for taking a reconciliatory stance. Lee
replied, "I need not tell you that true patriotism
sometimes requires a man to act exactly contrary at
one period to that which he does at another, and the
motive which impels him, the desire to do right, is
precisely the same." His superb dignity, courage,
and noble character in the difficult post-war years
intensified admiration for him, earning him the respect
of even his former enemies. In defeat, Lee achieved
his highest level of greatness.
Even though he was broken physically and
financially, he turned down numerous offers that would
have brought immediate fortune to his family for little
or no work. He refused offers of stock in return for
endorsements. He even turned down an estate in England
that an English lord had offered to give him for his
family's private use. Instead, he hoped for the opportunity
to earn a respectable wage for his family and to do
all that he could to rebuild America. That opportunity
came in the summer of 1865, when the Board of Trustees
of Washington College voted unanimously to offer the
college presidency to Lee. Although he could have accepted
many other lucrative positions, the college presidency
most appealed to him. The offer combined the opportunity
to serve others, to guide young men in rebuilding the
South, and to educate them for the purpose, as he said,
"of being good Americans." Accepting the trustees'
offer, Lee and his family moved to the small hamlet
of Lexington in October 1865. Thus, the final phase
of his career began - that of a gifted and innovative
educator and inspirational leader of youth.
In this capacity, Lee became an academic
revolutionary. He looked ahead to see what the needs
of the nation were going to be. He knew that a new era
had arrived, one that dictated a new person. So, he
trained his students for the needs of rebuilding and
reconstruction. He did this not only in the classroom,
but also through personal example. Lee preserved the
traditional style of education, but he also added a
liberal arts curriculum and technical subjects such
as agriculture and mechanical and civil engineering.
In fact, his was the first college to establish a School
of Journalism and a School of Commerce and Business
Administration. In addition, he established scholarships
and began the practice of offering summer courses. But,
most important of all, was Lee's ability to inspire
his faculty and students to excel. "Excellence"
applied not only to academics, but also to general conduct,
as illustrated by Lee's statement, "We have but
one rule here and that is that every student must be
a gentleman."
Not only did Lee bring new ideas to the
field of education and insist on excellence, but he
also used his position to practice what he preached
reconciliation and the healing of old wounds. Lee knew
that the futures of Virginia and the South, if they
were to grow and succeed, were tied with the North.
So, the spirit of unity and the enrollment of northern
students was a must if Washington College was to accomplish
its mission of training young men to rebuild the Union.
Lee knew the healing process would begin with the students'
interaction and he knew that they would teach and learn
from each other.
Not wishing to be the sole example, Lee
also insisted that his professors be proper role models
for his students. One well-documented story tells of
two professors discussing a recent reconstruction act
handed down from Congress. It was clearly evident that
one of the professors was still extremely bitter towards
the North. Lee, after listening, turned to his desk
for a manuscript and read a poem from the Muslim poet
Hafiz that talked of forgiving one's enemies. Lee then
said, "Ought not we, who profess to be governed
by the principles of Christ, be able to rise at least
to the standard of the Muslim poet and be able to forgive
our former enemies." The professors argued no more.
There are numbers of similar stories and accounts that
persist about Lee's character. This is but one example
of why countless books and speeches are written about
him and why he is still revered and honored for what
he did for our nation.
On a cold, dreary and wet September 29,
1870 Lee left his office for a vestry meeting at Grace
Episcopal Church, which is now Robert E. Lee Episcopal
Church. After the meeting, he walked across the campus
to the President's House to find his family waiting
for him at the dinner table. As he was standing to say
grace, he grew silent and sank back into his chair.
It was determined that he had suffered a stroke and,
although he was given good medical attention, he did
not rally and died several days later. On October 12,
1870, his body was entombed below Lee Chapel. The rector
of Grace Episcopal Church, who was once his artillery
chief during the war, read the burial service. Moved
to the Lee family crypt 13-years later, Lee now rests
on the campus of Washington and Lee University at the
rear of Lee Chapel - the chapel he erected in preference
to having the money spent upon a home for himself. Unknowingly,
he had built a shrine for himself and a monument to
his character.
Each student at Washington College was
greatly influenced by this man. His sense of duty and
honor and his hope of rebuilding the nation were overwhelming.
It is then easy to understand why Ammen and our founders
were so affected by Lee and his lessons of life. Our
founders, all attracted by the presence of Lee, were
inspired by the greatness of Lee that led to the founding
of Kappa Alpha Order and keep his values alive. To them,
he personified the heroic knights of the past, representing
their noblest ideals and traditions of chivalrous behavior.
Indeed, even before his death, Lee was referred to as
the "Knight of America" and "The Last
Gentle Knight." It is this legacy which was adopted
as the moving force of Kappa Alpha Order.
Former Knight Commander John Temple Graves,
a famous orator of his time, stood at the podium of
the 1923 Convention to make one of his highly romanticized
banquet toasts. In a few moments, his eloquence had
not only raised the glass of every man in the room,
but also captured the attention of the entire Order.
Graves' Convention toast heralded Robert E. Lee, and
first designated him as the "spiritual founder"
of Kappa Alpha Order. Since then, KAs have referred
to Lee as such. The designation that Graves coined in
1923 expressed the feeling that KAs had held for Lee
for almost six decades. The four students who founded
KA, and a fifth who authored our ritual, were profoundly
influenced by Lee. He exemplified for them the highest
standards, the most chivalrous conduct and the finest
traits of manliness.
Annually, on the anniversary of Lee's
birthday, active and alumni chapters gather for Convivium,
a celebration commemorating the founding of KA and Lee's
spiritual ties to the Order. The toast that Graves made
examined his influence and noted that it was indeed
Lee's example that was the driving force behind the
formation of our philosophy and ideals. "The spirit
of Lee inspired the spirit of Ammen; the life of Lee
had fired the heart of Ammen," said Graves. "For
when Lee was born, the creed was born, or the inspiration
of the creed."
It is in our philosophy that Lee is so
apparent, and that is why Graves was able to state that
Lee was, "the proof and indication" of something
that is higher. Lee, in his daily actions, letters and
conversations, represented the perfect example of what
the best in man can attain. He was a living example
of what the founders and the first Kappa Alphas were
aspiring to emulate. Samuel Z. Ammen wrote that the
ideal of the gentleman, "is that of the chivalrous
warrior of Christ, the knight who loves God and country,
honors and protects pure womanhood, practices self-respect
to ill-gotten wealth." To Ammen and others, Lee
in his daily walk, was this perfect gentleman. Therefore,
we can look to Lee and examine his philosophy and characteristics
to learn more about our own set of ideals
Samuel
Zenas Ammen, Kappa Alpha Order's practical
founder, was born in Fincastle, Va., October 22, 1843.
He was the youngest of nine children and at the age
of eight he entered school. Later, he entered the Botetourt
Male Academy where his academic standing was excellent.
The Civil War, which was about to begin, delayed his
entering college until 1866. At the beginning of the
war, Ammen joined a local military organization and
the rank of second lieutenant in his company. At the
time of his enlistment, he was stationed at Centreville,
near Washington, In December, 1861, he was engaged in
a skirmish at Dranesville, near the Potomac. His force
was led by the colorful and daring General J.E.B. Stuart.
After months of picket duty. Ammen's company was marched
to Richmond, and thereafter transferred to the C.S.S.
Schultz on the James River and proceeded towards Yorktown.
The night before the battle of Williamsburg, where several
of his companions were killed, he slept on the campus
of The College of William and Mary. A month later, he
was detailed as a chemist to assist in the preparation
of dyestuffs needed in the manufacture of cloth for
the army. He later was transferred to the Confederate
Navy. Just before the end of the war he was transferred
to Virginia's western front.
At the end of the war, Ammen returned
to the Botetourt Military Male Academy in Fincastle
where he continued his studies. It was also during this
time that he became involved in freemasonry, a secret
men's organization. In the fall of 1866, he traveled
north up the valley road to Lexington where he enrolled
in Washington College to study under Gen. Robert E.
Lee, Ret. He was now 22-years old - older than most
of the boys in his class. During his first session,
Ammen boarded at the home of William Ruff, a Latin and
French teacher at Ann Smith Academy for Girls, where
William Nelson Scott's father was also teaching. This
association assisted in bringing Ammen closer to the
southern order. On October 18th of his first year in
college, he was initiated into K. A. From that day on
Ammen had labored faithfully toward the development
of the Order. Shortly after his initiation he and Scott,
with the assistance of James Ward Wood, began to rework
the struggling fraternity's initiatory customs. By the
end of the 1867 session a new set of customs was introduced.
It was Ammen who carried on the work of its creation.
He once wrote, "In the evolution of the customs and
constitution nothing was borrowed from other fraternities,
with respect to which the founders had very little knowledge..."
As a student at Washington College, Ammen
became president of the Washington Literary Society
- then one of the most coveted honors. He won a gold
medal for the best essay in the School of English Literature.
He was the founder of the Southern Collegian, a literary
paper, and afterwards a magazine. In addition, he was
a member of the Ugly Club and was Chief Mourner at the
Burial of Queen Math - both being honors of distinction
during his time in college. In June 1869 he graduated
with a master's degree in arts.
He immediately became master of the Milburn
Academy in Kentucky. He had turned down an assistant
professorship in modern languages at Washington College.
The first day Ammen took this job, the principal of
the school skipped town and young Ammen took over as
principal the next day with a raise in salary. He served
in this capacity during the 1869-1870 academic year;
it was during this same time period, with the consent
of Alpha chapter, that he completed the first ritual
and constitution and oversaw their printing.
From 1870 until 1881, he taught Latin,
Greek, and chemistry at the Atkinson's School for Boys
in Baltimore, Md. It was also during this time that
he traveled extensively throughout Europe. In August
1881, Ammen became the literary editor of The Baltimore
Sun. This move opened up the second stage of his professional
career - that of journalist. He continued as an editorial
writer on The Sun for the next thirty years.
