the Alabama secessionist William Lowndes Yancey. About the Lecture: In 1856 the state legislature chartered the East Alabama Male College (later Auburn University), but the school did not open until three years later, on the eve of the Civil War. Always called “Auburn”, the college was sponsored by local Methodists. When armed conflict interrupted its promising beginning, the college served as a Confederate hospital, endured a severe tornado, and survived a federal invasion. Struggling …