was succeeded by John Powell who continued to be president of Burritt until 1861, when most of the male students left to join the armies in the War between the States. During the war the college premises were used as an encampment for soldiers, and the buildings were greatly abused and damaged, the dormitories being used for stables for horses.

At the close of the war the College was reopened under the presidency of Martin White. He was a relative of the John White for whom White County was named. The family was from Virginia, where Martin White was educated. After three years his health was impaired and his physician advised him to leave the high altitude of Spencer. He was succeeded by John Powell, who became president for a second time. He, in turn, after two years, was followed by Carnes for a second term which lasted for six years.

As president a total of fourteen years of the first twenty-three years of Burritt College’s history. Carnes was largely responsible for setting its standards, intellectual, moral, and religious. The school day was a long one, extending from five in the morning to nine in the evening. The schedule required the students to awake and leave their beds at the ringing of the bell at that early hour during all seasons. There was no daylight saving in those days. An hour of study was required before breakfast. The students marched into the chapel at eight o’clock for a short religious service. This was followed by recitations interspersed with study periods until about four o’clock in the afternoon, except for an intermission of an hour and a half for the noon meal and two brief periods for exercise during the morning and afternoon. Two hours of study were required in the evening. All lights were to be extinguished at the ringing of the bell at nine o’clock. There were strict rules and regulations against fighting and carrying deadly weapons; against swearing and the use of obscene language; against gambling, card playing, and other behavior “calculated to corrupt the morals of youth”; against using tobacco and drinking intoxicating liquor. There were many other rules regulating the relationship between the male and female students, behavior on Sunday, the care of College property, and the avoidance of indebtedness.

Life at Burritt was somewhat austere and simple but it was on a very high intellectual and religious plane,—a good example of the ideal of “the Attic soul in a Spartan mould,” a combination of what was best in the two somewhat contrasting Spartan and Athenian cultures of ancient Greece. The most important extracurricular activity centered around the two literary societies, Philomatheian and Calliopean, founded early in the history of the College. They afforded the students opportunities for development in written and oral expression. Many later eloquent and effective public speakers thus secured their first experience and training. The programs of these societies were composed of recitations, orations, and debates. Girls were admitted to membership in 1884, and it then became apparent that they were a healthful factor in the social as well as intellectual development of these organizations. Later in the new college building each society was given a special room for its meetings and for housing its library, each having as many as 800 volumes by 1895. The College curriculum also provided for weekly exercises in public speaking on Friday afternoons, and in later years introduced a department of elocution, or expression as it was also called.

When Carnes retired from the presidency in 1878 at the age of 78, he was succeeded by Dr. T. W. Brents. Like Elihu Burritt, Brents when a young man became a blacksmith by trade and developed a robust, powerful physique. He later studied medicine, and taught anatomy and surgery in Macon Medical College in Georgia previous to the War between the States. Then he returned to Tennessee where he divided his time between the practice of medicine and