Original Louisiana State Seminary — Old LSU Site

William Tecumseh Sherman ran a school before he burned the South. In 1860, Louisiana State University opened in Pineville, not Baton Rouge, and Sherman served as its first superintendent. When Louisiana seceded, he resigned. The trajectory from there is well known — Georgia, the sea, the chimneys. The original building burned in 1869. What remains is quiet ground and the Old LSU Walking Trail, which follows where the campus once stood. A historical marker identifies the site. Bring the context with you. The grounds won't provide it, but the fact of Sherman here, teaching before the war remade him, carries its own weight. This is where a particular American story bent.