This collection consists of a one volume notebook compiled in 1862 by VMI cadet William J. Hubard. The bulk of the volume contains poetry and mementos. There are also two diary entries. The poetry includes "The Six Plebes" and "The Old Gray Coat" by Sara Henderson Smith, and several poems attributed to cadets Edward A. Rhodes, John F. Hanna, and Benjamin F. Bishop. Subjects of the verses are VMI life and regulations, including many references to faculty members (e.g., Francis H. Smith, Raleigh Colston, John T. L. Preston, William Gilham, Thomas H. Williamson, and Stonewall Jackson). Poetry composed by cadets, includes "Soliloquy of a Rat," "Examination," "The Faculty," "The Rat's Dream," and other poems about cadet life. Mementos consist of autographs and dried pressed leaves presented to Hubard by young ladies. One sprig of cedar is labelled as being from Stonewall Jackson's coffin.
The notebook also contains two diary entries. The first, dated November 2, 1862, concerns the death of cadet William Thomas Fleming, who died of typhoid fever. The second entry mentions Hubard's examinations on June 24, 1863.
William James Hubard was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 8, 1845 to William Hubard and Maria Mason Tabb. He enrolled at VMI on March 1862, and on May 15, 1864 took part in the Battle of New Market, Virginia. The following autumn he commissioned as a Lieutenant in the First Confederate Foreign Battalion, in which he served from November 1864 until he re-entered VMI on February 23, 1865.
After the Civil War, Hubard taught school for several years and then worked as a civil engineer and in business until 1896. He spent the rest of his life working for the Masonic Order, and was Grand Lecturer of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Masons of Virginia. He married Mary Booth Troutman of Long Branch, New Jersey and they had one son, Nathaniel Walter Hubard (VMI Class of 1898). Hubard died at his home in Richmond, Virginia, on April 20, 1917 and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond.
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William J. Hubard notebook, 1862. MS 0014. VMI Archives, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia.
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