The
story of Sigma Nu began
during the period following the Civil War, when a Confederate
veteran from Arkansas enrolled at the VMI, Virginia Military
Institute, in Lexington Virginia. That cadet was James
Frank Hopkins, and it is to him and two of his
classmates as to which Sigma Nu owes its existence. When Hopkins
enrolled at VMI, the south was in a state of turmoil and just
beginning to recover from the devastating military defeat it
had suffered. The
Virginia Military Institute
was highly recognized for its civil engineering program and
the South badly needed to repair its bridges and railroads.
At the Institute cadets suffered, not only of the ravages of
war and a disrupted homelife, but because of the system of physical
harassment imposed on lower classmen by their fellow students
in the upper classes.
Hopkins
had experienced military subservience during the war, and was
willing to tolerate a reasonable amount of constraint intended
to induce discipline. However, Hopkins was unwilling to accept
any amount of hazing then being allowed at VMI. Not one ounce
of hazing was he willing to suffer and he was doggedly adamant
about eliminating it.
Hopkins
soon was joined by two classmates and close friends who were
also equally unhappy with the hazing situation. They were Greenfield
Quarles, from Arkansas, a Kentuckian by birth,
and James McIlvaine Riley from St.
Louis, Missouri. These three men began a movement to completely
abolish the hazing system at VMI. Their efforts climaxed on
a moonlit October night in 1868, presumably following Bible
study at the superintendent's home, when the three met at a
limestone outcropping on the edge of the VMI parade ground.
Hopkins, Quarles and Riley clasped hands on the Bible and gave
their solemn pledge to form a brotherhood of a new society they
called the Legion of Honor.
The vows taken by these three Founders
bound them together to oppose hazing at VMI and encouraged the
application of the Principle of Honor in all their relationships.
That the founders should adopt Honor as a guiding principle
was a natural move since a rigid code of Honor was already an
established tradition of the VMI Corps of Cadets. The Honor
system at VMI required each cadet to conform to the duty imposed
by his conscience that each act be governed by a high sense
of Honor.
Although Sigma Nu Fraternity
began in October 1868 as the Legion of Honor, its existence
was kept secret until the founders publicly announced their
new society on the first day of January 1869,
the accepted birthdate of Sigma Nu. What a New Year's celebration
it must have been for cadets who could not go home for the holidays!
In those days the Institute did not close for "breaks"
as we know them. It suspended classes only for the day on such
occasions as Christmas and New Year's.
The Fraternity's spiritual birth,
however, actually occurred in 1866, the year the
Founders entered VMI, when Frank Hopkins first
rebelled against hazing at the Institute. Still, the Founders
did not create Sigma Nu with any feeling of animosity toward
others; rather they were prompted by the impulses of sympathy
and affection for all people which underlie abiding peace and
contentment. They had experienced enough hate and destruction
all during and after the War. They wanted to end all abuses,
and they knew it would not come easily. It was never an issue
of who won or lost the War. It was only an issue of winning
the peace.
The Legion of Honor
society, in its first year, assumed the outward
aspects of a college Greek-letter organization. The organization
kept its original name secret but was recognized publicly as
Sigma Nu Fraternity. It was soon to win the respect of all.
The new Fraternity
needed an identifying symbol, and Founder Hopkins designed a
Badge for the members to wear on their uniforms. That Badge
was patterned after the White Cross of the French Legion of
Honor, which was worn on the uniform of a favorite professor
of Hopkins. The Badge was first introduced in the
spring of 1869. Keeping with the Founders' decree,
the Badge has remained unchanged ever since, except in size
and the raised center. Even today, the collegiate Commander's
Badge, and the Badge of the Grand Officers remain identical
to Hopkins' original Badge. When the first slate of Officers
was chosen, Riley, the most popular,
was elected Commander and Hopkins
the Lieutenant Commander. Typically, Hopkins, the epitome of
humbleness, was delighted that "Mac" Riley was chosen
leader. It gave Hopkins "the doer," thinker, planner,
along with Quarles who had similar talent, more of an opportunity
to concentrate on solidifying ol' Alpha before he graduated
in 1870. By the 1869 commencement, the group had grown to fifty-one
members.
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