https://www.amazon.com/Address-anniversary-Louisiana-regiment-Confederate/dp/B003HNNDKG?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B003HNNDKG
https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Virginia-David-French-Boyd/dp/B0037U0AKU?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B0037U0AKU
David French Boyd was born on October 5, 1834, at Wytheville, Virginia and was the son of Thomas Jefferson and Minerva Anne (French) Boyd.
His father's family had been established in America by John Boyd who emigrated from Ayrshire, Scotland and settled in Maryland in the late seventeenth century.
David Boyd was educated in the famous Pike Powers classical school at Staunton, Virginia, and at the University of Virginia, graduating in 1856.
After the graduation from the University of Virginia in 1856, David Boyd taught school in his native town for one year and then in the fall of 1857 went to Sherman, Texas, to assist in the construction of a railroad in that part of the state. But on his arrival, he found that the project had been abandoned and he turned back to school teaching.
After three years at Homer and Rocky Mount, both in Louisiana, he was elected professor of ancient languages and English literature in the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning which opened its doors on January 2, 1860, at Pineville, near Alexandria, with William Tecumseh Sherman as superintendent.
In June 1861, he resigned his position in the seminary and entered the service of the Confederacy as a private in Company B, 9th Louisiana Infantry, which was shortly sent to Virginia for duty.
He quickly rose in the ranks until by May 1862, he was major and brigade commissary in Richard Taylor's brigade of Stonewall Jackson's corps, and took part in the famous Valley campaign of Jackson that terminated in the latter's death. When Taylor was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi department, he accompanied him as captain of engineers.
In the latter part of 1863, he constructed Fort De Russy on the Red River below Alexandria. He was captured by the "Jayhawkers" in February 1864 near Black River, Louisiana, and was confined in Federal prisons at Natchez, Mississippi, and at New Orleans. Through the intercession of Gen. Sherman, he was exchanged in the following July for two Federal officers of the same rank.
In December 1864, he became major and adjutant-general in Brent's cavalry brigade which guarded Kirby Smith's front from Arkansas to the Gulf of Mexico during the last stages of the war. He surrendered at New Orleans in June 1865.
Elected superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary, Boyd reopened it in October 1865. He was immediately confronted with the difficult problems of how to obtain financial support from state legislatures that were controlled largely by the carpetbaggers and negroes, and how to preserve the institution for the exclusive use of the young white men of Louisiana. Coupled with these problems was the broader one concerning the public schools of the state. According to the Louisiana state constitution of 1868, there were to be no separate public schools for the white and the colored children of Louisiana.
Boyd joined hands with other prominent men in the state in securing the passage of a law in 1869 and a supplementary law in 1870, providing that in every parish in the state there should be one or more public schools, with the understanding that one should be for white children and the other for negroes.
Before these troublesome questions could be fully decided, the building in which the seminary had been housed from the beginning was burned to the ground on October 15, 1869. For the moment the situation was very serious.
Boyd secured accommodations for the seminary in a part of the building for the Louisiana State School for the Deaf and Dumb in the southern part of Baton Rouge, and in two weeks after the fire the students resumed their work. In 1870, the seminary was renamed by the state legislature the Louisiana State University and the title of its head was changed from superintendent to president.
In 1876, largely through Boyd's efforts, the Louisiana Agricultural and Mechanical College, which had been chartered in 1870 and opened at Chalmette, near New Orleans, in 1874, was merged with the university. By that time Boyd had, by his aggressive policy, incurred the enmity of some of the leading politicians in Louisiana.
Opposition to him grew with each succeeding session of the state legislature and even appeared in the state constitutional convention in 1879. As a result he was removed from the presidency of the university in 1880 by the new board of supervisors, appointed by Governor Nicholls under the constitution of 1879, on the charge of mismanagement of funds.
This charge was thoroughly investigated by a special committee appointed by the state legislature in 1882 and was found to be without the slightest foundation. In 1884, the board that had dismissed him recalled Boyd unanimously to the presidency of the university.
During the first three of the four years intervening between his dismissal and recall, he was engaged in conducting private military academies in Virginia, one at Locust Dale and another at Greenwood, and in 1883-84 he served as president of the Polytechnic Institute at Auburn, Alabama.
His second administration in the Louisiana State University saw the removal of the university from the building of the State School for the Deaf and Dumb to the buildings and grounds of an abandoned United States army post in the northern part of Baton Rouge.
He had since 1870 had this change of quarters in mind, as he realized that it would be quite impossible for the university to grow and develop without a home of its own. He acted, however, without waiting for the authorization of the board of supervisors of the university, was in consequence severely censured by the board, and shortly after resigned.
He remained with the university, however, for two years as professor of mathematics (1886 - 88). In 1888-93, he served as superintendent of the Kentucky Military Institute at Farmdale, Kentucky; in 1893-94, he was a professor in the Ohio Military Academy at Germantown, Ohio; and in 1894-97, he was a professor in the Michigan Military Academy at Orchard Lake, Michigan.
In January 1897, he returned to Baton Rouge as professor of philosophy and civics in the Louisiana State University, which position he retained until his death in Baton Rouge in 1899.
David Boyd is known as the first head of Louisiana State University (LSU), where he was a professor of mathematics and moral philosophy. He was also briefly the president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama. It was largely through Boyd's efforts that in 1876 the Louisiana Agricultural and Mechanical College, which had been chartered in 1870 had been opened at Chalmette, near New Orleans, in 1874, and later was merged with the university.
Boyd was a man of slight stature, and in his later years was somewhat stooped, which fact, together with his sloping shoulders, made him appear even smaller. He possessed, however, boundless energy and great physical endurance.
He was quick to take action and assume entire responsibility, when he thought something needed to be done. Had he been more cautious, he would have saved himself much trouble and embarrassment but his educational achievements in Louisiana would probably have been less.
Boyd was married on October 5, 1865, to Esther Gertrude Wright, daughter of Dr. Jesse D. Wright, formerly of Saybrook, Connecticut; to them were born seven sons and one daughter.
