Editing Sigma Alpha Epsilon (section)

==History==
[[File:Alabama Mu Marker.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|Historical marker about the founders of Sigma Alpha Epsilon on the campus of the [[University of Alabama]] in [[Tuscaloosa, Alabama|Tuscaloosa]]]]
Sigma Alpha Epsilon was founded on March 9, 1856, at the [[University of Alabama]] in [[Tuscaloosa, Alabama]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Owen |first=Thomas McAdory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r0kUAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Abner+Edwin+Patton%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA1247 |title=History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography |date=1921 |publisher=S. J. Clarke publishing Company |page=1247 |language=en}}</ref> Its founders were [[Noble Leslie DeVotie]], Nathan Elams Cockrell, Samuel Marion Dennis, John Barrett Rudulph, Abner Edwin Patton, Wade Hampton Foster, Thomas Chappell Cook, and John Webb Kerr.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>"[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120667199/sigma-alpha-epsilon-group-will-observe-a/ Sigma Alpha Epsilon Group Will Observe Anniversary]". ''The Daily Oklahoman''. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 1956-03-04. p.&nbsp;54. Retrieved 2023-03-12.</ref> Their leader was DeVotie, who wrote the ritual, created the grip, and chose the name. Rudulph designed the fraternity badge. Of all existing national social fraternities, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the only national fraternity founded in the [[Antebellum South]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/03/09/fraternity-caught-video-singing-racist-song |title=Fraternity Caught on Video Singing Racist Song @insidehighered |publisher=Insidehighered.com |date=March 6, 2015 |access-date=March 10, 2015}}</ref>

Patton was selected as the fraternity's first president.<ref name=":3">Myhre, Erik L. (2007). "[https://public.wsu.edu/~sae/hist-1.htm The History of Sigma Alpha Epsilon: Part One: 1856 - 1865]". ''Washington State University'' (published 1997). Retrieved 2023-03-11.</ref><ref name=":4">Levere, William Collin (1911). ''T [https://books.google.com/books?id=619CAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Abner+Edwin+Patton%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA68 he History of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity]''[https://books.google.com/books?id=619CAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Abner+Edwin+Patton%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA68 . Vol.&nbsp;1]. Chicago: R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company. pp.&nbsp;68–69 – via Google Books.</ref> In the fall of 1854, Patton was the only Sigma Alpha Epsilon founder still enrolled at the university and continued to serve as its president.<ref name=":4" /> His efforts led to the expansion of the fraternity to the University of Nashville (now [[Vanderbilt University]]), [[Union College]], and the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]] in January and February 1857.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> By the end of 1857, the fraternity had grown to seven chapters. Its first national convention met in the summer of 1858 at [[Murfreesboro, Tennessee]], with four of its eight chapters in attendance.

By the time the [[American Civil War]] began in 1861, fifteen chapters had been established. The fraternity had fewer than 400 members when the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] began. Of those, 370 went to war for the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate States]] and seven for the [[Union Army]].<ref name=":5">"[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120667384/brothers-mark-sigma-alpha-epsilon-cente/ Brothers' Mark Sigma Alpha Epsilon Centennial]". ''The Boston Globe''. 1956-03-11. p.&nbsp;8. Retrieved 2023-03-12 – via Newspapers.com.</ref> Seventy-four members of the fraternity lost their lives in the war, including founders Dennis, DeVotie, and Patton.<ref name=":5" />

Fraternal history notes that Noble Leslie DeVotie was the first person to die in the Civil War, though this is in dispute. DeVotie lost his footing while boarding a steamer at [[Fort Morgan, Alabama]], on February 12, 1861, hit his head and drowned.<ref name="samuelboykin">{{cite book |last1=Boykin |first1=Samuel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BuZ8oukYIF8C&q=noble+leslie+devotie&pg=PA191 |title=History of the Baptist Denomination in Georgia |date=1881 |publisher=Jas P. Harrison & Co. |volume=2 |location=Atlanta, Georgia |pages=191–193 |oclc=244107338}}</ref>  His body washed ashore three days later. He is recognized by the State of Alabama as the first Alabama Soldier to die in the Civil War.<ref>[https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=4219 Noble Leslie DeVotie - HMDB]</ref>

After the Civil War, a small chapter at Columbian College, which is now [[George Washington University]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], was the only chapter to survive.<ref name=Hist>[https://issuu.com/sigmaalphaepsilon/docs/the_history_book_2018 The History of Sigma Alpha Epsilon]</ref>{{rp|18}}

When a few of the young veterans returned to the [[Georgia Military Institute]] in [[Marietta, Georgia]], and found their college burned to the ground, they decided to enter the [[University of Georgia]] in [[Athens, Georgia|Athens]]. The chapter there, which was established at the end of 1865, along with the reestablishment of a chapter at the [[University of Virginia]] in [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]], led to the fraternity's revival. Soon, other chapters came back to life and, in 1867, the first post-war convention was held in [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]], where a half-dozen revived chapters planned the fraternity's future growth.<ref name=Hist/>{{rp|19}}

In the 1870s and early 1880s, more than a score of new chapters were formed. Older chapters died as fast as new ones were established. By 1886, the fraternity had chartered 49 chapters, but few were active. The first chapter north of the Mason Dixon Line had been established at Pennsylvania College (now [[Gettysburg College]] in [[Gettysburg, Pennsylvania]]), in 1883, and a second was placed at [[Mount Union College]] in [[Alliance, Ohio]] two years later.<ref name=Hist/>{{rp|19}}