Autograph album of Joseph Augustine Turner. (Bohn's Album and Autographs of the University of Virginia. Washington: Bohn, 1859.)

In the autograph album of Joseph A. Turner, a Confederate ordnance officer and later professor at Hollins College, is a message from Charles A. Briggs of New York City. Influenced by a relative, Charles Briggs came to the University to pursue classical and modern languages under Professors Gildersleeve and Schele de Vere and moral philosophy under McGuffey. When the Civil War broke out, Briggs returned to his home state and volunteered in the 7th New York, the same regiment in which Robert Gould Shaw began his famous career.

Photograph of the Reverend Charles A. Briggs. No date. From the collections at Union Theological Seminary, New York, New York.

When his brief enlistment was up, he enrolled at Union Theological Seminary and became a Presbyterian pastor in New Jersey. His work in Old Testament criticism eventually led to his conviction in a trial for heresy by the Presbytery of New York in 1892. Later he took orders in the Episcopal Church and taught at Union Theological Seminary until his death in 1913.