Cumberland University

Cumberland University is a private university in Lebanon, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1842. The oldest campus buildings were constructed between 1892 and 1896.

The university was founded by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1842 and received its Tennessee state charter in 1843. In 1847 Cumberland Presbyterian church leaders added a law school, the first in Tennessee and the first west of the Appalachian Mountains, and in 1854 a school of theology was begun.

The original building, designed by Philadelphia architect William Strickland, housed schools of art, law and theology.

The Civil War nearly destroyed Cumberland University. University Hall was burned to the ground by Confederate forces under the command of General Joseph Wheeler. Cumberland alumni William E. Ward wrote on a ruined Corinthian column the Latin phrase Ex Cineribus Resurgam (From the ashes I will arise). The university thereafter adopted the mythical phoenix as its symbol. By 1866, just one year after the war's end, all departments were again operating in various locations in the town of Lebanon.

Following the war, the university's faculty included former Confederate general A. P. Stewart, who taught there during his post-Civil War Union parole. Students included former Confederate general George Washington Gordon.

Cumberland University moved to its present campus location in 1892. Construction of Memorial Hall, designed by William Crawford Smith, was completed in 1896; it remains the tallest building on campus as of January 2022.

The university fell on hard times during the Great Depression, as did most small private colleges.

During World War II, Cumberland University served as the headquarters for the Tennessee Maneuver Area, a training area for the Second Army whose geography resembled that of Belgium, France, and Germany. Over 850,000 soldiers participated in the seven training exercises conducted in the area.