One of the most frequently asked questions about Norwich history is about the cause of the fire that destroyed the South Barracks on March 13, 1866--specifically, who started it?
This photograph from the NU Photograph Collection shows the burned shell of the Old South Barracks the morning after a devastating fire gutted the heart of our founding campus in Norwich, Vt. The image may be dramatic, and the event was certainly a drastic turning point in the history of the university. But the drama ends there; according to our best available historical records, there is little reason to believe that foul play was involved in the fire. It most likely started in one of the building's many wood-burning fireplaces, which would have been the cadets' sole source of heat in the chilly early spring of Vermont.
The main source of this information comes via university historian William Arba Ellis. In Norwich University: Her History, Her Graduates, Her Roll of Honor, he quotes a newspaper account, written by a cadet at the time, that appeared in the Concord Monitor the day after the fire. William Cutter, Class of 1868, wrote:
"The fire was supposed to have caught from a defective chimney which was in the fourth story near the rooms occupied by the classes in French. A small number only of the rooms on this upper story were occupied by students. The third floor contained the larger number of cadets. A few students and one or two of the faculty roomed on the second, and a very few roomed on the lower floor, or first story, where was located the room called the library, containing the paintings mentioned as among the things saved."
Cutter's account is truly a riveting read. You can find all the volumes of Ellis' university history for free on Google Books; the account of the fire begins on page 139 of Volume I. Cutter goes on to describe how the entire Corps of Cadets was swiftly alerted of the fire on the building's top floor and set about trying to slow its spread using pails of melted snow. When that failed, they were able to save much of the contents of the library and other articles inside the building. It is clear from this account that there were no human losses in the fire.
One of the most popular theories regarding the South Barracks fire is that it was started by rival Dartmouth College students. Apparently, this conspiracy theory was popular even at the time of the fire. Cutter's account--published, you will recall, the very next morning--mentions but dismisses the rumors that the "petty jealousies" bred by the close quarters of a small community may have contributed to the conflagration. He also notes that some unscrupulous Dartmouth students made off with a few small items as they were being rescued from the flames, but doesn't seem to have believed them capable of arson.
Another reliable contemporary source (perhaps more reliable than Ellis, since he misprinted the date of the fire as March 14th, an error that has been repeated many times since) is the minutes of the NU Board of Trustees, though they make surprisingly little mention of the fire itself. The Board tried to convene on April 2, 1866, nearly three weeks after the fire, but not enough members were in attendance, so they postponed the meeting until two weeks later. The minutes of the April 2nd meeting note that it was called "in consequence of the burning of the So. University building on the night of the 13th of March." Two weeks later, the discussion turned primarily to the university's future and did not dwell on the causes of the fire. Subsequent discussions and accounts in the various campus newspapers allude only to the fire, making no mention of its origin.
As we've mentioned before, the late 19th century is a poorly documented period in Norwich history for a variety of reasons, one of which may be the fire itself. But to the extent that evidence is available--and more evidence may yet appear--we have no reason to believe that the South Barracks fire was anything but a tragic accident.
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