Female Seminary in Petersburg

Union troops pose on the porch of A. J. Leavenworth's Female Seminary in Petersburg, Virginia. Founded around 1855, Leavenworth's Female Seminary provided education to young women and stressed intellectual rigor. After the fall of Petersburg in April 1865, Union troops occupied the building and used it as a provost-marshal's office until October 1865. After the soldiers left, the head of the school found that "the library, [scientific] apparatus, furniture, windows, and doors were broken, destroyed, or removed." Leavenworth later attempted to recover damages in the amount of $10,000 from the United States government, but was denied on the grounds that he was "not loyal to the Government of the United States throughout the late civil war."