Slavery and the Making of the University University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Manuscripts Department Slavery and the Making of the University

William Horn Battle, ca. 1845-1869

Born in Edgecombe County, William Battle was a lawyer, legislator and jurist. A graduate of the university in 1820, he returned to Chapel Hill in 1843 with his wife, Lucy, and their children and in 1845 was named professor of law at the university. In 1868, when Reconstruction politics began to disrupt the university, Battle moved to Raleigh to practice law with two of his sons. He returned to Chapel Hill in 1876 again to teach law at the university, where his son Kemp Plummer Battle was then president. Battle would continue in this position until his death in 1879. Image from North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives.

William H. Battle