"(Signed) WM. A. SMITH, _Chairman_." The following order was adopted in regard to the report, viz.: "_Resolved_, That the report of the committee be referred back to the same committee, with instructions to take into consideration all the subjects committed to them at the meeting held in Petersburg on the 20th January last, and report to a subsequent meeting to be held in Petersburg at the call of the President, or when he may be requested to call a meeting by any five members of the Board of Trustees." This meeting was never called. The committee never formulated any further report. In a few weeks after the meeting was held, Petersburg was invested by the Federal army, under General Grant. This investment was continued until April, 1865, when General Lee's right wing was turned, Petersburg and Richmond evacuated, and the final surrender at Appomattox. The following reminiscences of the last days of the College before the suspension are given by Rev. Dr. W. E. Edwards, who was at the College till near the close: "The years 1860-1862 were among the most memorable in the history of the College. In 1860 the College, perhaps, had attained the climax of its _ante-bellum_ prosperity. It had met difficulties and conquered them. It had grown and developed into commanding importance. A future of great promise opened up before it. Dr. William A. Smith was now at the zenith of his great popularity as a college president and as an instructor in Moral Philosophy. The changes which from time to time he had introduced in the management of affairs bore continually-increasing fruit in the orderly conduct of students and in their closer application to books; nay, more, his adaptation to the professorial duties which he had assumed shone out conspicuously before the church and the state. He was endowed with splendid abilities--an intellectual giant. Especially was he a born metaphysician. He possessed a power of introspection and an aptness for the logical arrangement of truth that fall to the lot of but few men in life; and now, by patient toil, he elaborated and delivered to his classes a course of original lectures upon the various subjects in his special department, which of itself would justly entitle him to a high rank among the instructors of the country. It is to be regretted that these lectures were never written out _in extenso_ and given to the public. No doubt, at certain points, they would disclose a lack of thoroughness, due to the absence of large and general reading; still, they would manifest a marked degree of original and profound investigation, and would prove, what cannot be said of all that today is taught in our colleges under the name of Moral Science, exceedingly helpful in the proper culture and discipline of character. In other words, the Doctor, in the plan and order of his talent, was practical rather than speculative.