Lincoln University was founded by the black enlisted men of the 62nd and 65th United States Colored Infantries and their white officers, who fought for the Union during the Civil War. The black soldiers in these two regiments had been harmed by an 1847 Missouri law that prohibited blacks from learning to read and write. Amid the horror of war, they gained a chance to rise above that obstacle when their white officers created informal classes for them. As the war neared its end, they envisioned sharing the gift of education with other blacks in Missouri and resolved to establish a school in their home state dedicated to teaching freed blacks.
