Panel Information: Courthouse Square: A Center of Civic Life

Citizens from town, country, and university gathered on Courthouse Square for important civic events. In 1861, friends of the Union assembled there to hear reports of the Confed-erate army attack on Fort Sumter. On April 15, university president Henry Tappan and other prominent townspeople went to the old Court-house to address citizens about the crisis. The meeting overflowed across the square into the street. Resolutions were passed supporting President Lincoln and establishing a committee to assist in organizing military companies.

Four Ann Arbor military units were quickly formed. The "Silver Greys," a Home Guard unit made up of men over age forty-five, included Tappan and the town's most illustrious citizens.