Founded by Virginia Baptists in 1830 as a manual labor institute for men wishing to become ministers, with instruction begun by the Rev. Edward Baptist, an 1813 graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the school was incorporated ten years later as Richmond College. During the American Civil War, the entire student body formed a regiment and joined the Confederate army. Richmond College's buildings were used as a hospital for Confederate troops and later as a Union barracks. The college invested all of its funds in Confederate war bonds, and the outcome of the war left it bankrupt. In 1866, James Thomas donated $5,000 to reopen the college. The T.C. Williams School of Law opened in 1870.