The University of the South, familiarly known as Sewanee, is a private Episcopal liberal arts college in Sewanee, Tennessee. It is owned by 28 southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church, and its School of Theology is an official seminary of the church. The university's School of Letters offers graduate degrees in American Literature and Creative Writing. The campus consists of 13,000 acres (53 km2) of scenic mountain property atop the Cumberland Plateau, with the developed portion occupying about 1,000 acres (4.0 km2).

General Edmund Kirby Smith was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded the Trans-Mississippi Department from 1863 to 1865. Before the American Civil War, Smith served as an officer of the United States Army.