The events of the installation for John M. McCardell Jr., the 16th vicechancellor and president of the University of the South, formally begin with the Oct. 10 commemoration of the cornerstone dedication, 150 years to the day after the laying of the cornerstone.  All are invited to the event on Louisiana Circle, and then to process to All Saints’ Chapel for Holy Eucharist at 11 a.m. Looking back 150 years reveals that Colonel John S. Preston of South Carolina, who later served as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army, was the principal orator on October 10, 1860, as a crowd variously estimated at between 500 and 5,000 gathered on a clearing in Sewanee for the dedication of the cornerstone of the University of the South.  The event took place three years after the founding bishops of the southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church gathered at Lookout Mountain, Tenn., to formally establish what one called “a truly national university”—modeled on the great universities of Europe and a symbol of the intellectual and cultural attainments of the southern United States. Despite the looming threat of secession at the cornerstone ceremony, that same spirit of optimism and determination prevailed.  “There is no antiquity here,” Preston said. “All is new, fresh from the forming hand of God. We are the fi rst. We are primeval here. Our only calendar is the annulation of the oak, our only history is the bud, the leaf, and the autumn wind. We have come to the heights of Sewanee to begin an Epoch.”  Six months later, Fort Sumter was fired upon and South Carolina seceded from the Union. Plans for the opening of the University were delayed for the duration of the war, and not until 1867 were the first classes held. During the campaign in Tennessee in 1863, the cornerstone was destroyed; today only fragments remain in the University archives and on a plaque in All Saints’ Chapel.