National History

It happened on December 21, 1865, when today's students probably would have been skiing in Colorado or lounging around his family home. Instead, four students at Washington Collegein Lexington, Virginia, spent their holiday season in the midst of a war-torn community, which had been victimized by raids during the War Between the States. Life was difficult in the turbulent Reconstruction Era.

These four men, among the first 50 students to return to the college following the war, sought to bind their friendship by "mutual pledge of faith and loyalty." James Ward Wood, Stanhope McClelland Scott, William Nelson Scott and William Archibald Walsh, formed Phi Kappa Chi, adapting a ritual from an extinct fraternity. However, the members of the group soon changed the name to Kappa Alpha, by request of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity that already existed on campus.

The Kappa Alphas met at the Ann Smith Academy where the Scott brothers' father was headmaster. During the first year, KA initiated seven new men -- among them was Samuel Zenas Ammen. Ammen, unimpressed with the borrowed ritual, said it was "mere verbal pyrotechnics in florid sophomoric style with nothing to touch the imagination of initiates nor stir their fancy." He decided a new ritual was necessary to bolster the fraternity and attract new members from the College, which was experiencing a boom in enrollment. He collaborated with Wood and William Nelson Scott to write a new ritual which changed Kappa Alpha from a fraternity into an order of Christian knights pledged to the highest ideals of character and achievement. Ammen and his contemporaries sought to preserve the masculine virtues of chivalry, respect for others, honor and reverence for God and woman. Thus, they emulated their college's president - Robert E. Lee - a great man eminent in character. Lee was not a member of Kappa Alpha, but his influence on the early members shaped the destiny of the young fraternity. Kappa Alphas often visited the Lee home, and there is one account that the only person outside the Lee family to ride Traveler (Lee's famous war horse) was a chapter president.

Kappa Alpha soon expanded to Virginia Military Institute, adjacent to Washington College, when an invitation for membership was extended to a VMI cadet. By Spring, 1868, three more cadets were initiated and subsequently formed Beta chapter at the University of Georgia in 1868, and Delta chapter at Wofford College in 1869. By 1870, there were seven chapters. Ammen published the first Constitution and Ritual in an 1870 edition called the "Green Book." Since then, the Ritual has remained substantially unchanged. The first issue of the Kappa Alpha Journal rolled off the press in 1879. The Journal is the sixth oldest continuous fraternity magazine in the country. Members at the 13th Convention in 1885 approved the official fraternity colors - crimson and old gold - and flowers - magnolia and red rose. A coat-of-arms was adopted by delegates to the 1897 Convention. Kappa Alpha's coat-of-arms, in accord with heraldic rules, is as follows: the badge is the escutcheon; the well-known KA motto, Dieu es les Dames, adorns the scroll; the helmet is from the knight; the crest is from the Knight Commander's seal, a battleaxe in the right hand in the act of striking; the supporters are lions, representing courage; and the background is formed by 63 streams of light radiating from the cornet. The coat-of-arms was designed by Samuel Z. Ammen.

Practical Founder

Samuel Ammen

Ammen set forth the true meaning of "KA" at the 27th Convention in 1913. The esoteric meaning of the fraternity name has continued to be relayed, by letters from Ammen, at Conventions since that time. It was at the 1923 Convention that John Temple Graves dubbed Robert E. Lee the "spiritual founder" of Kappa Alpha. Subsequently, January 19th (Lee's birthday) was adopted as the official date for celebrating Convivium. Convivium commemorates Lee's relevance to KA, as well of the founding of the Order. The National Administrative Office moved to Lexington, Virginia, in 1986 toward the longtime goal of establishing a permanent national headquarters. Although the move was partly a nostalgic one, it also marked a progressive change for the Order. The new office, operating out of temporary space until a suitable headquarters site could be aquired, was fully computerized. In 1992, the office moved into a federal-style building located on the Courthouse Square of historic downtown Lexington. For the first time in the Order's long and distinguished history, a KA flag flew over a permanent national headquarters, which was officially dedicated in ceremonies held in October, 1992.

Omicron History