Excerpt from the Kappa Alpha Order Varlet

It happened on December 21, 1865, when today's student probably would have been skiing in Colorado or lounging around his family home. Instead, four students at Washington College in 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 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. Their emulated that 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.

The Coat-Of-Arms

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 et 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 Zenas Ammen.

The Kappa Alpha Flags

Kappa Alpha has two flags. The official flag, adopted in 1893, is divided into three equal vertical bands of color: crimson, white and old gold (in that order, left to right). A crimson Greek cross is centered in the white band. The supplemental flag, adopted by the 52nd Convention in 1967, is a field divided by the colors crimson and old gold with a white shield (badge) bearing a Greek cross and letters KA in crimson.

Copyright Kappa Alpha Order