Runkle stayed in the army as a career and retired as a major general. He was badly wounded at the Battle of Shiloh and left for dead on the battlefield. When the Civil War began Runkle joined the Union Army. Runkle was known for having a fierce pride and was suspended from Miami University when he fought a member of Beta Theta Pi for sneering at his badge. Runkle helped design the badge of Sigma Chi based on the story of Constantine and the vision of the Cross.

Benjamin Piatt Runkle (Septem– June 28, 1916) was born in West Liberty, Ohio.

The White Cross and the motto ' In Hoc Signo Vinces' are examples of the Constantine link. Much of Sigma Chi's heraldry was inspired by the legendary story of the Emperor Constantine from the Battle of Milvian Bridge against Maxentius. It is possible this action could have been forced upon the group as there was already a Sigma Phi Society. The eventual theft of Sigma Phi's constitution, rituals, seals, and other records from Lockwood's room in Oxford in January 1856 prompted them to change the name of the fraternity to Sigma Chi. Lockwood used his business training to help organize the fraternity in its early years. On June 28, 1855, the organization was founded under the name Sigma Phi Fraternity. The six men decided to form their own fraternity along with William Lewis Lockwood, a student from New York who had not joined a fraternity. Runkle resigned, and after the parent chapter at Yale University was contacted, all six men were formally expelled. The other four would be allowed to stay in the fraternity. The leaders of the rebellion, Runkle and Scobey, were to be expelled from the fraternity.

Reid had told Millikin his side of the dispute and they had arrived to punish the group for not supporting their Delta Kappa Epsilon brother. Reid brought a Delta Kappa Epsilon alumnus named Minor Millikin from a nearby town.

Whitelaw Reid, one of the other brothers who supported the Delta Kappa Epsilon member as poet, was the only one to arrive. In February 1855 Runkle and his companions planned a dinner for their brothers in an attempt to seal the rift. Both sides saw this as a matter of principle and over the next few months their friendships became distanced. The chapter had twelve members total and were evenly divided on the issue. Although Thomas Bell and Daniel Cooper were not members of Erodelphian they had aligned themselves with the four dissenting members. He was supported by five of his brothers, but four others, James Caldwell, Isaac Jordan, Benjamin Runkle, and Franklin Scobey, supported another man who was not a member of the fraternity. In the fall of 1854 the literary society was to elect its poet and a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon was nominated for the position. Several members of Miami University's Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter (of which all but one of Sigma Chi's founders were members) were also members of the Erodelphian Literary Society. Jordan, Daniel William Cooper, Franklin Howard Scobey, and James Parks Caldwell as the result of a disagreement over who would be elected Poet in the Erodelphian Literary Society of Miami University in Ohio. Sigma Chi was founded in 1855 by Benjamin Piatt Runkle, Thomas Cowan Bell, William Lewis Lockwood, Isaac M. According to the fraternity's constitution, 'the purpose of this fraternity shall be to cultivate and maintain the high ideals of friendship, justice, and learning upon which Sigma Chi was founded.' Like all fraternities, Sigma Chi has its own colors, insignia, and rituals. Sigma Chi is divided into seven operational entities: the Sigma Chi Fraternity, the Sigma Chi Foundation, the Sigma Chi Canadian Foundation, the Risk Management Foundation, Constantine Capital Inc., the Blue and Gold Travel Services, and the newly organised Sigma Chi Leadership Institute. The fraternity was founded on June 28, 1855, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, by members who split from the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. The fraternity has 244 active undergraduate chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated over 350,000 members. Sigma Chi ( ΣΧ) International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. In Hoc Signo Vinces ('In This Sign You Shall Conquer')Ĭhildren's Miracle Network and Huntsman Cancer Institute

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