Reinhardt University is a comprehensive university grounded in the liberal arts located in Waleska, Georgia, with an off-campus center in Alpharetta, Georgia. Select programs are also offered in Cartersville, Marietta, and Epworth, Ga., and online. Reinhardt is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. In 1883, former American Civil War Captain and Atlanta lawyer Augustus M. Reinhardt and his brother-in-law, former Civil War Lieutenant-Colonel John J. A. Sharp, commenced plans to open a school in Waleska. Both Reinhardt and Sharp had grown up in the Waleska area, and after the Civil War had ended and the hardships of Reconstruction begun, both men wanted to provide a school for the local citizens of impoverished Cherokee County. Reinhardt, who had been a successful lawyer after the Civil War with the firm of Reinhardt & Hook in Atlanta and owned interest in a successful Atlanta street car line, went to the North Georgia conference of the Methodist Church and appealed for them to provide a strong minister and teacher to start the school. In return, he promised to offer this individual a yearly salary of $1,000.