Stonewall Jackson's famous sunday school

[matthew mckeon]

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was a larger than life figure who attracted legends ever during his lifetime. My question to CWT folks more knowledgeable:

What exactly was Jackson's school? Who attended? And most importantly HOW DO WE KNOW THIS?

Because it very much "feels" like a legendary addition to add lustre to the General's reputation. But I don't know this, and am willing to learn otherwise.

 

[matthew mckeon]

Nathan just zipped over a 1858 letter from VMI archives in which Jackson describes the operation of his school. Thanks for the quick response!

 

[Nathanb1]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/may/5/20060505-083815-2779r/?page=all

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I was looking for something last night, and as usual, Google kept sending me back here. Ended up browsing that thread, got distracted by that exact topic ( you should live in this head ), started poking around- it seems to have been a SCHOOL, school, not what I remember with all of us sitting at a long table, bumping knees, using scissors and globby glue to make Noah's wife a hat. It'd pay to have a Stonewall Wiki, although with a forum here you'd have thought I'd have bumped into this kind of thing- never took the time personally, that's all.

The search ends up taking you all over heck and back too- quotes from his wife about how she disliked the nickname ' Stonewall ' on the grounds she was worried the entire world would not appreciate what a sensitive nature he had. Maybe that isn't what one would equate with the general who was impatient with troops who couldn't make a forced march, much less a structured Sunday School for black children but it's all there for the reading. It's tough for me personally to site a source out of the bazillion out there, because which one is the most crediitable? I just do not know- some could easily have agenda attached, but I have a lot of respect for Catholic writers, for instance, using this example as a man of religion flouting the law of the day.

I'm certainly not a Thomas Jackson expert, but someone who would kind of stop an entire war at times because it was Sunday- you'd have to accept he was capable of putting God's law before mans', and meaning it.

Nathanb, this isn't the link you posted in the other thread- that one is the Virginia one, right? Would you mind posting that, too?

http://www.bardofthesouth.com/stonewall-jacksons-black-sunday-school/

Is this the window you were speaking of, in the other thread? The author of the site doesn't make it clear.

 

[Nathanb1]

I was looking for something last night, and as usual, Google kept sending me back here. Ended up browsing that thread, got distracted by that exact topic ( you should live in this head ), started poking around- it seems to have been a SCHOOL, school, not what I remember with all of us sitting at a long table, bumping knees, using scissors and globby glue to make Noah's wife a hat. It'd pay to have a Stonewall Wiki, although with a forum here you'd have thought I'd have bumped into this kind of thing- never took the time personally, that's all.

The search ends up taking you all over heck and back too- quotes from his wife about how she disliked the nickname ' Stonewall ' on the grounds she was worried the entire world would not appreciate what a sensitive nature he had. Maybe that isn't what one would equate with the general who was impatient with troops who couldn't make a forced march, much less a structured Sunday School for black children but it's all there for the reading. It's tough for me personally to site a source out of the bazillion out there, because which one is the most crediitable? I just do not know- some could easily have agenda attached, but I have a lot of respect for Catholic writers, for instance, using this example as a man of religion flouting the law of the day.

I'm certainly not a Thomas Jackson expert, but someone who would kind of stop an entire war at times because it was Sunday- you'd have to accept he was capable of putting God's law before mans', and meaning it.

Nathanb, this isn't the link you posted in the other thread- that one is the Virginia one, right? Would you mind posting that, too?

View attachment 28476
http://www.bardofthesouth.com/stonewall-jacksons-black-sunday-school/
Is this the window you were speaking of, in the other thread? The author of the site doesn't make it clear.

Yes, JPK...this is it. The pastor who started the church learned to read and write at.....LOL Jackson's Sunday School. When Jackson died, the son of the pastor or the pastor--I forget which--had the window made. There was a fire later, so this is the remaining, restored part of the window.

I'm certainly not a Thomas Jackson expert, but someone who would kind of stop an entire war at times because it was Sunday- you'd have to accept he was capable of putting God's law before mans', and meaning it.

LOL. You nailed it! Don't forget the letter-mailing! Even to Anna! If you understand Stonewall, you have to understand his 1) religion and 2) love of family 3) love of children 4) hypochondria plus real bad health. When you get those (as Robertson and Vandeveer did), you have Jackson. He's contradictory, but generally true to form.

 

[Nathanb1]

http://ww2.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/300501/]

Article on the window and Dr. Robertson.

 

[James B White]

it seems to have been a SCHOOL, school, not what I remember with all of us sitting at a long table, bumping knees, using scissors and globby glue to make Noah's wife a hat.

That's pretty typical of "Sunday schools" in the period. With regular schools costing money in the south (and north too before free education), and many poor children working during the week anyway, Sunday schools were a way to offer some rudimentary education to the lower classes.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Thanks very much, did not know that! You know, think a lot of us have some vague image of groups of barefoot children in the US doing the walking through the snow uphill both ways, to school. Tough life but still, to SCHOOL. There's a mountain right behind my parent's old house. Halfway up, a mine entrance. Children walked to the mountain, up to the entrance, went down a long, long ladder into the mine, crossed to another on the other side, went up, came out the other side of the mountain, walked anout 3 miles and got to school every day. Always have wondered gosh- what drove them to DO that, in the cold, and then into a MINE, cold, dark and dangerous- there and back, daily. Just school- if there did not used to be any, even having one exist must have been their Disneyland.

Was just saying on another thread, how dangerous it is, writing any of these people off in 2 dimensional terms, although starting to poke around in their lives is also extremely dangerous to any spare time you thought you had. ( did that a long time ago, with Henry Walke and ended up a huge fan, side tracked for weeks ) NONE of the stories to date have been at all like you'd have thought. not one. Thomas Jackson, for instance, gosh- you go from not at all getting the whole ' No shooting anyone on Sunday ' to actually thinking it was a good idea, too! I understand he felt it necessary to violate this once in awhile, does not seem frequent.

http://ww2.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/300501/
The above link didn't work on my comp, who knows why- think it is this article, looks exactly as described. Very cool article, if anyone hasn't read it.

This will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, in a good way- gave me chills- someone depicted what you'd imagine came to mind when Shelby Foote memorialized those words as he drew that word picture of Jackson's last few minutes on earth.

"Let us Cross the River and Rest in the Shade of the Trees."

It's part of the window, here's the whole thing also in color.

I listened to that on audio not long ago. REALLY gets you. That rotter Foote- made sure he described the last idyll shared by Mary Anna and Thomas scant days before Chancelorsville so you get that a few minutes before he rides into the jumpy troops. I'm guessing most here have read it- made the mistake of listening to it read to me by a professional assasin, written by one. They could warn a person.