Monument Monday, May 6, 2019

James N.

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Okay, okay - I KNOW I forgot and so this week it has to be Monument Monday Tuesday instead! In my defense, since Monument Monday was originally a creation of member @Jimklag I have willingly assumed "ownership" of it in his absence or until he returns to the helm, but I sometimes forget in the crush of responding to new alerts after being absent a day or two like on weekends. I prefer my own postings to have a "theme" of some sort, and so this week it will be monuments set out by the Virginia Historical Society, this one for the anniversary of the battle at Salem Church, fought May 4, 1863 between the Union Sixth Corps of John Sedgewick and Confederates from the divisions of Jubal Early, Richard Anderson, and Lafayette McLaws led personally by Robert E. Lee. Below, another marker at the site describing the after-battle use of the church as a field hospital:

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The Virginia Historical Society's monuments are scattered throughout the state and were erected in the 1920's under the direction of Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman, Richmond newspaper editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and biographer of fellow Virginians George Washington and Robert E. Lee, as well as a follow-up group biography of Lee's Lieutenants. They are all essentially alike; this one above and below at Brandy Station is typical and gives only the essential facts of each battle such as date, commanders, victors, and often significance.

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Another at the village of McDowell in the Shenandoah Valley recognizes the battle fought there between the forces of T. J. "Stonewall" Jackson and Robert Milroy in May, 1862.

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Above, another of Jackson's battles, this one at Cedar Mountain; below, another near the Stone House at Bull Run/Manassas recognizes the first battle fought there July 21, 1861.

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I neglected to mention what should be obvious - these were erected in all cases BEFORE there were any Virginia State or National battlefield parks, and several of them like the one above at the obscure and out-of-the-way village of Piedmont in the Shenandoah Valley remain the only reminder of what happened here, aside perhaps from modern Civil War Trails or NPS signage like that at Salem Church. Others like the one at the Stone House at Manassas now reside within parkland like Manassas National Battlefield or at least near protected land, but when these were placed in the 1920's they were usually the first of their kind on long-forgotten and usually bucolic Virginia fields, so unlike Gettysburg, Antietam, and other better-known and more visited places. Most appear to remain in their original configuration like those pictured; however the one below at New Market has obviously been redone at some time.

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Was Jackson's arm buried near the house he was treated and his body was sent to Richmond by the request of his wife to be buried there or at VMI ?

Dr. Hunter McGuire amputated Jackson's left arm in a field hospital. The next day Jackson’s chaplain, the Rev. Beverly Tucker Lacy, stopped by to visit as preparations got under way to move him to Guinea Station for his own safety. As Rev. Lacy was leaving, he spotted a small bundle outside the tent, Jackson’s left arm. He took it with him across the fields to Ellwood, the plantation owned by his brother James, a mile from the field hospital. Together they buried Jackson’s arm in their family cemetery.
Jackson's body was taken by train to lie in state in Richmond. He was then transferred via train to Lynchburg, then by Canal boat to V.M.I, before burial at Lexington Cemetery.
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