Stonewall Stonewall Jackson's Death Gets New Name

That is certainly more honest. The site is interpreted as the part of a Confederate logistical site that involved a hospital, and the office is very much displayed as the place where Stonewall died, rather than a place where Jackson memorabilia is displayed. (I´m thinking of the way sports fans use the word ¨shrine.¨)
I had a wonderful experience there when I was an Army chaplain on Annual Training at Ft AP Hill. I was visiting a company that was onsite at Ft Dietrick MD and when my assistant and I got back to battalion HQ, the XO told us ¨Chaplain, we´re at Cat 5. All training is suspended because of heat conditions. Grab a piece of shade and I´ll see you at dinner.¨ I grabbed a map and told her my assistant and I would be at that location and if she really needed us to call the site number (This was well before cell phones.) My assistant and I took our Humvee and drove to the Jackson site. I knew it was air conditioned there, and would be a great venue to discuss ministry at a depot facility, ministry in a critical casualty and mass casualty situation. There were 2 Park Rangers on duty when we arrived. They were both strikingly beautiful, a fact which my assistant certainly approved of. They were both exceptionally well-prepared to talk about the historical significance of the site. One of them had been in the Navy and talked with us about how chaplain ministry had been done after a major training accident fatality on her ship. It was clearly not really adequate, because at that time she still wanted to process the event with us.
While we were there, a family of tourists with a little boy pulled into the parking lot. We let him sit in the driver´s seat, wear a helmet and a protective mask and generally have fun playing with our gear. By the time we returned for chow, we had trained, done some public relations and some truly significant ministry, all in air conditioned comfort!
 
Back
Top