Stonewall What's the history of the name, "Stonewall Jackson Shrine"

I used to pass by here on holiday trips back in the day.. I stopped there a time or two. It's an easy detour if you're on 95 (near Fredericksburg) only about 5 minutes off the interstate.

I never viewed it as a shrine, but it did give me a moment to reflect on Jackson, it's still a quiet, kinda' remote spot. (at least 10 years ago it still was ?)
 
Yes, and regardless what modern Americans may or may not think, the fact is as you point out, that that is how they ( and Lincoln and others ) were regarded by their contemporaries, our ancestors.

Indeed. Mysticism was much more common in the mainstream and beloved leaders who died often took their place in a sort of pantheon that was very real for a lot of people. We're not entirely unlike that now but it seems much more present in the Postbellum era.
 
I still think people today erect types of shrines. Look at the crosses along the highway where people have been killed. There are flowers and mementos. Look at when a young person dies, there are teddy bears, balloons and candles.

The funerals for many leaders are like a shrine. They go on for days and all kinds of memorials keep cropping up. I think of Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy. After so many years they are still remembered and people place flowers and other tokens to their memories.

This is the way people grieve and cope with going on with life. Many after the war really felt close to Stonewall Jackson, and Robert E. Lee, and Abraham Lincoln. They perpetuate their memories forever.

I guess for me taking flowers to cemetery for my loved ones and placing memorials on findagrave is kind of a shrine. At Christmas, I and many of my friends place little Christmas Trees at grave sites. I don't worship any but feel I honor their memory.

These are my opinions and hope none take offense.
 
1476432_335315899943270_1775326036_n.jpg
 
I am beginning to realize that the current meaning of "shrine" is rather perverse or even derisive. Elvis’s Graceland is a shrine? And there is a Shrine to Justin Bieber? Shrine seems to imply an over the top admiration bordering on fanaticism.

At first Iobjected to the use of shrine reasoning that the US Government should not be recognizing anyone, much less a former citizen in rebellion against the government, with a religious shrine.

Now I object to the term in that calling Jackson’s death place a shrine is mocking a great military leader who died following his conscience.

Call it the “Jackson Mourning Cottage”. Let those who want, recognize his premature loss, without making him a spectacle
 
Call it the “Jackson Mourning Cottage”. Let those who want, recognize his premature loss, without making him a spectacle

Ah, yes, but who says his loss was 'premature?' What of those who celebrate Jackson's death as nothing more than that of a defeated enemy? You'd have to say Jackson Mourning/Dancing on His Grave Cottage.

Yes, I'm joking. I was just thinking that if it's a public historic site, maybe it doesn't need any language like that at all.
 
I stopped by Stonewall Jackson Shrine (aka Chandler's Office Building) today and the park ranger there was awesome with sharing many stories with my wife and me. I asked about the reason behind the name of Stonewall Jackson's Shrine since I remembered this question from here on CivilWarTalk.

The ranger said that was a great question and explained in details about it...

There was a girl named Lucy Chandler (12 years of age) who was a daughter of the Chandler family who owned the land. She was watching the situation as it unfolded with Stonewall Jackson in his makeshift hospital room at Chandler's Office Building.

When Jackson passed away, Lucy was distraught and walked to her mother to tell her that she wants to trade places with Jackson because only her parents would be upset if she died, but the whole South would be upset if Jackson died. (I was blown away by this. Amazing humility and intuition for a child.)

When she became older (18 years or so), she kept the clock, blankets, and some relics and kept a diagram of what it used to look like when Stonewall passed away. The doctor took the bed and stored it in his basement then donated it to the museum in Richmond.

In late 1920s, Lucy made a deal to return the relics if the museum will return the bed that Stonewall died in to the Chandler's Office Building. This is when Lucy set things in place according to her diagram (and from her memory) then added the flags of the Confederacy on all four bedposts and on the wall to mark it as the shrine to the Confederacy and General Jackson, hence Stonewall Jackson Shrine. "Shrine" was defined as "a site hallowed by association with a revered person or object or with an important event", rather than the modern definition relating with religion.

When NPS received the land from the railroad company who used to own the land, they decided to remove the Confederate flags from the bedposts and the wall from the historic "shrine" to make it less offensive, due to various perspectives of its symbolism. However, the name "Stonewall Jackson Shrine" stuck ever since since that's how Lucy named it in the first place.


I don't have any sources to back up what I just typed, but hopefully, that is close to how I recalled the ranger's answer to this question.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for posting that. As usual, most of us have more to worry about that haggling over wording....and some of us have nothing more important to do. I suspect the nibbling will go ahead, much like those little sucker fish that eat dead stuff in the lake.

You, on the other hand, went to the source and did some good.
 
Thanks for posting that. As usual, most of us have more to worry about that haggling over wording....and some of us have nothing more important to do. I suspect the nibbling will go ahead, much like those little sucker fish that eat dead stuff in the lake.

You, on the other hand, went to the source and did some good.

I added the side story to the first paragraph after recalling it correctly. It's an amazing side story that should be shared with others. I think this story may have been from Mary Anna Jackson's book, Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson, since the ranger suggested me to read it if I want to learn more about what was going on during Jackson's care/death in Chandler's Office Building.
 
WHOA there Nathan1, I have found this discussion about the history of the Jackson Shrine interesting and enlightening, not just 'haggling over wording". I have learned that 'Shrine" may have had a different meaning to those in the 19th century. This is a key bit of information!

I think that my visit to the Jackson Shrine would have been more meaningful if the interpetation had included a presentation on the name.

I join you in thanking Fredericksburg for his description of the visit.
 
Back
Top