A Day at the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery - SEW

What a beautiful day! During our visit to the Stonewall Jackson Cemetery, I was able to look into the past of Lexington through the story told by the cemetery. The most striking aspect to me were the markers indicating graves of Confederate soldiers, especially considering that the graves of Union soldiers, which were the first at Arlington Cemetery in DC, don't have markers to indicate their affiliation with the North during the Civil War. The crosses also show the Southern pride that is found throughout the majority of the south still today, a sense of nationalism within a nation that does not exist in the north. I was also interested by what we were able to infer through the state of graves in various parts of the site. For example, a tomb in a closed off plot had a tomb within it that had yet another short stone barrier surrounding it, that has completely cracked from erosion and shifting of tectonic plates (see below) that shows the age of this plot that has been affected by physical movements over many years that made me question the changes that have taken place in Lexington over that time period as well.

I also noticed the economic disparities between families, evident in the differing sizes, shapes and styles of the tombstones. A particularly tall obelisk amongst more conservative graves caught my attention. It was probably between sixteen to twenty feet tall, and upon further inspection discovered its devotee was a man named Sam Houston Letcher who was a state senator, circuit judge, and president of the Board of Visitors at VMI. Clearly a very important man, which is reflected in his grave marker, perhaps  what sparked my attention.

Each grave is distinctive and reflective of the individual and their family. Some gravestones were plaques on the ground, others were large and rectangular with flat sides and rounded tops, some chose obelisks, and there was even a mausoleum. The information provided on each grave varied as well, some chose just a last name, others included dates as well, and some added information about their lives. Until going out and experiencing the Jackson Cemetery I would still be completely unaware of the potential knowledge to be gained from cemeteries, not just in terms of information gleaned from inscriptions on tombstonesn about individuals, but also what can be learned from the changes visible as the cemetery and its inhabitants grow older. The Free Mason symbol on one of the graves was also incredibly cool, to think a Lexingtonian could have been involved in the secret shaping of a nation!
(Sorry this is late, I forgot it had only been saved as a draft the night before it was due because the pictures wouldn't upload but I just tried again and it finally worked!)