Stonewall Jackson Cemetery Visit - Andrew Taylor

I had visited cemeteries before in my life, but never one dedicated to a specific person. For that reason, one the of the first things I looked for was how Stonewall Jackson's presence in memoriam had influenced the cemetery. If nothing else, his tombstone and statue physically dominated the space of the cemetery. Situated in the middle of the cemetery, in the middle of the intersection of the paved walking paths, he very clearly and intentionally dominated the cemetery. After spending some time reading his and his family's tombstone engravings I made my way to look at the smaller tombstones that populated the cemetery. One of the more interesting things I found was the extremely wide time range of deaths of the people buried in the cemetery. One tombstone was as recent as World War II, while another dated back to the 1700's. Unfortunately my phone had died by the time I found the latter of those two graves, but its discovery was remarkable non the less. I guess I had foolishly entered this brief, but enjoyable field trip with the assumption that all those buried there would be around the same time period as Stonewall Jackson. For that reason, I was very surprised to discover that Stonewall Jackson, whom the cemetery is named after, was alive and well while the cemetery had already existed.

My personal experience with the cemetery aside, I thought it was really interesting to hear how other people had analyzed the cemetery. I forget who it was, but someone pointed out how most of the gravestones curiously faced away from the entrance from Main Street. This was interpreted to mean that the original entrance of the cemetery must have been down the hill, away from Main Street. Entering from that side made the layout of the cemetery seem much more intentional. If entered from that side, Stonewall Jackson's massive tombstone became visible much earlier, and from the bottom of the hill you can see him standing against the backdrop of the sky, every facing Southward. One point of analysis that I found very interesting was the surprising popularity of obelisks as tombstones. I honestly don't recall seeing as many obelisks in other cemeteries I have visited, although I don't fully trust my memory there since I wasn't exactly looking for them like I was in the Stonewall Jackson Cemetery.

The picture I took (before my phone tragically died) are shown below.

Visiting Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery - Nao Okada

 We visited the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery on 25th April in the morning. My experiences with this cemetery were the ghost tour at night and the database which I touched in Digital Humanity course. I have known that there are a lot of people from 19the century because of the course I have taken before, however, seeing the old tombstones which were hard to read were a vivid experience. I could see various types of the gravestones differ from area to area, not only the shapes and colors but also the degree of preservation. In addition to the fresh flowers on the tombstones, those differences raised awareness that this place is active, new ones are keep added, and people are visiting. Even to the tomb of unknown soldier died in the Civil War, a flag was placed by visitors.

What was interesting to me is that the designs of the tombstones were various in the past, but not so much recently. As I walked further from the entrance on the Main Street, gradually the designs were unified and the space between each other increased.

As a Japanese who was born and raised in Japan, the scenery of this cemetery was very different from what I am familiar with. Since almost every Japanese is buried cremation and the bones are kept in small cinerary urns, I did not have to worry about stepping on the body. However, this cemetery caused me anxiety because I could not tell where I can walk.

Stonewall Jackson Cemetery- Ian McDonald

I think I have a tendency to view cemeteries as a thing of the past. It's easy to look at a cemetery as a single thing, created in the past. I end up condensing the layers into one, viewing everything without much regard for the continuous, organic changes. That view was definitely shattered yesterday. It was impossible to view the cemetery as anything other than an organic creation built over decades.

The clearest example of this is Jackson's direction. Before his addition, the cemetery had 3 entrances. One was at the north end, one was at the east end, and one was at the west end. Jackson faces south. If the cemetery had been created with Jackson's memorial, there would likely have been an entrance at the southern gate.

This continued with the tombstones. They were grouped haphazardly, and there seemed to be no rationale behind the position or direction. There also was little unity in the design of the tombstones.

The main take-away for me was that memorials have multiple layers. In order to fully understand them, these layers must be pulled away and evaluated.

Stonewall Jackson Cemetery Visit- Jimmy Fiume

The most notable thing I took away from the visit to the cemetery was an appreciation for the amount of thought that goes into finding a way so that every detail has meaning. In the past, I've tended to associate this more with large public monuments, as opposed to a small-town cemetery. It surprised me how even here, the designers put so much thought into symbolism. The experience helped me realize that no aspect of a memorial is there by accident, and even the most subtle details can be significant in conveying the intended meaning of the memorial. This will cause me analyze other memorials we discuss in this class in greater detail. 

I have visited Stonewall Jackson Cemetery before to take pictures and walks, but I have never analyzed it it the way we did today, and I did not know the history of the cemetery and Jackson's statue. It was interesting to hear that history, listen to my peers' observations of the cemetery, and spend time looking closely at the graves here. In doing that, I noticed several things while exploring alone. First of all, I noticed that certain graves, such as those in the first two pictures below, seemed very well kept despite the fact that the deceased were long dead. In the first picture, I wondered whether this headstone was new, because it looked very polished for being from the Civil War era. In the second photo, I was curious who was leaving flowers for a Civil War veteran and his family, as they also seem to have died too long ago to have living loved ones. The third image made me curious who was leaving these flags and why they chose them. It was also interesting because I was unaware there was a grave for an unknown soldier in the cemetery. The final image interested me because it was a very recent grave in the older part of the cemetery and because it was decorated with an American flag. I was curious why these people were buried in this part of the cemetery and why the flag was so important to them. Overall, my main curiosities were about the living people who left signs of their presence. Though these signs were there, the reason why was often unclear.

My Earliest Memory of Visiting Memorial - Hiroshima Nao Okada

The experience of visiting the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima Japan when I was 13 years old is the earliest memory for me. This is definitely not the earliest visit in my life, however, this is the earliest one which I recognized the place as a memorial of something. I was on tour from the middle school, and there were about 150 students in my class. It was in the hottest season in August in Japan, and most of the students were tired of standing outside the building quietly while we prayed. I remember that the strong sunlight overlapped my image of the heat of the atomic bomb. My memory consists of two parts, myself standing around the monument with fellow students and the exhibition of the museum. The clearest memory of the exhibition was about a half melted tricycle for children and a lunchbox made of metal which still contained rice which turned into charcoal.

Stonewall Jackson Cemetery -- William Zhou

Prior to the field trip today, my only experience with the Stonewall Jackson Cemetery was through ghost tour, and the cemetery was completely different at night. Therefore, when I walked into the cemetery this morning, I was pleasantly surprised that everything looks so calm and peaceful. Branches filled with blooms having over tomb stones, daisy scattered between graves and many other signs of Spring bring a sense of liveliness to the cemetery. Other than signs from the nature, signs of human activities such as the confederate flag and the bouquet laying in front of the graves also help to bring liveliness to the cemetery.

                                                                     

 

 The layout of a cemetery is extremely important in many different cultures. The cardinal direction of the cemetery, the center of the cemetery and the overall flow all suppose to have significant meanings that either relate to the religious significance of the cemetery or the historic event behind the people who are buried in the cemetery. The Stonewall Jackson statue stands in the center of the cemetery and faces the south for obvious reason. But the direction he is facing is different from the cardinal direction of the cemetery, therefore the statue of Stonewall Jackson is actually against the major flow within the cemetery. And this phenomenon raises a very interesting conflict of whether the cemetery is built to commemorate Stonewall Jackson, or does the cemetery have other significant meanings and the statue was added the the cemetery after the cemetery has already developed to a certain size.

 

Stonewall Jackson Cemetery- Maggie Sands

I had never been to the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery before, and had only noticed it once or twice in passing along Main Street. When we walked in the entrance, I was amazed by how large it was- I had no idea.

The thing that I immediately noticed was the juxtaposition between Confederate memorabilia left on tombstones and American flags and flowers. This demonstrates how memorializing someone you have lost is very personal and can be done in contrasting ways. I was also surprised that there were many graves of servicemen in WWI or WWII in a cemetery named for a major player in the Confederacy.

Another notable aspect of the cemetery was of course the statue of Stonewall Jackson in the center. No matter where you stood in the cemetery, you could see him. Being at a higher level than all the others signifies importance and prestige. I thought the symbolism of him facing south was extremely interesting, because that is not something that I picked up on at first. I thought it was interesting that at the bottom of the statue, one of the tombstones was for one of his relatives who died in battle in France and his body was never recovered- yet, he was still honored in the cemetery at the feet of Stonewall Jackson.

Finally, I was intrigued by the simplicity of many of the tombstones. Very few had flowers or any other type of personalized offerings, and most had just a last name written on them. One that I found particularly interesting was in the shape of a bench, giving it a functional purpose. For something meant to memorialize one's life, I was curious as to why someone would choose such a basic, functional piece. Perhaps it is meant as a means of sitting and reminiscing within the memorial space.

Stonewall Jackson

Charley Warble

I found our visit to the Stonewall Jackson to be very enlightening. To be honest, I have never given much though to the organization, upkeep, and tomb designs of cemeteries before today. In walking around and silently observing the plot, I began to put some thought into a few of the things I noticed. First, I thought it was really interesting that there seemed to be no explicit organization of the graves. Though there were groupings with family members or pockets with a chronological organization, there was no strict design or pattern to the tombs. Small stone markers were all that stood to distinguish graves locations.

Additionally, the grass was a bit overgrown and unkept, except for within the fenced area of Stonewall Jackson's statue. I thought this was interesting, as the burial ground seemed fairly active. People besides our class were visiting at the time, and there were fresh flowers placed at various graves. This seemed to contradict the poor level of grooming.

I also enjoyed reading the inscriptions on the graves. It was interesting to see how people choose to capture the personalities of the deceased on their tombstone. Some children were honored with lambs carved into the tops of their tombs and women were called "loving mother and wife." But most interestingly to me were the inscriptions for fallen soldiers, some of which seemed to imply that fighting, as well as the south, were the most important things in the men's life. This struck me, that out of all things someone could write about a person at the end of their lives, so many people chose to honor their loved ones in reference to their occupation as a soldiers, and in some cases I'm sure, referencing the way they died.

The last thing that I found interesting was the orientation of the graveyard around the Stonewall Jackson statue. It was interesting to learn that he is facing South purposefully, though it is away from both the original and current entrances, to honor the South. It was so cool to see how the site has grown and changed over time as more tombs have been added, as entrances have changed, as well as other factors. I really enjoyed the visit, and feel I learned a lot.

Stonewall Jackson- Murray Manley

I have visited the cemetery several times on various occasions, usually on walks during the day and once when I was dressed up for Halloween. As a child, my parents once took us to a graveyard in Savannah and had us do grave etchings (which sounds morbid now that I'm writing it out),  and I think that was the only other time in the past 10 years that I have paid so much attention to a graveyard besides today. As we walked around, I noticed that Stonewall Jackson's memorial was in a circular plot, while most others were in rectangular ones. The surrounding grass had been freshly mowed, juxtaposing it with the overgrown nature of the rest of the cemetery. Today, no offerings had been given, although as we discussed in class, sometimes secular pilgrims toss in a lemon or lime. Like many of the other memorials nearby, he is enshrined with his family members- his daughter in particular.

I thought it was interesting that we discussed his outfit, and I wish I had paid more close attention, or had a closer look at what he was wearing. Seeing the memorial makes me wonder who chose his attire for the memorial? Was his family involved in the process? How would they have portrayed him? Often memorials only depict a single side of a story, a single facet of a person's life. Although he is most remembered for his involvement in the Civil War, I am sure that Stonewall Jackson had many other qualities that his loved ones would have wanted to celebrate in addition to his bravery as a soldier.

However, what I will most remember from today is the orientation of Stonewall Jackson's memorial. Although most of the other graves face East for some unknown and long-forgotten reason, Jackson faces South, faithfully never turning his back on his beloved South. I wish I knew a little bit more about his biography, and I think in the coming weeks I will take the time to visit his house in Lexington and read a few things about him when I have time. This questions may be ignorant, but was Jackson a Lexington native? Does he still have family here? How does the surrounding community feel about their once-presbyterian graveyard transformed into a pilgrimage site for Stonewall Jackson's fans?

I liked these graves in particular because of the daisies growing in a line right in front of them. 

My Earliest Memory of a Memorial

Charley Warble

My first real memory of going to a memorial is from the 5th grade when my school went on a class trip to Washington DC. We went on tours of all the major monuments in the area, and I have memories of all of those as well, but the most potent memory I have from the trip is when we went to the Holocaust Museum. I specifically remember walking through the museum seeing the carts that families would be taken in to the concentration camps, and thinking about how scared they must have been cramped in the small cars. Hearing individual stories of Jewish people who lived through or died in the holocaust was extremely striking to me. I remember this was the first time I felt like I had a grasp on the emotional torment, understanding the fear and confusion the people must have felt at the time. Right before we exited the museum, we walked through a room full of shoes from people who died in the Holocaust. I almost began to cry looking at all the shoes, because it became so personal that these human beings had possessions and lives and were just like me. Especially seeing smaller sized shoes knowing those children passed away. The whole experience was so moving and potent that I think I will carry those memories forever.

Liz Janisse: Cemetery Reflection

At first glance, the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery does not seem to have much rhyme or reason.

A variety of different styles of tombstones and grave markers are littered throughout an unkempt lawn, among flowering bushes and trees. Some tombstones are grouped and overlapped, while others vary in surrounding area and size. There is even a bush that forms a sort of natural shelter for small graves, including a path to walk.

 

The graves are roughly aligned in rows that vary in chronology, instead clustered based on familial ties. The horizontal spread of tombstones stands in stark contrast to the circular Stonewall Jackson center. 

Fenced in pointed black, there is a large distance between the memorial and viewer. Multiple tiers of pedestal raise Jackson far above the surrounding tombstones and those who visit them. It was interesting to see how regal and removed Jackson seemed in this setting--although this is clearly a position of honor, I do question the placement of his family members at the foot of the statue: I wonder if that would have been Jackson's preference. 

Stonewall Jackson Cemetary - Camilla Davis

            Upon entering the cemetery from the entrance on Main Street, the key point of focus is the Stonewall Jackson Memorial which towers over the graves which flank it. As the viewer approaches the memorial, they pass through a gate which frames the memorial. One would naturally expect for this framework to be positioned on the front of the memorial however, in this case it angles the viewer to the side of Stonewall Jackson. Despite the main entrance originally facing the west and the current entrance facing the east, Stonewall Jackson faces the south. This orientation serves as a metaphor for the idea that Jackson never turned his back on the south.

Positioned in a hollowed out tree sits three small graves and a stone pathway which circles around the trunk of the tree. Each gravestone marks the resting place of a child who has passed. The position of the gravestones within the tree combines the senses of both intimacy and whimsy. The space is intimate as it is separated from the other graves and given its own space. The fact that the space is within a tree contributes the sense of whimsy as though it is a space for fairies or woodland creatures. This sense is entirely befitting of a resting place for children. 

            This gravestone serves as a representation of the ways that people act upon memorial sights. It illustrates the tradition of leaving items such as flowers or flags at a gravesite in order to make an offering and show respect for the person who has passed. This tradition of acting upon a memorial is not only present in cemeteries but in many different types of memorials. For example, at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. it is customary for a viewer to take a rubbing of the engraved name of a relative or friend who passed during the war and to bring the rubbing home with them. By acting upon the memorial, the viewer is able to establish a deeper emotional bond with the subject that the memorial commemorates.

Stonewall Jackson Cemetery - Megan Philips

The first thing I noticed when we entered the graveyard through the main entrance was Jackson’s Memorial that towers over the others. I noticed right away that the directionality of the tombstones, which face east, differed from Jackson’s statue, which faces south, as seen below. I think it is very powerful that, as we discussed as a class, the reason for this placement is so that he will never turn his back on the south. 

            I also found it interesting how mixed in style the tombstones were. It gives insight into the differing beliefs and preferences of those who are buried and their families. Some had religious symbols, some were simple in their design, and some had additional plaques or offerings. There were also differing tombstones, like the obelisk and mausoleum shown below.

 

Another aspect of the site that we discussed was how it has changed throughout time. We know that the entrance used to come from the east, which is why all of the tombstones face there, and that Jackson’s memorial was added after the graveyard had already existed. Another thing that I have learned about the graveyard from a previous geology class was how the preferences in material used in making the tombstones have changed throughout time. As seen in some of the older tombstones that are so weathered we can’t read them, like the one below on the left, the limestone and marble tombstones have not held up to the natural processes very well. As a result, many of the relatively recent tombstones, like the ones from the 1950s below on the right, are made out of more durable rock, like granite, that will hold up well.

          

This indicates that the graveyard is constantly changing and adapting through time.

Julia Schloss -- Stonewall Jackson Cemetery

The experience today at the Stonewall Jackson cemetery was very enlightening. Living in lexington I don't take full advantage of the history around us. There were a few things that really stuck with me during and after the visit. The overall view and area in the cemetery has a nice peaceful feeling. The only really sounds coming from the nature around us. There are no distinct path ways around the grave stones other then the main cemented paths which caused a little concern to me as I didn't want to step on something or someplace I shouldn't.

 I noticed that the overall area of the cemetery was not very manicured other then the area surrounding Stonewall Jackson himself. What was also interesting to see was the fresh flowers that are placed on grave stones even if the person had died hundreds of years ago. I wonder what the connection of the person visiting was.


The labeling of the tomb stones was also very interesting as it can tell a lot about the family and the person that died. some say mother and father like the image above while others say family names and or a religious inscriptions.



Overall I really enjoyed my experience, I learned a lot about why things are oriented the way they are and how every memorial is built with a purpose. It also was a good way to connect to the history beyond just reading. I am still left to understand the connection of who gets to decided why or how memorials are represented as they are an emotional attachment for each person.