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.