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Confederate
General Thomas Jackson lived in this house from 1858 until the start of the Civil War in 1861. Jackson is best known for his role as one of the leading Confederate generals in the early stages of the&nbsp;Civil War, especially his ability to deploy and redeploy troops so quickly that&nbsp;the Confederate defenders of Richmond were able to&nbsp;deceive Union General George McClellan into believing that he was outnumbered.

Cornellious Dorman
originally built the now known “Stonewall house”it in the year 1800.
Graham expanded the home in&nbsp;1845.&nbsp;Thomas&nbsp;Jackson was a professor at&nbsp;Virginia Military Institute when he&nbsp;purchased the house from Dr. Graham for 
$3000.&nbsp;

Tours are given on a daily
basis seven days a week for individuals as well as groups. &nbsp;All ages are
permitted for tours. Visitors to the home can&nbsp;view a number of artifacts, historic furnishings, and exhibits&nbsp;related to Jackson's life and this section of the country during the 19th century. Guests can also tour the garden
while&nbsp;provided with&nbsp;history and information about the house, and
Stonewall Jackson from the museum's volunteers and&nbsp;staff.&nbsp;

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson lived in this home with his second wife, Mary Anna Morrison. The couple lived here from 1858 until the start of the Civil War. 

The Stonewall Jackson House features a number of exhibits as well as artifacts and furnishings from the antebellum period.  

Tours include information about Jackson’s civilian life before the war and his roles as a business leader, church members, and professor.

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Brief biography of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

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This historic house museum is located in the former home of Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The house was built in 1800 by Dr. Cornelius Dorman. Thomas Jackson purchased the house for $3000 in 1858. Jackson became one of the leading generals of the Confederacy until he was accidently shot by one of his own men during an early battle with limited visibility. Jackson's funeral was held in Lexington on May 15, 1863. The house later served as Jackson Memorial Hospital from 1907-1954 and was later purchased by Virginia Military Institute and converted to a museum. The home is operated by VMI and open from March- December, and guided tours are available daily for individuals and groups.  

Stonewall Jackson House

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Discover the stories of two famous Confederate generals and their contributions to Lexington's educational heritage. Visit Robert E. Lee's official dwellings as Washington and Lee University president and his family's burial chapel on the college grounds. See the house Stonewall Jackson bought while teaching at VMI, his horse Little Sorrel, the uniform he was wearing when he was hit by friendly fire, and his final resting place. 

On November 11th, 1839, twenty-three young Virginians were mustered into the service of the state as the first cadet corps of the Virginia Military Institute. Just over a decade later, in 1851, Thomas J. Jackson joined the faculty and served until the start of the Civil War. During the war, he was promoted to the rank of general in the Confederate Army and earned the nickname “Stonewall." As for VMI, the Cadet Corps trained recruits for the Confederate Army early in the Civil War. This continued until the institution was destroyed by Union forces on June 12th, 1864. Through the dedicated persistence of VMI faculty and leadership, the school was reopened on October 17th, 1865. The Stonewall Jackson statue was donated by Moses Jacob Ezekiel, a student of VMI and personal pupil of Stonewall Jackson. At a young age, Ezekiel was taken in by his grandparents because his parents were so poor. Once he was old enough, he found his way to VMI, where he could receive a free education in exchange for military service. It was at this time that Ezekiel worked under the direct instruction of Jackson. The Civil War interrupted their time at VMI, as they both went off to serve in the Confederate Army; Ezekiel ultimately served under Jackson’s command. Ezekiel experienced the famous "Stonewall" Jakcson's leadership firsthand and went so far as to cite him as a personal hero. While Jackson was killed in battle, Ezekiel returned to VMI to finish his degree prior to going to Rome, where he became a very accomplished artist. He completed a statue of Jackson to be placed on the grounds of the West Virginia capitol in 1910 and made a copy for VMI in 1912. The statue, like other Confederate monuments throughout the South, has attracted controversy in recent years. In September 2017, Virginia's top Democrats, including then-Governor Terry McAuliffe, called for moving Confederate statues to museums, arguing that they had grown too divisive as symbols meant to venerate the Lost Cause. The Stonewall Jackson monument has been specifically referenced due to its place on the university campus and the potential messages that might negatively influence the culture and values of the institution. In response to this pressure, many defended the Stonewall Jackson monument, arguing that its focus is the role Jackson played in the early years of VMI and as a leader in battle, rather than the ideals of the Confederate Army. VMI sided with statue's defenders, releasing a statement that read in part, "...like the United States itself, who we were in the past only defines in part who we are today. Hate, bigotry and discrimination are wrong, do not represent the values of the Virginia Military Institute, and will always be addressed decisively.” In July 2020, during the reevaluation of Confederate memorials following the George Floyd protests, VMI leadership faced increased calls to remove the Stonewall Jackson statue and other Confederate monuments on campus and to address racial inequality at the school. The Superintendent, General J. H. Binford Peay III, responded with a letter promising to de-emphasize the statue while keeping it in its current location.

At the center of the campus of the Virginia Military Institute is a monument to the famous Confederate General and former VMI professor Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Donated in 1912, the statue stands at the easternmost side of the main parade field and acts as a focal point of the historic campus. The statue is directly in front of the cadet barracks and is positioned symbolically, as if "surveying the field before the Battle of Chancellorsville, VA where Stonewall Jackson received his mortal wound." Like many other institutions with Confederate monuments, VMI has received social and political pressure in recent years to remove the statue. However, the university has repeatedly committed to preserving the statue in its current location.

Stonewall Jackson Monument / Statue at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI)

The VMI museum was created in 1856 by Superintendent Smith and was created when he received a Revolutionary War musket. It currently holds over 15,000 artifacts in its collection. There are four major permanent exhibits at the museum and they are, The Henry Stewart 19th Century Antique Firearms Collection, VMI involvement in the Civil War, Military and Civilian Accomplishments of National Importance, and "Stonewall" Jackson at VMI. The Henry Stewart Collection is a collection created by Henry M. Stewart Jr., a graduate of the university in 1935. A lot of the collection are one-of-a-kind or are the only known surviving type of firearm or patent office model. (1) There are over 800 pieces in the collection and currently 50 rare pieces on display, even though the university plans to eventually open them all up to the public serious researchers can make appointments to see artifacts. (1) Some of the big items are the air rifle carried by Lewis and Clarke, the Artemus Wheeler Revolving Carbine (one of four) bought by the US Navy, several Colt Patterson Firearms, and an engraved Porter Rifle. (1) The VMI involvement in the Civil War exhibit shows how VMI alumni served. Nearly 1700 VMI alumni served in the Confederate Army which is why VMI earned the name "West Point of the South". (2) Only 16 alumni served in the Union army. (2) They have full lists of all who served and more information on the important ones in this exhibit and the VMI archives. Since the school was created VMI alumni have helped to make history in America. The Military and Civilian Accomplishment exhibits follows the most famous of VMI alumni who have won Nobel Prize's, Pulitzer Prize's, explorers, movie stars, and politicians. (3) They include 11 Rhode Scholar winners, 7 Medal of Honor recipients, and 226 Flag Rank Officers. (3) The final exhibit is the "Stonewall" Jackson exhibit. Jackson had a big influence on the community being active in both business and religious activities and teaching at the university. (4)  The exhibit has memento's from Jackson's life. It currently holds his favorite hat, two uniforms, items from his classroom, and his horse "Little Sorrel" after it died. (It is one of two horses mounted at death) (4)  Jackson was the first faculty member of the university to die since it was created in 1839 and his body was brought back and held in state in his old classroom until it was buried. (4)

The VMI Museum was created in 1856 by Superintendent Smith after he accepted a Revolutionary War musket.  The museum holds, preserves, and exhibits artifacts of VMI heritage and has over 15,000 artifacts in its collection.  One of the major attractions is General "Stonewall" Jackson's horse "Little Sorrel" which is on display in the museum.

VMI Museum

Just over five months after his surrender at Appomattox, in September 1865, Robert E. Lee took up the position of president at what was then Washington College. It was struggling financially and could barely afford to pay Lee. However, using his contacts and leadership ability, he turned the failing college into a large, up-to-date university – “[u]nder his inspiring leadership, the enrollment increased sharply, the curriculum was constantly expanded, and the physical plant was greatly improved.”[16] This period has been called the “noblest phase” of Lee’s life.[16] In 1866, as one of his first actions as president, Lee recommended construction of a new, larger chapel that could seat the entire student body. Approved in July, its Victorian-Gothic design was created by Thomas Williamson, engineering professor at VMI, with probable aid from Lee and his son, George Washington Custis Lee (also a VMI engineering professor). It was completed in 1868 and dedicated just before commencement exercises were conducted in it on June 14. Lee called it a, “pleasing as well as useful addition to the College buildings.”[7] In fact, he made daily use of it himself, attending worship services inside with the students before going downstairs to his office. (The downstairs also contained the treasurer’s office and YMCA student center.) His last day in this office was September 28, 1870, when he took ill, dying on October 12. His wife elected to bury him in a vault under the chapel, and his body was moved inside on October 14 and watched by a VMI honor guard until a funeral the next day. In remembrance of his transformative presidency, his office was kept as he left it and the school was renamed Washington and Lee University. The Lee Memorial Association was organized shortly after his passing and began planning a permanent tribute to the general. They commissioned Edward Valentine to sculpt a statue of Lee in 1871 and it was delivered to the University in 1875. However, due to financial difficulties, there was no place to display it until 1883, when an addition to the back of the chapel was completed. This addition had an apse for the statue on the top floor and a burial crypt on the bottom floor, where Lee’s remains were moved. The addition and statue were dedicated on June 28, 1883, by Stonewall Jackson’s daughter in a ceremony attended by eight to ten thousand people. Lee’s father (“Light Horse Harry”) and mother, his wife, his seven children, and several of their descendants have since been interred in the crypt. The University has since used the chapel for University-wide events and lectures, including the Honor Code Orientation and the Honor Book (also known as the White Book) signing ceremony. It was nearly torn down to make space for a larger chapel (that would also mesh architecturally with the University’s surrounding Greek Revival buildings) in the 1920s, but was saved by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which also built the museum in the lower story in 1928. The chapel was remodeled in the early 1960s and restored in the late 1990s. In 2007, a new, permanent exhibit, entitled “Not Unmindful of the Future: Building and Rebuilding a Nation,” was opened in the museum. (There is also a museum shop and a temporary exhibit space.)In 2014, a petition was signed requesting, among other things, removal of replica Confederate flags (not part of the 1883 design) located in the apse of the chapel. This request was complied with, and an agreement was signed allowing original battle flags that had been loaned or donated to the University (but since removed due to preservation concerns) to be displayed in the museum on rotation.  In 2017, after the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer during the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the University President, William Dudley, created a Commission on Institutional History and Community. Their final recommendations regarding the chapel included moving all events elsewhere, turning it into the “University Museum," and referring to Lee only as “President,” not “General”. The President agreed to close the doors to the apse during university functions and exchange military portraits of both Washington and Lee for civilian paintings to make sure “that university events do not feel as though they take place in a Confederate shrine.”[6] However, he refused to move events from Lee Chapel and effectively eliminate it from campus life and tradition, arguing that it held an important, irreplaceable spot in the University’s heritage. The debate over the Chapel’s history, future, and purpose has continued. Its National Register of Historic Places nomination says that, “[m]ore than a repository of [Lee’s] mortal remains, it is a monument to his unceasing efforts to erase the bitter feelings engendered by the Civil War, and to provide proper training for the youth of the South.”[16] However, as University President Cole noted, the chapel’s use has shifted from its original purpose of a place of worship and home of university gatherings to become a museum, burial ground, and what has been called, “The Shrine of the South.”[17] President Dudley remarked that, “Lee almost certainly would have opposed…these developments. His personal modesty would have generated strong resistance to making himself the focal point of the chapel. And he expressly argued against the creation of Civil War memorials, rightly believing they would perpetuate division and impede national reconciliation and prosperity.”[6] The University continues to use the chapel, saying that this allows critical-thinking-based consideration of its heritage and of the legacies of George Washington and Robert E. Lee.

Washington and Lee University's Lee Chapel and Museum, completed in 1868, is the final resting place of General and University President Robert E. Lee and most of his family and the home of Edward Valentine’s famous sculpture “Recumbent Lee.” The upstairs chapel was proposed and attended by Lee himself and is still used for Washington & Lee University events; the downstairs contains Lee’s preserved office, a museum, and the Lee family burial crypt. In addition to the Lees, the General’s horse, Traveller, and one of the University’s founders, Rev. William Martin, are buried on its grounds.

Lee Chapel and Museum 

“No more impressive expression of the educational ideals of the time could be imagined than this Classic group, its pediment and orders seen through embowering trees, over swelling American lawns, its cupola crowned with the image of the Pater Patriae.”[19] – Architectural historian Talbot Hamlin, in Greek Revival Architecture in America. Washington and Lee’s historic central campus, as described in this quotation, today consists of nine buildings. Though mostly architecturally congruent, the mix of educational and residential structures was in fact built over a nearly-150-year period between 1822 and 1936. The earliest, Washington Hall, was designed by self-taught builder/architect John Jordan and constructed out of brick made on campus between 1822 and 1824. Its roof was altered and the cupola was added in 1842-44. Matthew Kahle, a Lexington artisan, sculpted an 8-foot, 700-lb statue of George Washington out of a single log; christened “Old George,” it was hoisted to the top of the cupola in 1844 (it was replaced by a bronze copy in 1990). Washington Hall was originally known as the Center Building, as it sat between Graham and Union Halls (built 1804), both of which were demolished to make space for two larger buildings. The west of these larger buildings, the Lyceum (now Payne Hall), was constructed in 1830-31; the east, Robinson, was built between 1840-43. Two other dorms were built further to the east and west but were demolished in the 1880s, most likely to make space for Newcomb Hall, which was built to the west in 1881. Its eastern counterpart was Tucker Hall, built out of stone in the Gothic style in 1900 as a home for the law school. This building burnt in 1934 and an architecturally corresponding replacement was completed in 1936, also named Tucker. All of the central buildings, which now formed part of a Colonnade – or “symmetrical line of columns” – were completely renovated in 1935-36; no original interior was left.[13] These buildings were also given official names: Washington, after Old George; Payne, after a major renovation donor; and Robinson, after an early donor and trustee who left his estate (including 73-84 slaves) to the college in 1826. All of these buildings were brought up to modern standards between 2009 and 2014; they are still used and house many offices and academic departments. The remaining four buildings include Lee Chapel, covered in a separate Clio entry, and three faculty dwellings – Morris, Simpson, and Lee Houses. Morris and Simpson were two of four faculty houses built in the early 1840s; Simpson (formerly known as Lee-Jackson) served as the President’s house until 1869 and was the home of Stonewall Jackson for several years in the 1850s (after he married the President’s daughter). The Lee House was designed by Robert E. Lee (then University President) and completed in 1869; its wide porches were constructed for his wheelchair-bound wife. Lee himself died in the house in 1870 and it still serves as the University President’s official dwelling. As for the University itself, it was Washington Academy when it moved to Lexington in 1803 after a series of catastrophic fires and was not officially called “Washington College” until 1813. (See the Clio entry “Liberty Hall Academy Ruins” for more information on the school’s preceding history.) The school managed to survive high tensions and near- destruction in the Civil War; Unionist President George Junkin was forced to flee by students and faculty after Virginia’s secession, and, according to legend, only the statue of “Old George” atop Washington Hall saved the school from ruin during a Union raid in 1864 (neighboring VMI was not so lucky). In fact, the students' support for the Confederacy went so far as forming the “Liberty Hall Volunteers,” a company that fought as part of the Stonewall Brigade and was with Lee at Appomattox. After the war, and with few repairs completed from wartime vandalism, the Board of Trustees selected Robert E. Lee as president. He successfully took the school from subsisting as a tiny and struggling college to entering the national stage as a top-tier liberal arts university. Upon his death in 1870, the College’s name was changed to Washington and Lee University and Lee’s son succeeded him as President. The school’s first African American students in 150 years matriculated in 1966 and it became co-educational in 1985. Today, it is famous for its achievements, including the first college Journalism education program, and its longstanding traditions, such as the student-led Honor System, the “Speaking Tradition” of greeting others, the Fancy Dress Ball (established in 1907), and the Mock Convention (since 1908, it has successfully predicted the non-incumbent party’s presidential candidate 20 out of 26 times). In recent years, calls have been made to rename several buildings on the University’s campus and further disassociate it from the Confederate South and the Lost Cause movement that arose in the following decades. These movements have resulted in the renaming of the Lee-Jackson House after Pamela Hemingway Simpson, the first tenured female W&amp;L professor and an instrumental leader in the school’s move to co-education, and of Robinson Hall after John Chavis, who graduated from W&amp;L in 1799 and was “the first known African-American to receive a college education in the United States.”[4] In July 2020, during the nationwide George Floyd protests, the executive committee of the student body and a vast majority of the faculty voted to remove Lee from the University's name; the issue then passed to a special committee created by the Board of Trustees.

The central campus of Washington and Lee University, one of America’s oldest institutions of higher learning, was built between the 1820s and 1930s and features a Greek Revival colonnade, or "symmetrical line of columns."[13] It is now a National Historic Landmark. The University survived near-destruction in the Civil War and, under the presidency of Robert E. Lee, grew into a top-tier modern liberal arts college. 

Washington and Lee University Historic District

The cemetery was established around the Lexington Presbyterian Church, which was founded in 1789; the oldest extant, marked burial dates back to 1792. While the church relocated away from the cemetery to its present location in 1845, it continued to maintain and run the cemetery until its transfer to the city in 1949. It was at this time that the cemetery's name was officially changed from the Presbyterian Cemetery to the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery. The cemetery has recorded Lexington's history from the passing of its founders and Revolutionary War patriots through the death toll of the Civil War and up to the present day. It also memorializes the story of the city's two institutions of higher learning, Washington &amp; Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute (VMI). It is said that 296 Confederate soldiers are buried in the cemetery, including four generals other than the cemetery’s longtime namesake, Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. He was buried here on May 15, 1863, after a funeral at the Presbyterian Church and only five days after his death from friendly fire and pneumonia on May 10 in northern Virginia. The bronze statue adorning his grave, sculpted by Edward Virginius Valentine, was placed at his burial site much later; it was dedicated on July 21, 1891, in a ceremony keynoted by General Jubal Early and attended by 30,000 people. Buried under it are Jackson, his first and second wife, and his three children – a stillborn son, a daughter who died in childbirth, and his daughter Julia Jackson Christian. Julia’s husband, William, and their son, World War II general Thomas Christian, are buried there as well.  Other famous burials include Virginia governors James McDowell and John Letcher (governor during most of the Civil War), the "Poetess of the South," Margaret Junkin Preston, and several Congressmen and Senators. One of VMI’s founders, John Preston (husband of Margaret), and its first and second superintendents, Francis Henney Smith and Scott Shipp (who also led the VMI cadets at the Battle of New Market) are buried in the cemetery. There are also graves of many involved in the early history of Washington &amp; Lee University, including the cabinetmaker who crafted the statue of George Washington (nicknamed "Old George") that stood on top of the University's Washington Hall from 1844 to 1990. Today, the Historic Lexington Foundation works to preserve and restore the cemetery and promote its history and legacy. The foundation occasionally holds tours and work days and has raised funds and hired professional conservators to restore dilapidated headstones and monuments. In July 2020, as part of the renewed nationwide reevaluation of Confederate symbols and monuments following the George Floyd protests, the Lexington City Council unanimously decided to remove the "Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery" name from the property. While the move was met with mixed reactions from local residents and politicians, the city council continued with plans to accept public suggestions for a new name. They chose the name "Oak Grove Cemetery" on August 20th and officially approved it on September 3rd, 2020, with a unanimous vote.

This cemetery is the final resting place of many influential persons in Virginia, Civil War, Washington & Lee University, and VMI history, including Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Other burials include two Virginia governors, four Confederate generals, one of the founders of VMI, and the "Poetess of the South." Established in the late 1700s by the Lexington Presbyterian Church, the cemetery is now owned by the city and regularly restored by the Historic Lexington Foundation. It is still in use today. In July 2020, the "Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery" name was officially removed, and the Lexington City Council officially decided on the name "Oak Grove Cemetery" on September 3rd of that year.

Lee and Jackson in Lexington, Virginia

Stonewall Jackson House

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