Monumental Memories: Iron Mike of Parris Island

The United States entered World War I on April 6, 1917 and its involvement would last through the end of the war in 1918.  While not our longest war and certainly not the war with the greatest loss of American life, this conflict suddenly forced America to confront the realities of new scales of destruction wrought by rapidly advancing technology.  Soldiers in this conflict were on a three-dimensional battlefield, with attack coming from the air and beneath the sea surface, as well as horizontally.  Airplanes served first as reconnaissance and observation platforms, then carried machine guns and dropped bombs. The guns were bigger, more accurate, artillery more explosive, cavalry was replaced by armored vehicles with guns.  Submarines were systematically employed in naval battle and attacking commerce.  And then there was the poison gas - chlorine gas, mustard gas - death on an industrial level.

There were 15.5-18.4 million deaths due to the fighting in WWI.  Of the dead, 117,465 were Americans.  The US military suffered 204,002 wounded in battle and 53,402 killed or missing in action.  For the US Marine Corps, there were 2,457 killed or missing in action and 8,894 wounded in action.  Many of these Marines had passed through Parris Island, which began functioning as a Marine Corps Recruiting Depot on 1 November 1915.

The mass mobilization of 4.7 million troops, a war involving most of the world's major powers, fighting on foreign battlefields, the large number of Americans buried in foreign cemeteries and the sheer horror of the fighting prompted memorialization of the Great War on a scale rivaled only by the US Civil War.  These ranged from the strikingly large Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, MO, the temple like Soldiers Memorial in St. Louis, MO to more simple markers and statues.  Some of these statues were of the uniformed "doughboy" from the war and became more informally known as "Iron Mike".

Parris Island's "Iron Mike" is one of the more striking that I have encountered. A battle-ready figured with a water-cooled Maxim machine gun slung over his right shoulder and the his left hand raising aloft an M1911 .45 caliber pistol.  Measuring nearly 8-feet tall from heel to pistol tip and placed on a 5-foot 6-inch Stony Creek granite pedestal in front of the Parris Island Headquarters and Service Battalion's barracks, this Marine figure is imposing.  The base bears the inscription "In memory of the men of Parris Island that gave their lives in the World War, erected by their comrades".

Officially known as Monument to the United States Marines, the bronze statue was created by Robert Ingersoll Aitken, who also designed the pediment of the US Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC.  Not only was Aitken a well-known sculptor, he had served as a captain of a machine gun unit in the US Army's 306th Infantry Regiment. The funds for the monument were apparently being raised informally by officers and enlisted men during the war to memorialize their fallen comrades.  Brigadier General Eli Cole, who commanded Parris Island before going to France in 1918 and returned to Parris Island September 1919.  With $8000 raised, Captain Aitken was commissioned to design the monument.  By October 1922, a site had been selected in front of the Post Inn (Hostess House) with an unobstructed view of the parade deck (which lacked grandstands at the time) and Boulevard de France.

Aitken had a wax model ready for examination in February 1923, and the design had been approved in March by Major General Marine Commandant John A. Lejeune and the Commissioner of the US Commission ofFine Arts.  Aitken's plaster model was viewed by and met the approval of Generals Cole and Lejeune in April 1923.  The statue was cast in bronze by Rowan Bronze Works and was ready for dedication on 25 July 1924.  General Lejeune gave the primary speech, and Mrs. Nellie Glen (whose two sons were Parris Island men who were killed in WWI) unveiled the statue.

Dedication of the Memorial to US Marines in 1924

Many who have been to Parris Island (visitor, volunteer or draftee) will no doubt note that this is NOT where "Iron Mike" stands today.  Expansion of MCRD Parris Island in the run up to WWII necessitated the extension of Panama Street to the west during construction for the 2nd Recruit Training Battalion,   The current location is in front of Building 144 at Boulevard de France and Santo Domingo Street.

Getting There

There is only one way onto Parris Island.  From US-21 take Malecon Dr. to the Gate.  After passing through the gate, you will encounter a traffic circle.  Take the third exit (Vieques Rd. to Malecon Rd.),   Just keep going straight and Malecon will turn into Boulevard de France.  Iron Mike is past the parade deck and Iwo Jima Monument.

You will need a REAL ID compliant drivers license or passport to enter the gate (Missouri, Minnesota, Montana and Maine drivers licenses are not compliant with the REAL ID Act and may not be accepted at federal facilities).  Visiting hours are 6 AM to 6 PM.  After 6 PM, you must have a military sponsor.  If you are visiting a recruit planning to graduate, you will only be able to enter base after 6 PM if you have reservations at the base inn.

Waypoint: Latitude: 32.349221 N; Longitude: 80.675302 W

Street Address: Boulevard de France and Santo Domingo Street, MCRD Parris Island, SC 29905

Further Reading

Visitor Instructions for Parris Island

Postscript

Nadienne and I were eating lunch at Bricks on Boundary in Beaufort, SC before the college graduation.  A newly graduated Marine in uniform and his family were leaving and the hostess said "Congratulations!  Hope we see you again soon,"  The young Marine replied 'Thank you, Ma'am, but I hope to never see this place again".  I imagine there are many young Marines that feel that way.  But he'll change his mind, some day.  Maybe.

Grave Matters: Missouri's Swamp Fox

Meriwether Jeff Thompson c. 1857

All Jeff Thompson wanted to be when he grew up was a soldier.  It was a gentlemanly pursuit in his native Virginia.  He would realize that dream, but only after a long delay.  Attending military school in Charleston, Virginia (now West Virginia) from the age of 14, he applied for admission to the Military Academy at West Point, as well as Virginia Military Institute, but was turned down by both institutions.  It seemed that life at a store was in the cards for Jeff, which must have stung for a man coming from a military family.

He wandered the country a bit, starting out from his native Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1843, working in stores in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Frederick City, Maryland, before coming to Liberty, Missouri in 1847.  In 1848, he moved to the bustling town of St. Joseph, Missouri.  Having an aptitude for mathematics, surveying and engineering, he soon became the city engineer.  He reportedly was very charismatic and energetic, qualities which helped him achieve advancement.

In 1851, he obtained a position as a surveyor with the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad.  He went to find a position on the crew and wound up in charge of the surveyors for the preliminary survey.  Eventually supervising the building of the western Missouri section of the railroad, he rode on the first train from Hannibal to St. Joseph.  He took over the controls himself outside of town and drove the first locomotive into St. Joseph in 1858.  While working on the railroad, he became a member of the land company that laid out and promoted the town of Hamilton in Caldwell County.  Among the residents of this town were James Cash Penney, founder of the JC Penneys chain.

Thompson's Engineering Protractor

Learning surveying and mapping on the fly, Thompson was a quick study.  Soon he found the instruments required to draw exact road lines and machinery to be inadequate, and invented his own protractor to aid in producing engineering drawings.  The patent model at the left now resides in the Smithsonian Museum of American History's collection.  It is formally a "Rule for Describing Polygonal Forms" US patent 21,784 issued 12 October 1858.  It is a crude looking instrument, because it was made to illustrate the patented concept, not to function as a working tool.  There is no evidence that the tool ever went into production, and although Thompson invented several instruments, this is the only one for which he pursued a patent.

The executive

For all of his struggles in business as a young man, Jeff Thompson became a man on the move.  He became a military leader, named colonel of his Missouri State Militia unit.  He served as the seventh mayor of St. Joseph from 1857-1860.  He was the president of a gas company, Buchanan County Surveyor, real estate broker, agent for the Platte County Railroad, member of the Elwood (KS) town company, president of the St. Joseph and Maryville Railroad, secretary of the St. Joseph and Louisiana Railroad at the same time that he was St. Joseph mayor.  He surveyed land in Kansas and Nebraska Territories, surveyed the first lines for the St. Joseph and Maryville Railroad, as well as some of the route for the St. Joseph and Topeka Railroad.

You can tell that Thompson was a great proponent of railroads.  He placed the first bags of mail on the horse and delivered a speech at the first running of the Pony Express on 03 April 1860, remarking:

"The day will come when at this very town you may board a train which will take you through to the gold fields, and that within a very few years! More than that, I say that the wilderness which lies between us and that El Dorado will soon blossom as the rose."

The Pony Express was in large part possible because the mail from the East had been expedited by the railroad.  Russell, Majors and Waddell had arranged for westbound mail from Chicago to be routed to Quincy then to the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad.  The railroad continued to be important to mail delivery, and the first mail car for a railroad was designed and used on the Hannibal and St. Joe Railroad.

The General

Col. Jeff Thompson, CSA

Thompson did not run for re-election as St. Joseph mayor.  Business and national politics began to weigh on his mind.  Following the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States and the calling of secession conventions in the South, Thompson was not idle.  Although he was not a slave owner, he thought that slavery was protected in the Consitution and any attempt to abolish it was illegal.  He went to the state capital of Jefferson City and lobbied for passage of a military bill and a secession convention.  He endeavored to "use my little influence to bolster up such weak-kneed and timid Southerners as might be frightened from doing right for fear that a war would be forced upon them."  He was unsuccessful, as the military bill failed to pass and the delegates to the secession convention voted to stay in the Union.  The state that contained a mix of Southern, Western and Northern influences was unraveling and in few places was a war that pitted "brother against brother" fought so brutally.

Brig. Gen. Jeff Thompson, MSG

Frustrated by a governor that espoused the Southern cause, but refused to release money to support activities of the militia, Thompson decided to go to offer his services to his home state of Virginia.  When he left, St. Joseph was so divided that Mayor Armstrong Beattie ordered that no flags be flown anywhere in town.  The new postmaster of St. Joseph decided he was going to raise the US flag at the post office on 22 May 1861.  After the flag was raised, Thompson climbed a ladder to the top of the building, cut the flag down and threw it into the crowd, which tore it to pieces.

Jeff Thompson became a colonel in the Confederate States Army and when given command of the First Division of the Missouri State Guard in July 1861, he became a brigadier general in the State Guard.  He carried out several actions against the Union in southern Missouri, a low area that was very swampy.  He became "Missouri's Swamp Fox" or  "The Swamp Fox of the Confederacy" and his troops were known as the "Swamp Rats".

When Union Gen. John C. Frémont  placed Missouri under martial law and proclaimed emancipation for the slaves of rebels, Thompson issued a counter proclamation.  Thompson led a 1500 man cavalry raid on the Iron Mountain Railroad bridge over Big River in Jefferson County, MO on 15 October 1861.  He then withdrew south, joined up with infantry and decided to attack Union forces at Fredericktown on 21 October with a force of 3000.  In this engagement, the Missouri State Guard was outnumbered.  The Union forces were composed of two columns: 1500 under Col. Joseph Plummer and 3000 under Col. William Carlin.  Thompson deployed the Guard on wooded ridges overlooking the main road, and put Col. Aden Lowe's infantry out in the open as bait.  Lowe's unit met the initial Union force and held their own, but waited too long to retire.  Lowe was killed and his unit took heavy casualties (total Missouri Guard casualties: 25 killed, 40 wounded, 80 captured).  As the Union troops moved forward to capture an artillery piece, they came under heavy fire from the Missouri State Guard.  Thompson was able to withdraw, but the engagement was a Union victory, and consolidated Federal control of southeastern Missouri.

Thompson's troops caught the attention of Union Brig. Gen. US Grant, commander of the District of Southeast Missouri, when Frémont sent word that Thompson was at Indian Ford on the St. Francois River.  Grant was to dispatch troops on 03 November to capture Thompson's force near the Arkansas border.  3000 men under Col. Plummer were to leave Cape Girardeau and 4000 under Col. Richard Oglesby from Bird's Point.  These troops were diverted to meet a greater Confederate threat at Belmont, Missouri as Grant considered Thompson's troops to be ineffective as a fighting force after Frederickstown.

You're in the Army's Navy now

CSS Gen Jeff Thompson in battle line at Plum Point Bend

In 1862, Thompson became involved in the battle to control the Mississippi River, commanding a ram in the Confederate riverine fleet.  It was fairly common to have Army personnel on board ships as gun crews. He commanded enough respect on the field and on the river that a converted sidewheel steamer was outfitted as a "cottonclad ram" and renamed the CSS General Jeff Thompson.  The ship saw its first action at the Battle of Plum Point Bend, about four miles upriver from Ft. Pillow on 10 May 1862. Twelve Federal mortar boats and eight ironclads were tied up there, and the Confederate fleet, with Jeff Thompson on the CSS Gen. Bragg, was going to try to clear them out.  The Union ironclad USS Cincinnati headed out into the shallows where but few of the Confederates could follow.  The CSS Bragg hit the ironclad with a gun volley, but her tiller rope was fouled and she was effectively out of action.  The USS Cincinnati and USS Mound City were rammed and sunk.  The Confederates had to withdraw as their ships needed deeper water to reach the other Union ships.  Their presence did hold off Federal forces long enough to allow Ft. Pillow to be evacuated by 01 June, then the Confederate flotilla headed down to Memphis for refueling and resupply.

CSS Gen Jeff Thompson sinking at Memphis

The CSS Thompson didn't have a long career.  The Union Mississippi River Squadron of ironclads pushed downstream to Memphis.  A lack of fuel meant that the Confederate force could not withdraw, but chose to fight it out on 06 June 1862.  Early in the fight, the Jeff Thompson was hit heavily by Union guns, caught fire and began to sink.  After the crew abandoned ship, she burned to waterline and her magazine caught fire and exploded, sending debris high into the sky.

 Only one of the Confederate ships would escape.  The CSS Gen. Van Dorn was able to head south and find refuge in the Yazoo River.  The rest were destroyed or captured.  Among those that were captured and entered Union service were the Gen. Price and the Gen. Bragg.  This effectively ended Confederate naval presence on the Mississippi River, with the CSS Arkansas later being the only outstanding challenge to the Union.

Explosion of the magazine of the CSS Jeff Thompson

On the road again

St. Charles Hotel in Pocahontas, Arkansas

Jeff Thompson was assigned to duty west of the Mississippi River and was soon in Arkansas.  He joined the second raid into Missouri led by Gen. John Marmaduke.  The raid commenced on 18 April 1863 with 5000 troops, many of which were unarmed and without mounts.  Marmaduke feared the soldiers would desert if he left the unarmed/unmounted behind, and took them along, planning to supply them with captured materiel.  The raid collapsed in defeat following an unplanned and ill-advised attack on Cape Girardeau on 25-26 April.  Given orders to pursue Union troops only if they marched towards Pilot Knob and Fredericktown, Col. George Carter followed General McNeil to heavily fortified Cape Girardeau.  Carter was demoted and Marmaduke had to retreat back to Arkansas.

Brig. Gen. Jeff Thompson at Johnson's Island (front, next to right)

Though this foray into Missouri was a disaster, Thompson proved himself to still be an able commander.  His symbolic value to the Confederate resistance in Missouri was at a high, and he became a prime target for the Union Army.  On 24 August 1863, elements of the Missouri State Militia Cavalry (Union) commanded by Col. Richard G. Woodson of the 3rd Missouri State Militia Cavalry heard that Thompson was in Pochahontas, Arkansas with very little in the way of force.  Woodson ordered Capt. Henry C. Gentry of the 2nd Missouri State Militia Cavalry to ride for town with all haste and arrest the general before he could escape.  Gentry rode into town and arrested Thompson and several officers at the St. Charles Hotel.  Thompson was calmly reviewing maps of southeast Missouri and caught by complete surprise.  The Missouri State Militia Cavalry took their prisoners back to Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  Thompson would be sent to Gratiot Street Prison in St. Louis, Fort Delaware (on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River) and Johnson's Island (in Lake Erie, near Sandusky, Ohio) prisoner of war camps.  On 03 August 1864 (or 29 July, depending on which history you are reading), he was exchanged for a Union general.

Fort Delaware - Seth Eastman c. 1870

Out of the frying pan, into the fire

Map of Johnson's Island

Soon after his release from Johnson's Island, Thompson returned to the service of the Confederacy.  He joined the Autumn 1864 raid on Missouri with General Sterling Price and 12,000 horsemen.  Thompson took over the command of Gen. J.O. Shelby's "Iron Brigade" as Shelby was now commanded a division.  The whole campaign was fraught with failure. On 27 September 1864, Price attacked Ft. Davidson at Pilot Knob with several uncoordinated attacks from several directions.  The guns of the fort were turned in response to each one.  When the position became defenseless, the Union escaped through a gap in the siege lines, and lit a timed fuse which destroyed the powder magazine and the fort.  The Confederates had the fort, but had suffered 1000 casualties, used up a huge amount of ammunition and had not captured the men or arms of the Union soldiers.  It would now be impossible to capture St. Louis.

Price set his sights on capturing Jefferson City, but found it too heavily defended.  He then turned towards Lexington and Westport (Kansas City).  After victories that provided supplies at Glasgow (15 October), the Little Blue River (east of Independence, MO - 21 October) and Independence (Second Battle - 21-22 October), disease, desertion and casualties caught up with Price.  The dogged fighting by the Union forces under Maj. Gen. James Blunt slowed Price's advance long enough for Gen. Alfred Pleasonton's cavalry force of 10,000 to join the battle.  The Confederate force, which had shrunk to about 8.500,  was decisively defeated by 22,000 Union soldiers at the Battle of Westport (23 October).

Mine Creek looking toward the Union line from the Confederate line.
The Federal line was near the treeline at the horizon.

During the Battle of Westport, the Iron Brigade under Thompson drove the Union troops under Brig. Gen. Thomas Moonlight back into Kansas, and those under Col. Jennison back into Westport.  The Confederates were unable to capitalize on this advantage, running out of ammunition.  In the retreat that followed defeat, Thompson's men would fight a rear guard action to give the Confederates time to escape the field of battle.

Setting sights on the supplies at Fort Scott, Kansas, Price started in that direction, but were pursued by Pleasonton through the night and into the next day.  On 25 October, Price was forced into three engagements: the Battle of Marais des Cynges (Trading Post), the Battle of Mine Creek, and the Battle of the Marmiton River.  All three were heavy losses for Price.  All hope of capturing Fort Scott gone and his forces whittled to fewer than 6000 men, Price had to make a run for Indian Territory (Oklahoma).  Price was pressed into one more engagement near Newtonia, Missouri during which Thompson and the Iron Brigade rode to the front, dismounted and engaged the Federals.  The Federal force was forced back into a cornfield by the Ritchey estate.  When the Union surged forwards, Price had escaped.

Mine Creek Crossing - it was full of water on 25 October 1864

Missouri State Guard Brig. Gen. M. Jeff Thompson was appointed commander of the Northern Sub-District of Arkansas in March of 1865.  By May of 1865, Thompson's command  of 7500 men was one of the largest Confederate forces left in the field.  He made arrangements at Chalk Bluff, Arkansas on 09 May 1865 to surrender his troops.  He marched them to Wittsburg and Jacksonport, Arkansas on 11 May 1865 to lay down their arms and obtain their paroles.

Shelby and Price took their men to Mexico and offered their services to Emperor Maximillian, but they were refused.  Ultimately, Maximillian would face a firing squad following a popular revolt against the European government.  While these men would gain fame as the "undefeated" or "unsurrendered", the war was over for Jeff Thompson.  He became one of the first Confederate officials to apply for reinstatement of citizenship and take the loyalty oath.  His talents as a civil engineer and surveyor won him a post-war position as Surveyor General of Louisiana and Chief State Engineer of Louisiana.  He moved to his wife's hometown of New Orleans, and for several years supervised projects that would control flooding and improve swamp land in Louisiana.  Several histories of Louisiana have praised his competence as an engineer and service to the state.

"Home again and home again"

At some point along the line, Jeff Thompson had contracted tuberculosis, a common respiratory disease of the time.  It is likely that this happened during his Civil War service.  His hard work ethic likely exacerbated the disease, and a tired Thompson returned to St. Joseph, Missouri in 1876.  In short order he passed away at the age of 50 years on 05 September 1876.  The man who wanted to be a soldier but was turned down by major military academies had earned his bones as a high ranking officer for the Confederacy in the Civil War, a politician, businessman, surveyor and civil engineer.  His flood control systems protected St. Joseph and Louisiana for years after his death.  Leading the effort to reconcile the South with the North, he was alternately praised as a model citizen and vilified for abandoning the "Southern cause".

Thompson is buried in a fairly easy to find spot in Mt. Mora Cemetery in St. Joseph, Missouri.  His grave is in a small triangle just southeast of Section L and northeast of Section B.

Jeff Thompson, Mark Twain and David Rice Atchison - Talk about pop culture

Jeff Thompson was a large enough personage that his fictionalized self was made part of the book The Guilded Age: A Tale of Today by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in 1873.  It seems fitting, since the papers for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad were drawn up in the offices of Sam Clemens' father.  Warner had been a surveyor/engineer on the railroad, so he was acquainted with Thompson.

On laying a straight line:

An early Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad locomotive

"The Colonel hitched up his chair close to Harry, laid his hand on his knee, and, first looking about him, said in a low voice, 'The Salt Lick Pacific Extension is going to run through Stone's Landing! The Almighty never laid out a cleaner piece of level prairie for a city; and it's the natural center of all that region of hemp and tobacco.'

'What makes you think the road will go there? It's twenty miles, on the map, off the straight line of the road?'

'You can't tell what is the straight line till the engineers have been over it. Between us, I have talked with Jeff Thompson, the division engineer. He understands the wants of Stone's Landing, and the claims of the inhabitants—who are to be there. Jeff says that a railroad is for—the accommodation of the people and not for the benefit of gophers; and if, he don't run this to Stone's Landing he'll be damned! You ought to know Jeff; he's one of the most enthusiastic engineers in this western country, and one of the best fellows that ever looked through the bottom of a glass.'

The recommendation was not undeserved. There was nothing that Jeff wouldn't do, to accommodate a friend, from sharing his last dollar with him, to winging him in a duel. When he understood from Col. Sellers. how the land lay at Stone's Landing, he cordially shook hands with that gentleman, asked him to drink, and fairly roared out, 'Why, God bless my soul, Colonel, a word from one Virginia gentleman to another is 'nuff ced.' There's Stone's Landing been waiting for a railroad more than four thousand years, and damme if she shan't have it.'''

Jeff Thompson and Senator Atchison

"The fever at length got tired of tormenting the stout young engineer, who lay sick at the hotel, and left him, very thin, a little sallow but an 'acclimated' man. Everybody said he was 'acclimated' now, and said it cheerfully. What it is to be acclimated to western fevers no two persons exactly agree.

Some say it is a sort of vaccination that renders death by some malignant type of fever less probable. Some regard it as a sort of initiation, like that into the Odd Fellows, which renders one liable to his regular dues thereafter. Others consider it merely the acquisition of a habit of taking every morning before breakfast a dose of bitters, composed of whiskey and assafoetida, out of the acclimation jug.

Jeff Thompson afterwards told Philip that he once asked Senator Atchison, then acting Vice-President of the United States, about the possibility of acclimation; he thought the opinion of the second officer of our great government would be valuable on this point. They were sitting together on a bench before a country tavern, in the free converse permitted by our democratic habits.

'I suppose, Senator, that you have become acclimated to this country?'

'Well,' said the Vice-President, crossing his legs, pulling his wide-awake down over his forehead, causing a passing chicken to hop quickly one side by the accuracy of his aim, and speaking with senatorial deliberation, 'I think I have. I've been here twenty-five years, and dash, dash my dash to dash, if I haven't entertained twenty-five separate and distinct earthquakes, one a year. The niggro is the only person who can stand the fever and ague of this region.'"

This last statement attributed to Atchison was not totally untrue. Malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax was a tremendous problem in the United States since it had been introduced by the Spanish conquistadors. One of the reasons that enslavement of West Africans was needed in the Southern agricultural economy was that the Africans lacked Duffy's antigen (a blood cell protein) and they were immune to vivax malaria. The parasite was denied a portal into their red blood cells. Sickle-cell trait also made black slaves resistant to the most virulent form of malaria caused by P. falciparum.

On drinking corn liquor properly

"Mr. Jeff Thompson, for it was the camp of this redoubtable engineer, gave the travelers a hearty welcome, offered them ground room in his own tent, ordered supper, and set out a small jug, a drop from which he declared necessary on account of the chill of the evening.

'I never saw an Eastern man,' said Jeff, 'who knew how to drink from a jug with one hand. It's as easy as lying. So.' He grasped the handle with the right hand, threw the jug back upon his arm, and applied his lips to the nozzle. It was an act as graceful as it was simple. 'Besides,' said Mr. Thompson, setting it down, 'it puts every man on his honor as to quantity.'"

Sing, sing a song, sing out loud, sing out strong

"Early to turn in was the rule of the camp, and by nine o'clock everybody was under his blanket, except Jeff himself, who worked awhile at his table over his field-book, and then arose, stepped outside the tent door and sang, in a strong and not unmelodious tenor, the Star Spangled Banner from beginning to end. It proved to be his nightly practice to let off the unexpended steam of his conversational powers, in the words of this stirring song.

It was a long time before Philip got to sleep. He saw the fire light, he saw the clear stars through the tree-tops, he heard the gurgle of the stream, the stamp of the horses, the occasional barking of the dog which followed the cook's wagon, the hooting of an owl; and when these failed he saw Jeff, standing on a battlement, mid the rocket's red glare, and heard him sing, 'Oh, say, can you see?' It was the first time he had ever slept on the ground."

Although a Star Spangled Banner singing Thompson may seem at odds with his Civil War career as a Confederate, he felt himself a loyal American.  Of his flag-lowering at the Post Office he remarked, "I had cut down the flag that I had once loved.  I had as yet drawn no blood from its defenders, but I was now determined to strike it down wherever I found it."

Getting There

From Frederick Avenue in St. Joseph, turn north onto Mt. Mora Rd, which is between 14th Street and 17th Street.  Once in the cemetery gates, take the first right and follow it up the hill to the triangle between Section B and Section L.

Every time that I have passed this gravesite, it is decorated with US flags.  Not sure why, unless they consider his antebellum career in the Missouri State Militia to be US service.  More and more I see the graves of staunch Confederates decorated with the US flag.  All I can say is that I don't like it, especially if their only military service was to the CSA.  The battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia has been appropriated by hate groups and has been banished from most public places.  Most Confederate soldiers never fought under that flag.  Most of them fought under their own state's flag, specially designed unit flag or the first national flag of the Confederacy.  The flags of 1864 and 1865 did incorporate the battle flag blue cross and white stars on a red background with a white or white and red field.   I have been known to plunk the CSA's first national flag down on a Confederate's grave when I can find them.  I guess that is my act of rebellion.

First National Flag of the Confederate States of America

Waypoint:  Latitude 39.775503 N; Longitude 94.841077 W

True West: Massacre Canyon

Massacre Canyon looking south towards the Republican River

A modern reinterpretation of the American West story is that Euro-Americans conquered paradise, introducing greed, waste and murder into a veritable Garden of Eden.  When I was growing up the picture was that Indians killed Euro-Americans without mercy and settlers always heroically fought off their tormentors, Indian and outlaw alike.  We like our stories to be black and white, complete with easy to identify good guys and bad guys.  No story is ever that clear cut, especially any story that includes humans.

East side of the memorial

We often refer to humans as a species in a way that makes it sound like we should function as a unit.  However, no species behaves that way.  The functional level of organization in biology is that of a population - nations, tribe, clan, village, state, or family.  We are programmed to be able to detect patterns of similarity and difference.  The more differences we can pick out, the more likely that we are to perceive a threat.  We are nice to those that are like us, but aggressive to those that are different.  Our stories are framed in such a way to dehumanize those that we think are different.  When we see "those people" with "things we need" we compete by seizing resources, mates, manpower and killing "what we don't need".  That is the way evolution works, and has played itself out over Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and South America for millenia.

Just east of Trenton, NE on US-34 stands a 35 feet tall obelisk of Minnesota pink granite with carvings of a Pawnee Indian chief (Ruling His Sun) and a Lakota Indian chief (John Grass/Charging Bear).  It is an odd thing to see in this part of the country, a monument to American Indians without obvious connection to white settlers or army.  The signs indicate that it marks Massacre Canyon.  Massacre?  Canyon? Where? Who? When?

The Pawnee

Ruling His Sun's (Pawnee) likeness

The Pawnee nation is comprised of four independent bands: Chaui (Grand); Kitkehaki (Republican); Pitahawirata (Tappage) and Skidi (Wolf).  Historic Pawnee lands were roughly south central Nebraska to north central Kansas.  The Skidi were the northernmost band.  The Pawnee language belongs to the Caddoan family of languages, which are spoken by peoples from present day Louisiana and Texas northwards to North Dakota.

The Pawnee lived in permanent settlements with large earth lodges that could house as many as 50 people from several related families.  Ancestry was matrilineal, being reckoned through the mother.  Upon marriage, the groom became part of the bride's family and marriages had to be outside of the mother's clan.  Men and women both had decision making roles.

Women were responsible for farming and maintaining seed stocks.  They planted ten varieties of corn, eight varieties of beans, and seven varieties of squashes and pumpkins.  The men provided the protein by seasonal hunts for buffalo, deer, elk, bear, rabbit, big cats and skunks.  The Pawnee would range far while hunting buffalo.  One buffalo would provide enough meat for one person for an entire year, plus uses were found for every other part of the animal from the sinews for thread, the bladder for a canteen, skins for clothing and shelter.  This became easier with the acquisition of horses.  The hunt lasted from late-June to early September.  When the hunt was finished, it was time to return to the village and harvest the corn.

Massacre Canyon looking north toward the start of the fighting

The geographically remote position of the Pawnee kept them from very much contact with Europeans until the 1830s, which protected them from population losses due to smallpox, cholera, measles and tuberculosis.  The Coronado expedition met a Pawnee chief in a Wichita village in 1541, but most contact was with the odd European trader.  The Pawnee were flexible and would make alliances as it suited their needs.  An alliance between Pawnee, Oto and French traders was responsible for dashing Spanish goals of eastward expansion from Mexico when allied forces defeated the forces of Lt. General Pedro de Villasur at present day Columbus, NE on 14 August 1720.  Eventually, the Pawnee would be threatened by encroachment from Siouan peoples being pushed westward by European expansion, and by the 1850s, their population had plummeted to about 30% of 1800 numbers.  The Lakota and Cheyenne became their most threatening enemies.

The Lakota

John Grass' (Lakota) likeness

The Lakota were part of what has come to be called the Sioux Indian Nation, along with the Santee and Yankton-Yanktonai.  They occupied the area that was roughly Minnesota, northern Iowa, western Wisconsin to the Dakotas by 1600.  By the late 1600s the Lakota were being pushed south and west by encroaching peoples from the east, as a consequence of European expansion on the continent.  Their mobility greatly increased upon obtaining horses from the Cheyenne in 1730, and pushed into the Dakotas as the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara populations collapsed due to smallpox, measles and cholera.

The Lakota also have a matrilineal society and the mother's family wields more influence over the young male than the father, much of the time.  Leadership was determined based on the mother's clan.  Upon marriage, the groom lives with the bride's family.  Women control food, resources and moveable property.  While males made the major life decisions for the tribe and served as traditional chiefs, they could not continue to exert influence without the support of the women.  Male roles were to protect the village, hunt, conduct warfare and politics.

Plains style tipi

Villages were mobile and the dwelling was the conical buffalo skin tipi.  Women owned the tipis and were responsible for their manufacture, care and upkeep.  They also made nearly every bit of clothing and utensils that were used in the household.  Women also raised the crops that were used by the tribe and they prepared the fish and game caught by the men.

The Buffalo

Buffalo hunt silhouettes at visitor center

Buffalo (Bison bison - the American bison) were a supermarket on the hoof - enough protein for one person for a year, source of clothing, shelter and all manner of tools from sewing needles to hoes.  The summer hunt would provide an immediate supply of fresh meat and dried meat could be used through the winter.  Buffalo historically occupied a huge range: From the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains and from the level of Great Bear Lake in Canada into Mexico.  Buffalo were still seen in North Carolina as late as 1750. The prairies of the Great Plains evolved with the dual grass and tree trimming action of fire and buffalo.

Buffalo enjoying a late afternoon graze in Yellowstone National Park

Hunting buffalo was a dangerous proposition.  Buffalo are large, standing nearly six feet tall at the shoulder and weighing in around one ton.  The largest wild buffalo measured weighed nearly 2800 pounds.  Despite their size, they are quick and agile, running up to 40 miles per hour and having a 6 foot vertical leap.  Coupled with the large herd sizes, hunting was very hazardous.  The hunters had the fastest, most athletic horses.  Several tactics, such as walking up on the herd dressed in animal skins were employed to pare out a small portion of the herd to hunt with fewer bodies.  If possible the buffalo would be herded towards and then stampeded over a steep incline called a buffalo jump.   Injured surviving animals could be killed using spears and arrows with reduced risk of injury to the hunters.

1870's pile of buffalo skulls for use as fertilizer

Commercial use of the buffalo increased pressure on the people that relied on them for food.  Buffalo hunters would hunt them for meat, but often just took the hides and/or tongues for use and left the rest of the carcass to rot.  Later, buffalo bone would be collected and ground into fertilizer.  Before 1800, there were about 60 million buffalo in North America, a number that dropped to less than 6 million by 1870, less than 400,000 by 1880 and less than 600 total by 1890. Mass extermination of the buffalo by commercial hunters and US Army policy could do no less than bring conflict between the peoples that relied on the buffalo for their livelihood.   This situation was reaching a critical point as more nations were pushed into the same geographic areas by Euro-American encroachment and seizure of territory, often in open violation of treaties.

Massacre Canyon

The events at Massacre Canyon were perhaps inevitable.  Encroachment of Lakota and Cheyenne into Pawnee territory and hunting grounds were intolerable to both groups.  The Lakota, Cheyenne and Pawnee all needed space and resource for their people, and things were getting crowded geographically.  Males of the Pawnee and Lakota culture built individual prestige and wealth through raids on villages of neighboring tribes and capture of horses.  The back and forth raids between the two led to intense hatred and open warfare in which even women and children became legitimate military targets.  The Pawnee allied with the United States and served as scouts and soldiers in the US Army, especially in campaigns against the Lakota and Cheyenne, which only heightened an already tense situation.

The US policy of forced removal pushed all of the Pawnee to a 10 mile x 30 mile reservation at the northern extreme of their range, along the Loup River in modern Nebraska.  This was accomplished by treaties in 1833, 1843, and 1857.  Under the conditions of these treaties, the Pawnee were to be allowed to conduct their summer hunt for buffalo, although white settlement meant that they had to travel farther and farther to accomplish the hunt. By 1873, they were pushed out along the Republican River in southwest Nebraska.  The site of the reservation was poorly considered by the US government, as it placed the Pawnee right in the path of Lakota coming down the Platte and Loup Rivers from Dakota.  Failure of the Army to protect the Pawnee from these raids coupled with a string of Quaker agents that preached nonviolence only angered and mystified the Pawnee.

During the 1873 hunting season, the Pawnee set toward the Republican River from the east with their hunting agent, John Williamson.  The youth (24 years) and inexperience of Williamson provided him with little stature and less knowledge in avoiding the coming conflict.  At the same time, the Cut-Off band of Oglala Lakota (subagent Antoine Janis) and a Brule Lakota group (subagent Stephen Estes) were working their way down the Republican from Colorado.  During the trip, the Lakota lost several horses and a man killed by Ute Indian raids.  On 03 August 1873, the Oglala discovered the Pawnee position.

Seeking a pre-emptive strike to prevent a repeat by the Pawnee of the Ute raids, the Oglala decided to attack the Pawnee.  When Janis was asked if he would allow the raid he basically said that they could not go into white settlements or onto the Pawnee reservation, but he had no instruction against a raid in the open country.  While Estes did not condone the raid, he was wholly ineffectual in dissuading the Brule from participating when invited by the Oglala.  A Lakota war party of about 1000 started moving down the Republican River towards Culbertson.

Ruling His Sun

On 04 August, a party of three white hunters informed Williamson and the Pawnee of the presence of a large body of Lakota warriors.  The head chief at the meeting, Sky Chief doubted that the Lakota were near, assuming that the hunters wanted the buffalo skins for themselves.  When Williamson tried to call off the hunt and head back to the reservation to avoid conflict, Sky Chief accused him of being a coward and a woman.  Williamson angrily replied that he would go as far that the chief dared to go.  Macho superseded good sense, especially as US Army protection failed to materialize.

On Tuesday 05 August, Sky Chief apologized for his harsh words, but still refused to send out scouts to look for the Lakota.  Buffalo were sighted in a canyon running northwest from the Republican River and the hunt commenced.  Several kills were made before the Lakota fell on the Pawnee from both sides of the canyon.  Sky Chief was one of the first Pawnee killed.  One thousand Lakota warriors made fairly short work of 350 Pawnee men and 350 women and children.  As the Pawnee retreated down the canyon, Lakota fired on them from both rims.  In the end, twenty Pawnee men, 39 women and 10 children were killed in the "battle".   It is thought that six Lakota were killed in the engagement. The loss for the Pawnee was severe.  The meat they needed, the skins, tents, cookware and 10% of their party killed - everything was gone.  They had to abandon belongings and their dead and flee for their lives.

Sky Chief, 1868

"The following morning August 5, we broke camp and started north, up the divide between the Republican and the Frenchman Rivers. Soon after leaving camp, Sky Chief rode up to me and extending his hand said, 'Shake, brother.' He recalled our little unpleasantness the night previous and said he did not believe there was cause for alarm, and was so impressed with the belief that he had not taken the precaution to throw out scouts in the direction the Sioux were reported to be. A few minutes later a buffalo scout signaled that buffaloes had been sighted in the distance, and Sky Chief rode off to engage in the hunt. I never saw him again. He had killed a buffalo and was skinning it when the advance guard of the Sioux shot and wounded him. The Chief attempted to reach his horse, but before he was able to mount, several of the enemy surrounded him. He died fighting. A Pawnee, who was skinning a buffalo a short distance away, but managed to escape, told me how Sky Chief died." - John Williamson

John Grass (Charging Bear) 1880s

Despite being informed of the attack by Williamson and three Pawnee chiefs, a search of the area by the army failed to turn up the Lakota.  It seems likely that the Army detachment of 52 thought it poor odds to fight 1000 well armed Lakota and did not push the issue.   Estes and Janis would eventually regain most of the Pawnee captured by the Brule and Oglala.  The Pawnee would return to their reservation but briefly.  It is often said that the Pawnee were so discouraged after the battle that they asked to be relocated to a new reservation in Indian Territory.  The real story is that the US government sold off Pawnee reservation land to homesteaders after Nebraska was made a state.  The proceeds from these sales were used to buy land for a Pawnee reservation in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and to relocate the Pawnee in 1876.  Tensions between the US and the Lakota would culminate in the Indian Wars of the late 1800s.  In the end, the Lakota would end up on reservations and having to abandon their traditional nomadic lifestyle, as well.

The Memorial

Spotted Tail (Brule)

As the 50th anniversary of the battle approached, the locals decided to have a commemoration of the event.  In 1923, residents sponsored a Pow-Wow with Lakota survivors of the Massacre Canyon incident.  The Massacre Canyon Pow-Wow was an annual event until the 1950s.  The first time the Pawnee attended was in 1925 and they refused to meet with the Lakota until the second day of the Pow-Wow.  After 50 years, the hurt still ran that deep.  In the obituary of Ruling His Sun it is stated that it was difficult to restrain Ruling His Sun from violence when he learned that Sioux were at the 50th anniversary commemoration of the battle on the old Pawnee reservation.  This is understandable since one of Ruling His Sun's wives and at least one child were killed in the ambush.

This marker was dedicated on 26 September 1930 and stood on the side of US-34 at the mouth of the canyon about 1 mile south of the current location.  As the highway was realigned, the monument was moved to its current location in 1951.  The monument indicates that this was the last battle between the Pawnee and Lakota (Sioux).  Others assert that it was the largest and last engagement between two American Indian Nations.  To some it serves as a monument to "forgiveness" and "peace".  To me it causes one to remember that outside forces sometime conspire to bring about conflict that would not have otherwise existed and that individual actions can cause consequences that ripple out for generations.

Getting There

Little Wound (Oglala)

The monument is in a roadside pull-out along US-34 just between Trenton and Culbertson, NE.  It's the big rock column (ok, obelisk) with the Indian faces on it.

Waypoint:  40.206405 N; 100.965038 W

Further Reading

The Battle of Massacre Canyon

Ruling His Sun obituary

Across the Fence: Massacre Canyon

Sun Chief (Pawnee)

Two Strikes (Brule)

Is that a cannon in your pocket, or are you happy to see me?: General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson Shrine

Ben stands next to a cannon at Spotsylvania.

When we went to Quantico, VA to see Christian's graduation from Marine Corps Officer Candidates School and his commissioning as a second lieutenant in March 2015, Ben and I wanted to see some Civil War sites.  In Virginia, it is almost impossible to swing a dead cat without hitting a marker about the US Civil War.  We stayed at Fredericksburg the first night in the DC area and were in the middle of the overlapping battlefields of Fredericksburg (December 1862), Chancellorsville (May 1863), Wilderness (May 1864) and Spotsylvania Courthouse (May 1864).

A common assumption in American thinking is that one person does not an organization make.  In the extreme, that is true, but it may take one person to serve as the glue that holds an organization together.  Strange though he was, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was a man that understood orders issued in polite Southern speech.  He was the man that brought Robert E. Lee's battle plan to fruition, and it is often argued that the friendly-fire death of General Jackson was the beginning of the end for the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate States of America.  Because of his position in Civil War history, Ben and I decided that we'd like to see the house in which Gen. Jackson died.

Thomas Jackson

Jackson was a "self-made" man, working his way up in the world despite a difficult childhood.  Jackson's parents were Jonathan Jackson, an attorney and Julia Jackson.  The family plunged into poverty when typhoid struck the family when Thomas was two.  The death of Jackson's father and sister left Julia a widow at 28 with four children to care for, including a newborn.  Julia refused family charity, sold off their possessions, moved into a small cabin, and took in laundry and taught school to earn a living.  Thomas' mother married Blake Woodson in 1830, but he did not like her children.  As the family continued to struggle financially and Julia's health declined during pregnancy, the family was split up among the relatives of Jonathan Jackson and Julia.  This arrangement became permanent with the death of Julia Woodson in 1831.

Thomas Jackson in US Army uniform

Sent first to Jackson's Mill and his Uncle Cummins Jackson, after four years Thomas was sent to his Aunt Polly's.  After enduring verbal abuse from Aunt Polly's husband, Isaac Brake, Thomas ran away and found his way back to the grist mill.  He developed a hard work ethic on the farm, attended classes when possible and read when he could.  Eventually he earned his keep by teaching school, before gaining admission to the US Military Academy at West Point.

Starting out last in his class. largely due to his lack of formal preparation for the strenuous curriculum, he worked his way up to 17th in a class of 59 in 1846.  Commissioned a second lieutenant in the US Army, his aggressive use of artillery during the Mexican-American war led first to a promotion to full lieutenant and a brevet commission as major.

Jackson returned to teaching school as a Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and instructor of artillery at Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, VA in 1851.  A poor lecturer, he memorized his lectures. showed an inability to deviate from that narrative on the fly and considered students who asked the same question twice to be insubordinate. Although he lacked the respect of students at that time, and was poor in the lecture room, he was a military visionary.  The artillery curriculum that he developed at VMI before the Civil War stressed discipline,  mobility, efficient use of artillery supported by an infantry assault, and discovering enemy strength and intention without giving away one's own plans.  These ideas are still taught to military students, as they are essential regardless of weapons development.

Lt. Gen. Thos. Jackson  24 Apr 1863

Application of these ideas to the Confederate cause in the service of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War earned "Stonewall" Jackson the respect of soldiers that he lacked from his students.  His performance at battlefields such as Manassas (First and Second), Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville made Jackson a must study commander for all American military officers since.  His disciplined approach in battle failed him seldom and his campaigns forced much larger Union armies to be held out to defend Washington, D.C.  Over 150 years have passed since his death and he still ranks as one of the all-time great American military leaders.

The Death of "Stonewall"

During the Battle of Chancellorsville, Lee decided to divide his forces and try to flank the Army of the Potomac and its new commander, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker.  Jackson's forces entered The Wilderness on 2 May 1863 in an attempt to find the Union right and rear.  Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry was successful in probing the Union lines, and Jackson marched his II Corps through the dense growth, catching the Union Army unawares.  Charging from just a few hundred feet from Union forces, Jackson rolled up the Union right.  Only nightfall brought an end to infantry action.  Artillery barrages would continue through the night to the next day.

Fairfield plantation office

As Jackson returned to camp with his staff, pickets from the 18th North Carolina Infantry mistook them for Union forces and fired on them before they could answer the sentry's challenge.  Even after Jackson's staff identified themselves, the North Carolinians, suspecting a Union trick fired a second volley.  In the end, Jackson suffered three wounds: two in the left arm and one in the right hand.  At least one other staff member was killed and another wounded.  The worst of Jackson's wounds broke the humerus (upper arm bone) and severed the brachial artery of the left arm.  Jackson was helped from his horse, nearly fainting in the process, and a tourniquet was applied to the general's left arm by his aide-de-camp.

Site of Fairfield directly across from the office

In the end, delayed medical care probably doomed Jackson.  At first, his men tried to walk Jackson out, but Union artillery fire slowed their progress.  He was dropped from his stretcher, and progress to a field hospital was very slow, even after reaching an ambulance.  At the Chancellor House, Dr. Hunter McGuire, chief surgeon of Jackson's corps, took charge of the general's care.  McGuire observed that Jackson's uniform was saturated with blood because the upper wound was still bleeding and so the doctor readjusted the tourniquet.  Without this care, the general would likely have been dead within 10 minutes.   Given the extent of the injuries and owing to the loss of a lot of blood , McGuire found little to do but amputate Jackson's left arm.

General Jackson's deathbed

After surgery, Jackson appeared to be in good spirits, engaging in conversation and sending for his wife to be with him as he convalesced.  Lee, fearing that the field hospital would be overrun by Union forces, ordered Jackson's evacuation to Guinea Station on May 4th to the south and east of the battlefield. This was a major staging area for Lee's forces and Hooker's forces had torn up the track to the south, cutting Lee's supply lines.  This would be an ideal point for departure to Richmond, once repairs could be made to the railroad.   Pioneers were deployed to remove obstructions and smoothen the road. The journey over the rough roads was difficult, taking about 12 hours to move the 27 miles from the field hospital.   "Fairfield", owned by Thomas Chandler was offered for Jackson's recuperation.  The general chose the plantation office for his quarters, not wanting to unhouse the family.   This was for the best as Dr. McGuire discovered that a patient already housed in Fairfield had a contagious disease.

Dr. McGuire's couch in the sickroom

At first, it seemed that the general would recover.  McGuire limited visitors and Jackson slept well through the first night.  Rev. Beverley Tucker Lacy held a prayer service at Jackson's bedside the following day, which comforted Stonewall greatly.  Rev. Lacy retrieved Jackson's left arm and buried it in the family cemetery at Lacy's brother's house, Ellwood.  McGuire went to sleep in an adjacent room that night, thinking the general was recovering.

At about 1 AM, Jackson was feeling nauseated and asked his servant to put wet cloths on his side, which had been in pain since shortly after the amputation.  When Jackson finally allowed McGuire to be awakened, the doctor found his patient exhibiting classic symptoms of pneumonia.  Mrs. Jackson arrived with their baby daughter and seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation quickly.  Jackson would sink into delirium, then recover and talk to his wife and hold his daughter, then the cycle would start again.   On 10 May, he was informed by his wife that the doctors thought that he would die that day.  Consulting with Dr. McGuire, Jackson said "Very good.  Very good.  It is all right."  The reverent Jackson thought it proper to die on a Sunday.

The view from the upstairs

Jackson's condition deteriorated through the day, and he sunk into a final delirium.    After preparing for one last battle in his dreams, he said "Let us pass over the river and rest under the shade of the trees."  He died at about 3:15 PM.

His death was a hard blow to the Confederacy, and Lee would never be able to find another subordinate that understood his orders and provide balance to the more defensive-minded Longstreet. Jackson laid in state in Richmond, VA, where thousands filed past his coffin in the capitol rotunda.  His remains were then transported by train to Lexington, VA where he had taught school at VMI.  He was buried in what is now Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery.

Soon after his death and the end of the Civil War, the Chandler farm, Jackson's grave, the burial site of his arm and the site of his wounding were marked and visited by a stream of people.   The Chandler farm was visited by none other than Union General Ulysses S. Grant during the 1864 campaign.  In 1911, the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad, owners of the property, decided to dismantle all but the building where Gen. Jackson died, as the plantation had fallen into disrepair.  It was the railroad that gave the site the name "Stonewall Jackson Shrine".  In 1937, the property was sold to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, which is currently part of the National Parks system.  The care of the site is evident.  About 40% of the building material in the shrine is original, many of the furnishings, including the deathbed and a bed cover, are original.  The marker at the site is one of a dozen similar markers placed by James Power Smith (Jackson's aide-de-camp) in 1903 commemorating Jackson, Lee and John Pelham.

Nadienne and the kids viewing the markers.

Disease and war

Civil War field hospital

The experience of Stonewall Jackson is not uncommon among soldiers in war.  The ratio of soldier's deaths due to disease compared to battle wounds was 7:1 in the Mexican-American War; 2:1 in the Civil War and 5:1 in the Spanish-American War.  These deaths were caused by a variety of illnesses.  Some of them, such as typhoid fever and dysentery were linked to poor sanitary conditions.  Others were due to parasitic infections, such as worms and malaria.  Diseases spread by respiratory droplets were also common: smallpox, measles and pneumonia.  Lack of sterilization procedures meant that many wounds became gangrenous or the patients contracted septicemia (blood poisoning).  A weakened post-operative patient exposed to patients with pneumonia would very likely contract pneumonia themselves.

Studies and work by health care professionals such as Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War were instrumental in halting the spread of disease in camps.  Many campaigns were lost in the end because of disease.  Typhus defeated Napoleon in Russia to a greater extent than any army.  Crusaders were turned out of Palestine more by dysentery than any other factor.  The first army to suffer more deaths from battle wounds than disease were the Germans in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.

Getting There

Your best bet is to check one of the websites and follow detour signs at present.  The most direct way to the shrine is blocked by a washed out bridge at present.

Waypoint: Latitude: 38.147864 N; Longitude: 77.4423529 W
Street Address:  12023 Stonewall Jackson Road, Woodford, VA 22580

Hours for the Stonewall Jackson Shrine change seasonally, so it is best to consult the website for updates.

Further Reading

The Curious Fate of Stonewall Jackson's Arm

The Death of Jackson

Virtual Tour Stonewall Jackson Shrine

Stonewall Jackson Shrine Web Page

Disease and Death in the Civil War

Office building from the parking lot.