Our Namesakes

General Robert E. Lee is one of the most noblest Americans ever.  He was the son of George Washington's cavalry commander Gen. Henry 'Light Horse Harry' Lee and Ann Hill Carter Lee of Shirley.  Lee married Mary Anna Custis of Arlington House, the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington (wife of George Washington)  Robert E. Lee was a distinguished cadet at West Point, a Mexican American War Hero and Superintendent of West Point.  At the outbreak of the Civil War, Lee was offered command of the Union Armies, but chose to resign his command rather than murder his fellow Virginians who sided with the Southern States after President Lincoln's call for military invasion and War.  Like most Virginians, he had hoped to avoid a war that tore apart a country that his father helped found and his uncles had signed the Declaration of Independence to achieve.  As arguably one of the Confederacy's most successful military leaders, he was eventually forced to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox whereupon he became an advocate for reconciliation and rebuilding which culminated with his presidency of what would become Washington & Lee University located just miles from Lee-Jackson Memorial Park.  Lee is buried in the Lee Chapel upon the campus grounds.

"There stands Jackson like a stonewall, rally behind the Virginians" General Bernard Bee.  Thomas J. Jackson was born to much more humble beginnings than his "model partner" in battle Robert E. Lee.  Jackson was from the western part of Virginia in Clarksburg (now West Virginia).  His father left the family destitute upon his death when Jackson was only three and his mother was unable to properly care for him and his sister, so he was sent to live with an uncle at Jackson's Mill.  He had somewhat of a rambunctious upbringing and was poorly prepared when he was accepted into U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  Jackson persevered by shear determination to graduate according to one of his favorite maxims "you may be whatever you resolve to be."   Jackson served in the U.S. Army and was a Mexican War Hero.  He later resigned his commission and became an instructor at the relatively new Virginia Military Academy in Lexington, Virginia where he married his first wife Elinor Junkin the daughter of nearby Washington College President George Junkin.  "Ellie" unfortunately died in childbirth along with Jackson's stillborn son which was a devastating blow.  Jackson had become a devout Presbyterian and three years later would marry a minister's daughter, Marry Anna Morrison.  Soon thereafter, Jackson was ordered to take the VMI Cadets to Richmond with the outbreak of hostilities.  Like Robert E. Lee, Jackson was not a secessionist, but he answered the call to his native state when war became inevitable.  Jackson earned his famous nickname at the 1st Battle of Manassas and would command great-success and fame in his Shenanadoah Valley Campaign.  He became Lee's right-hand man and one can only speculate how the war may have turned out had he not fallen to wounds received from friendly-fire at the Battle of Chancellorsville.  Jackson had one final joy in life which was seeing his newborn daughter Julia Laura Jackson prior to the battle and just prior to his death.