Tonight I will be speaking the Fincastle Rifles Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp about the portrait and the resulting controversy and outcome of these events.
On August
19, 2015, Judge Martin F. Clark, Jr. took down the portrait of Confederate
Major General James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart in the Stuart, Virginia,
courthouse, where he presides. A few weeks later on August 31, Clark held his
last book signing for his new book The
Jezebel Remedy in Patrick County at Meadows of Dan. Two days after his book
signing, he released a four page statement announcing he had taken the portrait
down and his reasoning that was basically “someone” complained about it due to
the fact Stuart fought for slavery and an African-American might feel they
could not get a fair trial in a courtroom, which also held a portrait of
Patrick Henry, for whom Patrick County is named. Henry was a much larger slave
owner than Stuart and his portrait still hangs on the wall of the courtroom.
Confederate symbols came under increased public scrutiny in
the summer of 2015 after the June 17 massacre of nine black worshippers at a
church in Charleston, South Carolina. Subsequently, South Carolina Governor
Nikki Haley caved into political correctness and worked to remove the
Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds in Columbia even though there was
a law in place to prevent such an action.
Oscar winning actress Julianne Moore
called for the name of the high school she attended to change its name a few
weeks before Clark took down the portrait. The name was J. E. B. Stuart High
School, located in Fairfax, Virginia, which in 1861 had been the site of a camp
Stuart occupied in the early days of the War Between the States. The school
became one of the most diverse high schools in the United States.
At
Hillsville, Virginia’s, giant Labor Day flea market a few weeks after the
portrait came down, I was selling books. Almost everyone who came into my tent
wanted to talk about “Jeb” Stuart and “PORTRAITGATE.” No one supported the
removal of the portrait from the Patrick County Courthouse.
One of
those who came into my tent was Ed Turner III, who shared some interesting
information with me. I know there is information in my papers at Virginia Tech,
but I have not had time to visit to go through all that and my memory is not
what it once was on all things J. E. B. Stuart. That is why I wrote books about
it. Ed’s father, Edward Turner, Jr., was Patrick County Administrator in the
1970s and in my thirty years of research I have come across his name often in
his efforts to preserve Patrick County history including efforts to save
Stuart’s Birthplace in the 1970s.
After all the controversy surrounding the portrait of
“Jeb” Stuart, I made a trip to the Bassett Historical Center, our regional
history and genealogy library, to have a look in the files. Here is what I
found after about an hour of research.
On
Monday, February 7, 1972, the day before was James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart’s
139th birthday, the newly formed Patrick County Historical Society
presented the “People of Patrick County” a portrait of Stuart dressed as a
Major General in the Confederate States of America’s Army of Northern Virginia.
Judge John D. Hooker accepted the portrait saying, “I think it is well, indeed,
that one of the first things the Patrick County Historical Society is doing is
placing on the walls of this courtroom the portrait of one of Patrick County’s
greatest.” Judge Hooker stated that he “cherished” the fact that the portrait
of his father was hung on a wall with J. E. B. Stuart, who was “a young man who
made a tremendous contribution to a cause that he considered to be just.”
The
portrait was the work of Ellen D. Stuart, a relative of J. E. B. Stuart. She
completed the watercolor in 1889 and referred to in this document as the
portrait. It was a copy of an earlier
painting that was a gift to Flora Cooke Stuart, widow of J. E. B. Stuart, from
Major Heroes von Borcke, a Prussian, who served on Stuart’s staff during the
War Between the States. The original painting went to the descendants of Flora
and J. E. B. Stuart’s daughter Virginia Pelham Stuart Waller.
The portrait made its way to the Stuart Normal College in
Stuart, Virginia. The school started in 1906 and “The portrait of General
Stuart graced this auspicious occasion.” The portrait then made its way to
Stuart High School in the 1920s, but was not hung that anyone in 1972 could
remember. Next, the portrait graced the walls of the J. E. B. Stuart Inn,
formerly the Perkins Hotel, in uptown Stuart today. The hotel burned, but the portrait was not a
casualty. The portrait disappeared after that for many years.
Many people worked tirelessly to find the portrait and
get it in condition to hang in the courthouse. Judge Hooker pointed out that
Mrs. N. C. Terry, mother of Mary Sue Terry, former Attorney General of the
Commonwealth of Virginia, provided “invaluable assistance” in tracing the
whereabouts of the portrait. Mrs. Terry corresponded with Miss Sidney Penn, a
descendant of Abram Penn, who was the last surviving teacher at the Stuart
Normal College. Miss Lula West, nursed in France during World War I was another
that gave information on the portrait.
Murray Thompson, publisher of The Enterprise, Patrick
County’s weekly newspaper, contacted Edward Turner, Jr. about the portrait and
the search began. Turner and Stuart Elementary School Principal Calvin Shockley
found the portrait in a storage trailer at the school.
The portrait went to Remsen Studio in Martinsville,
Virginia for a restoration paid for by the Patrick County Historical Society
and J. E. B. Stuart Senior Woman’s Club. Turner said the restored painting was
a “real beauty” making a joke about J. E. B. Stuart’s nickname at West Point,
where his classmates called him “Beauty,” which was not a term of endearment.
That Monday night in 1972, Miss Ruth Jean Bolt of Meadows
of Dan presided over the meeting as Mrs. Terry could not be present. The
speaker that night was Samuel R. Levering, who owned Levering’s Orchard in
Ararat. A lifelong “Quaker,” Levering
represented the Friends Committee on National Legislation. He spoke that night
to 100 people on the “world situation and Vietnam.”
Judge Hooker hung the portrait in the Circuit Courtroom near
the portrait of his father James Murray Hooker, who represented Patrick County
in the Fifth District in the U. S. House of Representatives in a newly
renovated courtroom in 1972. Another portrait hanging is of Judge Andrew Murray
Lybrook (1832-99) and Patrick Henry.
Now a little history about Stuart and the town that bears
his name today. Patrick County formed in 1790-91 depending on which source one
believes. The county seat named Taylorsville, after George Taylor, a hero of
the American Revolution, was usually known as Patrick Court House in most of
the contemporary letters I have read over the years.
It
became Stuart in 1884 during the heyday of the “Lost Cause” after the Civil War
to honor General J. E. B. Stuart (1833-64). Born at the Laurel Hill Farm in
Ararat, Stuart served as Robert E. Lee’s cavalry commander in the Army of
Northern Virginia. Stuart served in the U. S. Army for seven years, mainly in
the Kansas Territory, after graduating from the United States Military Academy
at West Point, New York in 1854. He resigned as a Captain in the 1st U. S.
Cavalry. Stuart joined the Confederacy and rose to the rank of Major General serving
under Lee before losing his life on May 12, 1864. He rests today in that city’s
Hollywood Cemetery.
In
1936, the statue of a Confederate Veteran was placed on the courthouse grounds in
Stuart, Virginia, with a plaque on the base honoring J. E. B. Stuart. The
statue is not Stuart, but represents all the men from “The Free State of
Patrick,” who served in the war fought from 1861 to 1865.
Several years ago at one of my myriad of book signings, a
gentleman approached my table and looked at the book God’s Will Be Done: The Christian Life of J. E. B. Stuart. He said
to me that he did not see how anyone who fought for slavery could be a
Christian. A fair question for someone who sees the world through today’s
standards, but when you judge people in the past by your standards that is
simply not fair.
I have seen the term “fair” bandied about with regards to
the removal of the portrait from the Patrick County Courthouse. There was a
judgement on the man in the portrait, James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart, because
of his service in the Army of Northern Virginia as Robert E. Lee’s cavalry commander
and how it was not potentially fair to those the descendants of the slaves
freed by that war.
In 1988, I began thinking seriously about preserving the
birthplace of the man in question. I became interested in the War Between the
States at Virginia Tech, where I studied under renowned Historian James I.
Robertson, Jr. I spent several year learning about my fellow Patrick Countian,
“Jeb” Stuart. I devoted the next few years of my life to study and eventually I
traveled all over the nation visiting nearly every place Stuart lived or served
going as far west as Fort Davis, Texas, near El Paso, and to West Point, New
York, where he graduated from the United States Military Academy before serving
seven years in the U. S. Army. I have been to every library or society that had
Stuart materials and read or transcribed every letter, telegraph, report, and
known communication of the man in question.
In 1990, I started the effort to preserve the site of his
birthplace in Ararat, Patrick County, Virginia, where he was born on February
6, 1833, the eighth of eleven children to Archibald Stuart. Archibald served as
Commonwealth Attorney, the same position held by Martin F. Clark, Sr., an
interesting dynamic of fathers and sons in this is not lost on me as both Stuarts
and both Clark’s were lawyers. Stuart passed the bar while in Kansas in the
1850s, and the other three all practiced law in the same courtroom where the
painting hung until August.
I wished to preserve the property that is now on the
National and Virginia Registers of Historic Places because it was an important
piece of historic property nationally and an important part of Patrick County’s
history. I grew up two miles from Stuart’s birthplace, Laurel Hill, and thus it
was part of my history.
I wanted to preserve the property because J. E. B. Stuart
did not have a single place in the country devoted to his history. He wrote
often of his love for what he called “The Dear Old Hills of Patrick” and wished
to return to it if he survived the war fought from 1861-65. He resigned to
fight for Patrick County and Virginia. He was a man of his time and the pull of
home and hearth was more important to him.
Stuart
witnessed firsthand the radicalism of John Brown and the Abolitionists at
Harper’s Ferry in 1859, when he approached the firehouse door to demand the
surrender of Brown. Only Stuart recognized Brown from his time in the Kansas
Territory in the 1850s. Stuart abhorred Abolitionists and the “Fire Eaters,”
who wanted secession, but if Virginia left the Union, he would go with her.
Brown’s raid, I believe, changed his viewpoint. I do not believe he saw a way
out of the impending crisis.
I have seen it stated this week that Stuart did not own
slaves. He and his father owned slaves. During his time in the U. S. Army,
Stuart owned slaves. Among them were William, who Stuart gave a $25.00 monthly
cash allowance, Bettie, who Stuart acquired from Archibald’s estate was valued
at $770. He sold her “south” for mistreatment of little Flora, Stuart’s
daughter. He bought a “Negro boy” age 21 named Ben for $1100.00.
Today, you can go to Laurel Hill in Ararat and you will
see slavery talked of in the open with no effort to cover it up or the Stuart’s
relationship to it. It was there. It was part of that time. We should learn
from it and not judge people. We cannot walk in their shoes or understand their
lives unless we do it with empathy not judgement.
Getting
back to the question the man asked me all those years ago. How does a Christian
own slaves or fight for slavery? J. E. B. Stuart grew up in a house with a
Presbyterian father and a very “High Church” Episcopalian mother. He attended
services in Mount Airy, North Carolina, at the forerunner of today’s Trinity
Episcopal Church on Main Street. While at Emory and Henry College, he joined
the Methodist Church. While in the U. S. Army, Stuart returned to the church of
his mother. I believe a man can be a Christian because he lived in a different
time with a different set of values.
Stuart lived his faith. He saw firsthand the role that
alcohol ruined lives in the U. S. Army and was a “Temperance Man” giving
speeches about the evil of alcohol abuse. He promised his mother at age twelve
he would not drink.
Stuart put his money where his faith was. He started a
church in today’s Junction City, Kansas, just outside his post at Fort Riley.
He sent his mother $100 to match him and start a small church in Ararat, which
she did leaving an acre of her property for such a purpose when she sold it in
1859.
Stuart witnessed about his faith. He attended revivals
and bought his men copies of the scriptures from his own pocket. He always
ascribed his military success to God in reports and letters. Here is one such
statement, "From the first I prayed God to be my guide and I felt an abiding
hope that all would be well with us.”
As he
laying dying in Richmond on May 12, 1864, at his brother-in-law’s home on Grace
Street, after receiving a wound from one of George Custer’s cavalrymen, he
faced his death with the quiet grace of a true Christian. He sang Rock of Ages
with those present and left this world with the last words, “God’s Will Be
Done.” I believe Stuart did not fear death because he was a true believer. He
believed he was right in his course and he gave his life for Virginia and for
Patrick County.
Many people disagreed with the decision to remove the
portrait. I do not think it was the right decision, but all of you who talk
about being Christians while disparaging Martin Clark or his family members who
have been just as bad online threatening revenge on people criticizing those in
this country who have every right to criticize the decision, need to step back
take a deep breath and think about “What Would Jesus Do?” and maybe what would
a real Christian do, “What Would Jeb Do?”
This
our history and we need to leave politics and personal attacks out of this on
this Sunday. Maybe we should stop and think about our behavior and if you
profess to be a Christian as Jeb Stuart most assuredly was while being also a
man of his time. You should live it and do not just talk about it. It is not
our place to judge J. E. B. Stuart.
A
protest led by my friend, Wayne Jones of South Carolina, who portrays General
Stuart across the country, was held on the courthouse steps and two days later
the Patrick County Board of Supervisors decided to hang the portrait on the
“Wall of Honor,” which recognizes the service of the men from Patrick County,
who lost their lives fighting in the myriad of wars this nations has fought.
I
encouraged people to watch a documentary from my website about Stuart produced
by Henrico County and read about Stuart before speaking about him. I encouraged
them to speak with knowledge of Stuart and the war he gave his life in and to
speak with respect about those who do not agree with their point of view. I
thought it was a teachable moment.
A few
weeks ago I went for my biannual visit to my alma mater Patrick County High
School, as I have for a decade now, to teach Civil War to all the 11th
grade U. S. History classes. I spoke of the controversy surrounding the
portrait, but that will not get in the newspapers or be on television, but I
hope it gets in the brains of the next generation, where if this history is to
survive, it needs to be remembered.
Tom Perry
www.freestateofpatrick.com
Sources:
The Bull Mountain Bugle
2/2/1972The Enterprise 2/2/1972
Martinsville Bulletin 2/3/1972, 2/11/1972
The Dear Old Hills of Patrick: J. E. B. Stuart and Patrick County Virginia by Thomas D. Perry
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