Stonewall's Stay at The Jackson Rose
The most striking historical aspect of the house is that for a brief period at the beginning of the Civil War it served as Stonewall Jacksons headquarters. This was in the spring of 1861, before Jackson earned himself the nickname Stonewall at the first battle of Manassas, or Bull Run.
|Lee had assigned Colonel Jackson, then an instructor at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, to whip a bunch of Confederate volunteers into shape. Those volunteers later became known as the famous Stonewall Brigade. Jackson came to Harpers Ferry in April of 1861, setting up his headquarters in this very house, his room the front bedroom on the second floor. While in it, he wrote his wife a charming letter telling her, I have a nice, green yard, and if you were only here how much we could enjoy it together! But do not attempt to come as before you could get here I might be ordered elsewhere. My chamber is on the second story and the roses climb even to that height, and come into my window, so that I have to push them out, when I want to lower it. I wish you could see with me the beautiful roses in the yard and garden, and upon the wall of the house here; but my sweet little sunny face is what I want to see most of all!|
|The rose to which he referred, a very fragrant pink climbing rose, still thrives, and has ever since been known locally as the Jackson Rose. When we first arrived at the house, the rose bush had taken over the right corner of our front yard. It had been moved there, away from the house, during the 1971 renovations in order to protect it from harm. We have since transplanted the bush to the arbor at our front walk, and can attest that The Jackson Rose is a hearty plant that will surely survive us all.|
|Among Jacksons well-known traits and eccentricities: he sucked on lemons (and managed to get them even during the fiercest times of war) he believed they aided in digestion and assuaged his dyspepsia, as did standing up during and after eating meals. He often ate little more than dry cornbread during wartime to calm his stomach. He was convinced that one side of his body was heavier than the other and he often rode with one arm held up in the air to balance them out. Jackson was famously rigid in religious and other ways. He memorized his lectures at VMI word for word from the textbook. If a student asked a question Jackson would merely begin the lecture over from the beginning. He had a tender side, too. He addressed his wife with sweet Spanish endearments hed adopted while in Mexico. He started a Sunday school for black slaves in Lexington when it was considered illegal to do so. During the war, he made sure his wifes long-time slaves were safe and taken care of with money, food and shelter. In war he dropped off to sleep at the oddest times sometimes in the saddle in the middle of battle. But the man could fight. Jackson does not know fear! a brother officer said of him. A graduate of West Point, he had come to the attention of his superiors in the Mexican war of 1848. During the Civil War he became legend.|
|Jackson left this house on June 18, 1861.|