New Market Echoes Page 2

New Market Echoes

By Richard Lewis

The statue was sent to Lexington from Rome and was placed on the parade ground in front of the Jackson Arch in 1903. In 1912 it was moved to its present location, at which time the bodies of the six cadets were buried beneath it. Among the remains are those of Cadet Thomas G. Jefferson. Fittingly, the hands in which he died were the same that crafted the memorial atop his final resting place--those of Sir Moses Ezekiel.

Every May 15th, VMI observes the anniversary of the Battle of New Market with a moving ceremony in front of Ezekiel's statue. In full-dress uniform, the VMI senior class stands at attention facing the parade ground as the class roll is called. The names of the ten cadets killed at New Market are inserted alphabetically into the roll, and when one of their names is called, a designated cadet answers, "Died on the field of honor."

Another icon of New Market, one with its own intriguing story and creator, is the beautiful mural of the cadet charge which graces VMI's Jackson Memorial Hall. Completed in 1914, the artist was Benjamin West Clinedinst, VMI class of 1880. By the turn of the century, Clinedinst had established a fine reputation as a portrait artist and was living in New York City. Approached by a fellow alumnus and asked to create the mural, Clinedinst agreed to accept the commission at no fee.

The mural became a labor of love for the artist as he painstakingly researched every aspect of the charge of the cadets. Clinedinst came to Lexington and had members of the VMI corps don reproduction wartime uniforms and pose with broomsticks and shovels for guns. He and his son, Wendel, took VMI cadets to the scene of the charge at New Market and photographed them running across the field and up the hill, noting the attitudes of their figures as they slipped, tripped and fell.

After preliminary studies were completed, Clinedinst began painting on three-foot sections of Belgian canvas. The completed work measures 23 feet high and 18 feet wide and is one of the country's largest canvas paintings. Originally mounted in the old Jackson Hall, the painting was moved under the supervision of Clinedinst to its present location in 1917.

That would have presumably ended Clinedinst's active association with the mural were it not for the fact that his son Wendel volunteered for service in World War I. Wendel had served as the model for the figure of a cadet seen in the painting reeling backwards from a gunshot wound to the head. As Wendel departed for Europe, Clinedinst dreamed that his son would die in battle and, determined to remove Wendel's face from the mural, traveled again to Lexington.

Late one night, a cadet sentry noticed a light inside Jackson Memorial Hall. Entering, he found Clinedinst on a platform, pallet and brush in hand, about to paint over his son's image. Gen. Nichols, the superintendent, was summoned and persuaded the aged artist to return to his hotel. Nichols' success was short-lived, however, as later that night an agonizing Clinedinst again returned to the painting. Again, Nichols remonstrated with the artist, assuring him that no harm would come to the son.

Benjamin Clinedinst returned to New York and the painting remained intact. So did Wendel Clinedinst, who returned intact following the conclusion of World War I. In fact, the younger Clinedinst was forever proud that his face graced the mural his father painted, returning as late as the 1970's to see it.

The largest Lexington vestige of the Battle of New Market is Jackson Memorial Hall itself, though only related to that battle by a tangent line.

Later in the summer of 1864, another Union force moved southward through the valley. This force was commanded by Gen. David Hunter, at best a third-rate soldier but an arsonist of the highest caliber. A native Virginian but an ardent abolitionist, Hunter delighted in burning all that lay in his path that summer, including the homes of kinspeople and former friends.

After brushing aside minor resistance north of Lexington, Hunter entered the town and immediately put his torches to work, burning the home of Virginia governor John Letcher. Incensed that the VMI corps had participated in the Battle of New Market, Hunter ordered the institute buildings destroyed. As flames rose from the barracks, Hunter was heard to gleefully cluck, "Doesn't it burn splendidly?"

Not all of Hunter's men were so enthusiastic. A soldier writing home to his wife of the burning said, "It was a pity to do it, but I suppose it could not be helpt."

Another reluctant soldier was Hunter's chief of artillery, young Henry A. duPont. A native of Delaware, duPont had applied for admission to VMI in 1857 because his father and VMI Superintendent Francis H. Smith had been roommates at West Point. At that time, VMI only accepted applicants from Virginia, so young duPont entered West Point. June of 1864 found duPont unhappily firing artillery shells at the school he had preferred. Among his lengthy and honorable war experience was artillery duty at the Battle of New Market.

DuPont later became a United States Senator and in the early 1900s introduced a bill to provide money to VMI in payment for damages caused by Hunter's orders. The Senate authorized a payment of $100,000 and with those funds the institute built the long-awaited memorial to Stonewall Jackson.

Jackson Memorial Hall was designed by Bertram Goodhue, who also drew the plans for the cadet chapel at West Point. It was completed in 1916.

Not just a statue, not just a painting, not just a building--VMI's vestiges of New Market are stories unto themselves.