Volume XVI, Number 3 March
1, 2019
“The study of the past is a constantly evolving,
never-ending journey of discovery.” – Eric Foner
‘MONTICELLO AND ITS
PRESENT OWNER’: That’s one of the subheads of an article in The Charleston (S.C.) Mercury on August 29, 1861. In it, an
unidentified correspondent reports on a trip he made to Virginia, and includes
a detailed account of his ride on horseback up the mountain to pay a visit to
Monticello.
This is a rare first-person account of Monticello during the
Civil, albeit this one came fairly early in the conflict. (I quoted from a
memoir of an 1863 account in last month’s newsletter and have some new
information on that in the next item, “Two Horses, Bacon, & Flour.”)
The 1861 correspondent, identified only by his initials,
“J.D.B.,” rhapsodizes about the scenic beauty he encountered as he made his way
up the mountain, saying the “pretty range of hills” and a “magnificent” gorge
were as imposing as anything one could encounter in Switzerland.
After passing through “a billowy sweep of corn and wheatland,”
he takes a look back at Charlottesville “encircled by the ripe harvests” which
“busy mowers are reaping.”
He describes “the soft ‘swath’ of the scythe, the sharp
clack of the mill where the circling horses are thrashing out the grain, the
brawl of the streamlet, the glow on the distant fields, the dark, dank foliage
of the frowning mountain in front,” all of which forms “so sweet a pleasure
that one is unwilling to leave it for the hard ascent” to Monticello.
J.D.B. makes his way through a tobacco
patch, corn rows, and a “dense” grove of chestnut trees, then climbs and climbs
until he finds himself at the entrance to the Jefferson family graveyard. “The
iron gate is open,” he says, so the correspondent walked in, glanced at “over a
dozen or more marble slabs and head-stones,” and then came upon “a gray granite
pyramid,” Jefferson’s “tomb.” There “is no name on it,” he says, “only the
dates of birth and death.”
Then he follows “a narrow path through the field” to “the
front of the old mansion which crowns the brow of Mount Monticello.” He finds
the house “built of good, durable brick, which has stood the ravages of the
weather remarkably.” The “smooth shaven and well wooded lawn,” he writes,
“encircle” the entire house.
The
correspondent does not describe meeting or conversing with any individuals
during his unannounced visit to Monticello. He talks about walking up to the
Northeast Portico, the formal entrance where visitors today start the Monticello house tour.
He takes note of “a large compass” attached to “the ceiling
of the portico.” That would be a compass rose (above) that Jefferson had installed there. It was connected to the
weather vane, which is still on the portico’s roof and can be seen in the photo—a
Jeffersonian invention that allowed the former president (and amateur
meteorologist) to read wind direction from inside the house.
J.D.B.
also describes the exterior face of the Great Clock, which is above the arched
windows and doors (in photo below),
which contains just the hour hand. Oddly, the correspondent reports that he saw
two hands, and that the clock was not working. As he put it: “Immediately over”
the door “stands the dial of the old family clock, whose gilded hands refuse to
mark time for the more recent owner of the venerable mansion.”
The “property,” the
correspondent writes, “is now in the possession of a Captain Levy, United
States Navy; and as the United States has confiscated the Pennsylvania estates
of [former Virginia U.S.] Senator Mason, Virginia might well retaliate by
handing over this ancestral property to the nearest lineal descendant of its
illustrious founder.”
J.D.B. evidently was not
aware that Uriah Levy held the rank of Commodore (the highest in the Navy at
the time), and had been in the possession of Monticello since 1834. As for his
suggestion that “Virginia” confiscate the house, the state never did, but the
Confederate States of America, under its Sequestration Act, did take possession of Monticello, but not until November of 1864. That, again, is another story,
and one I go into detail about in the book.
After suggesting that
Virginia take Monticello from Levy, J.D.B. ended his article by enthusing about
the “transcendently beautiful” view from the Mountain.
“The pencil might delineate,”
he wrote, “but no words can describe, the exquisite charm of this soft cabinet
picture.”
Not sure what “cabinet” means
in this context. I welcome suggestions from readers.
‘TWO
HORSES, BACON & FLOUR’: In last month’s newsletter issue I
quoted from a rare account of Confederate troops taking a break from the Civil
War in the fall of 1863 to have a picnic at Monticello.
I
pointed out that, luckily, no fighting of consequence took place at or near
Monticello during the Civil War, and that the house and grounds escaped the
fate of so many places in Virginia that were severely damaged or destroyed
during the war.
I mentioned that Union Gen. Philip Sheridan and 5,000 of his
cavalrymen under the command of George Armstrong Custer occupied the city for
three days, from March 3-5, 1865, and that—despite fears from the
citizenry—they did not run amok, ransack, or burn the University of Virginia or
Monticello.
What I hadn’t known was that some of Sheridan’s troops did,
indeed, make a foray up to the mountain to Monticello on March 4. I learned
that from Bill Bergen, the outstanding Monticello guide who emailed with the
details, which may be found in an entry on Monticello and the Civil War in the
Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s online “Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia” at http://bit.ly/MontCivilWar
Noting that there are few surviving records dealing with Albemarle
County under the Confederacy before September of 1864—and fewer still about the
condition of Monticello during the war—the entry goes on to say: “The
oft-repeated story that Confederate soldiers (who were as capable as any others
in such matters) looted the house and carried away thousands of dollars’ worth
of furniture has no basis in fact.
“A Union army detachment of around 20
soldiers under General Philip Sheridan did conduct a raid on Monticello on
March 4, 1865. According to an official claim by Joel Wheeler, the men took two
horses, bacon, and flour.”
Joel Wheeler was the caretaker (who did not take very good
care of the place) at Monticello from the mid-1830s until he was relieved of
his duties in 1879 when Jefferson M. Levy gained control of the place. That’s
another story—and one I relate in detail in the book.
EVENTS: My
March events:
·
A talk and book signing on the history of the
American flag, based on my book, Flag: An American Biography, for the Falls
Church, Virginia DAR chapter on Saturday,
March 23
·
A Thursday,
March 28, talk and book signing on two of my books, Desperate Engagement—the story of the Civil War Battle of Monocacy
and Jubal Early’s July 11, 1864 attack on Washington, D.C., and Ballad of the Green
Beret, my 2017 biography of Army Sgt. Barry Sadler—for the ElderStudy program
at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. For info,
call 540-654-1769 or email info@ElderStudy.com
·
Another talk and book signing on Desperate Engagement on Sunday, March 31, in Washington, D.C.,
for Profs
& Pints at the Bier Baron Tavern, 1523 22nd St. N.W. The event
is open to the public. For info, go to profsandpints.com or
email profsandpints@hotmail.com
There’s always the chance that I may be doing a last-minute talk or signing.
For the latest on that, or to check out my scheduled 2019 events, go to the
Events page on my website at https://leepsoncalendar.blogspot.com
If you’d like to arrange an event
for Saving Monticello—or for any of
my other books, including Ballad of the
Green Beret—please email me. For info on my latest book, Ballad of the Green Beret, go to http://bit.ly/GreenBeretBook
GIFT IDEAS: Want a personally autographed, brand-new
paperback copy of Saving Monticello?
Please e-mail me at marcleepson@gmail.com I also have a few as-new, unopened hardcover
copies, along with a good selection of brand-new copies of my other books.
No comments:
Post a Comment