This piece of coverlet was owned by Colonel Elijah W. Penny who had service in three Indiana Union regiments and was wounded six times. The period note that came with this relic identifies the coverlet as being taken out of Stonewall Jackson's house after the "U.S. Civil War in 1865." A Xerox copy of the original note is included with the COA. Colonel Perry was discharged in Charlotte, N.C. in late 1865 and obviously obtained this souvenir during his return home west either personally or from an officer friend. During the Civil War the house was vacant or possibly rented, but no evidence is known to state Mary Anna Jackson rented it during the war, but she did later as records show. General David Hunter's troops raided Lexington, Va. in June 1864, but there is no evidence that they entered the house. Penny would have passed through Lexington or nearby as the 130th Indiana Infantry Regiment headed home from the Carolinas in late 1865. A vacant house of a notable Confederate General would have been a temptation for troops to enter into looking for souvenirs.
The house was constructed in 1800, by Cornelius Dorman. Dr. Archibald Graham purchased the house and significantly expanded it in 1845 by adding a stone addition on the rear and remodeling the front and interior to accommodate his medical practice. Dr. Graham sold the house to then Major Thomas J. Jackson, a professor at the nearby Virginia Military Institute, on November 4, 1858, for $3,000. It is the only house Jackson ever owned. He lived in the brick and stone house with his second wife, Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, until the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. It housed Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital from 1907 until 1954; when it was converted into a museum. In 1979 the house was carefully restored to its appearance at the time of the Jackson's occupancy. The house and garden are owned and operated as a museum by the Virginia Military Institute.
11 x 14, display, doubled matted in Confederate gray and red archival mat boards. The coverlet is nicely displayed at the center with copy photographs of General Jackson, his wife and daughter, and the house above, and descriptive text below. Comes with COA. Shrink wrapped. Please note that this handsome display has complete full borders. |