Mane Attraction

Ed: Today there’s lots of debates about the presence of Confederate statues, but these granite monuments aren’t the only artifacts who ties the confederacy. If you go to the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia you’ll find one of the most unusual examples.

Keith Gibson: Frequently our visitors come and ask us is this the place with the stuffed horse?

Ed: That’s Colonel Keith Gibson. He’s executive director of the VMI museum. The facility is home to Little Sorrel, the famed war horse of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson.

Brian: The museum has a stuffed horse? There must be a lot of padding inside that steed.

Ed: Well Brian, he’s not actually stuffed.

Keith Gibson: We do indeed have stuffed horses available for sale in the museum store. But when it comes to Little Sorrel, he’s not stuffed at all. It’s just sort of a way that we tend to think of that from our childhood. But he’s quite hollow.

Ed: After Little Sorrel died in 1886, a noted taxidermist named Frederick Webster mounted to hide of Little Sorrel across a plaster mold of the horse’s body.

Keith Gibson: In fact, in Little Sorrel’s instance, Frederick Webster was given the skeleton of Little Sorrel as partial payment. Today, Little Sorrel’s skeleton is actually buried on the VMI parade route.

Nathan: Hold on, okay. Why did they mount Little Sorrel’s hide in the first place Ed?

Ed: That’s a good question Nathan. I think we might wanna remember that this was Stonewall Jackson’s horse. In fact, it was the horse he was riding the day he fatally shot on the battlefield at Chancellorsville. So Little Sorrel was very well known, and his popularity only grew after the Civil War.

Keith Gibson: He enjoyed his notoriety and celebrity status. He took notably a southern tour all the way to New Orleans. Was presented at fairs around through the south. Folks would pay an admission fee to see Little Sorrel. Now it took it’s toll on him, souvenir seekers pretty much devoid the horse of his tail and his mane as they would pluck a hair to keep as a souvenir. And in addition to the mounted hide of the horse we have something of a collection of pieces of tail and mane that have been returned to us from maybe conscientious families over the years when they discovered that great grandmother had visited Little Sorrel and took away a souvenir from his mane.
And they now felt obligated to return that to the museum.

Brian: So good ol’ Sorrel must have been pretty popular with southerners right?

Ed: Yeah that’s right Brian. After the war Little Sorrel lived part of his life at the old soldier’s home in Richmond where Confederate veterans tend to him. His mounted hide was first put on display there until it came to VMI in the late 1940s. Colonel Gibson says he’s been a main attraction ever since.

Keith Gibson: Today, he’s safely behind glass and is inaccessible physically to the public. But once upon a time in the museum, he was in a very much an open setting diorama. Very close to the public, and there was more than one occasion where a visitor intending no harm but wanting that ultimate vacation photograph would set their child on the back of Little Sorrel and take a picture.
And we didn’t necessarily encourage that relationship with the horse fearing that he or the child might be damaged, might be harmed in the process.

Charlie: His stance is striking to me, when I think of horses that are mounted, I think of more of a; where it’s in an upright position.

Ed: That’s one of our producers, Charlie Shelton Ormond. He went to the VMI museum to talk with Colonel Gibson and see Little Sorrel.

Charlie: It’s not really a stance I would envision for a reputable war horse.

Keith Gibson: It was pointed out at the time that he would be mounted in a moment of something, some unknown movement or sound capturing his attention. So his head is up high, his ears are pointed forward, directed to that thing that his captured his attention.
Unlike statues, equestrian statues where you expect the horse to be in motion with a hoof perhaps raised, or maybe even two as in the celebrated statue of Andrew Jackson out in front of the White House. Or you think of celebrated cowboy star Roy Rogers, his horse Trigger rearing back on his hind legs.
Little Sorrel here is as if he has just been startled and disturbed from grazing in a pasture.

Charlie: Little Sorrel’s been here at VMI for a long time. And has also been in this form for a long time, so there has to have been some preservation along the way.

Keith Gibson: About 12 years ago, we went to the Smithsonian to have their staff come down, and in this instance Little Sorrel received a bath for the very first time in about 150 years. Which terrified me when I read in the proposed treatment plan that that was going to be a part of the process because I could see all of Little Sorrel’s hairs just floating off down the river and we’d have a bald horse at the exhibit.
But I was assured that no, that wouldn’t be the case. That that’s standard procedure these days. So he endured his bath very well and various other repairs were made to the hide at that point.

Charlie: It seems like he’s something of a main attraction here at the museum. Do most people come here to see Little Sorrel, and if they do; do you hear anything from them about why they come to see him?

Keith Gibson: You know for folks interested in the American Civil War there are only two mounted horse hides that one can visit today and have the experience of the reality of this animal being a participant, a witness of those events. Little Sorrel representing one might say the Confederacy with his ownership from Stonewall Jackson and the other representing the Union; a big black horse named Winchester who was Phil Sheridan’s horse.
However as real a connection that these mounts tend to make for us today for some folks, their mixed emotions when they come around the corner of the museum and see a horse standing there. For our younger visitors they do not necessarily realize immediately that the horse is not alive and parents will explain that. But even parents have mixed emotions about it. Some of them are just amazed that they can look into the eyes of this 160 year old animal and wonder about the experiences that the horse endured.

Stacy Palmer: I always thought that Little Sorrel was on display in an atrium?

Ed: This is Stacy Palmer, she’s from Alexandria, Virginia and decided to see Little Sorrel when she passed through VMI.

Stacy Palmer: So when I turned the corner and saw him I actually turned back around to the gentlemen working at the desk. I’m like is that really the Little Sorrel? He’s like, yup.
I think animals is something that crosses gender, race. It’s something that everyone can just relate to. So I think when you can teach history through an animal, I think you can reach more people. I’m a history teacher as well. And perspective is really important to me. I also think animals bring human qualities to generals. You know someone that you think is very rigid and firm and law abiding.
But then you hear you know their love for the animals. And it is like you can look into his eyes and just you know. It melts you.

Nathan: So Ed, you’ve done a lot of work in contextualizing Confederate statues. We’ve talked a lot about it on the show. How might Little Sorrel compare to Confederate monuments in general?

Ed: Well I talked with scholar Nicole Maurantonio about the mounted hide relationship to monuments, and she’s researched how artifacts like Little Sorrel have shaped the way we remember the Confederacy.

Nicole: In preserving Little Sorrel, what we have is a lasting artifact that preserves memory of the Confederacy connecting contemporary visitors to a past; that certainly while defunct, certainly has not disappeared.

Ed: Right.

Nicole: And looking at the contemporary landscape conversations debate surrounding Confederate monuments, Confederate memory today; we can see certainly the resonances of this history and Little Sorrel really stands as one object, artifact that crystallizes the ways in which that history is often neglected and forgotten.

Ed: And the Stonewall Jackson statue in Richmond is actually based on Little Sorrel right? The horse that he’s on is Little Sorrel and it’s based on this taxidermied model?

Nicole: Yes.

Ed: Yeah.

Nicole: The stance that Little Sorrel occupies in Richmond, standing at the corner of the Boulevard and Monument Avenue is modeled directly on the taxidermied Little Sorrel.

Ed: But it seems in some ways the taxidermied Little Sorrel is more powerful than the granite one that’s there right? There’s a human personal connection that seems to take some of the edge off what the Confederacy was fighting for?

Nicole: Because Little Sorrel was alive, and that’s one of the largest; the biggest difference between the monuments that stand on Monument Avenue and throughout the country and Little Sorrel himself is that the horse that stands at VMI was in fact at one point alive. And does stand there to engage as a lasting testament to what was.

Ed: Do you think Little Sorrel is a more powerful connection to the past than say Jackson’s uniform or something that was actually of human scale?

Nicole: I do, and in that the horse is significance isn’t only in that the horse lived when Jackson fell but that in fact he enables the possibility to imagine what could have been in terms of the Confederacy. Rather than when Jackson left, Little Sorrel lived on. So the horse becomes intimately connected with Jackson and then ultimately becomes really an extension of Jackson and Jackson’s life.

Ed: So yeah, Little Sorrel’s at the battlefield; that seems to be a pretty direct connection to history. That’s all Stonewall Jackson you know? We study him for as general. So doesn’t this actually reflect the history that the horse is most relevant to?

Nicole: To an extent what we see is Little Sorrel connecting to battles. But we don’t get a sense of the larger context or what the causes of what the American Civil War were or what the cause on behalf of which the horse and the Confederacy was fighting. So we don’t hear about the context of slavery and certainly what we don’t get when we see Little Sorrel is a greater sense of the world that Jackson was living in.
And certainly while we do see Little Sorrel on display, what is largely neglected are the stories of the enslaved people with whom Jackson interacted, like Jim Lewis.

Ed: Tell us about Jim Lewis, I mean I read something back in the day; older writings saying that Lewis was the perfect counterpart of Little Sorrel. Maybe tell us how people would think about that and then tell us what you think about that.

Nicole: The connection between Little Sorrel and Jim Lewis is one that’s often referenced when we think about the significance of Little Sorrel. Little Sorrel being connected to Lewis who had been Jackson’s body servant. Lewis was enslaved and Jackson, ultimately his master; but the connection between Little Sorrel and Jim Lewis is in one way I think really encapsulates the paternalism of the lost cause narratives.

Ed: So why did people think that Jim Lewis was such an important accompaniment to Little Sorrel?

Nicole: The language that was used to describe Jim Lewis in many ways mirrored the language that was used to describe Little Sorrel. Language of submissiveness, of faithfulness, or dedication, and loyalty to ones master. And that language that really paralleled one another really exemplified the paternalism of certainly lost cause narratives. But certainly the beliefs that Jackson held.

Botler: “For they were equally obedient, patient, easy going and reliable. Not given to devious courses nor designing tricks. More serviceable than showy, and all together as sober sided a pair of subordinates as any Presbyterian elder with plain tastes and a practical turn need desire to have about him. Both man and horse seem to understand their master thoroughly and rarely fail to come up fully to all his requirements.” Alexander Botler, 1881.

Ed: So what happened to Lewis after Jackson’s death?

Nicole: It’s really unclear in many ways. Little is known really about Lewis himself. And certainly while there’s a sense that Lewis had been buried in Lexington at what had been Evergreen cemetery the precise location of his burial ground isn’t really known today.

Ed: So Lewis really mattered to people as long as Little Sorrel was around for him to take care of.

Nicole: Certainly.

Ed: Yeah.

Nicole: And while there is such little known about Lewis, there is in sharp contrast much known about Little Sorrel. If we were to take a look at say the horse’s obituary, it occupies two columns itself in the Richmond dispatch for instance in 1886 after the horse died.

Ed: Old Sorrel, Stonewall Jackson’s war horse died at the Confederate Soldier’s Home near the city at 6:00 yesterday morning. He was Jackson’s favorite steed and often had he carried his master on forced marches. Often had he born him to battle. Often had he been in the midst of whizzing bullets. Often heard the crash of cannon and the roar of musketry. Often he had felt his main stroked by the great chieftain.

Nicole: And I think that’s a significant point of contrast. Is how much documentation there exists surrounding Little Sorrel’s not only life and how little exists surrounding Jim Lewis.

Ed: What should somebody keep in mind if they go to VMI today to see Little Sorrel as many people do.

Nicole: To be critical of this particular artifact and it’s place within this museum. On the one hand walking through the VMI museum, one can leave and actually purchase commemorative objects that remember Little Sorrel like stuffed animals, and other objects that are intended I think in some ways to do that distancing work.
And as visitors, as tourists to historical sites; we need to be more critical of not only the stories that are told within the museum but the ways in which we choose to commemorate those experiences.

Brian: So to what extent does the museum see Little Sorrel as a really important symbol for the confederacy?

Ed: Well Colonel Gibson says that Little Sorrel simply did the job that was expected of a war horse and he shouldn’t be regarded as taking a side.

Keith Gibson: It may be too much to think that Little Sorrel had some nefarious preconceived intentions that led him to become a quote, unquote Confederate horse. We easily understand that this animal lived. So that in a very real way, Little Sorrel stands today as a participant of those times, silent but in his presence is bringing something alive as it were in an ironical sort of way in a moment of irony this dead horse helps us bring that period of time alive.

Ed: Colonel Keith Gibson is the executive director of the Virginia Military Institute Museum. We also heard from Nicole Mauroantonio she’s associate professor of Rhetoric and Communication studies, and American studies at the University of Richmond.
We’re gonna come back to his topic in a discussion later in the show.