Abingdon, VA is the home of the State Theater of Virginia, one of whose venues was once the home of John B. Floyd, a former VA governor and Civil War (Confederate) general. We went to see Richard III there last Saturday and saw the two interesting historical markers (below) in front of the building.
The first, about Floyd, is less “praising” than most of these, pointing out the controversy of his defeat at Fort Donelson. But it doesn’t note that as Secretary of War under Buchanan he shifted military resources to the South during the secession crisis, nor does it discuss his disputes with fellow-former governor Wise in western Virginia in 1861 which helped the Union establish control of what would become West Virginia.
The second, one of the many echoes of the “Lost Cause,” notes that in 1868 a Presbyterian church bought the property to establish a school for girls, and they named it in honor of Jackson. It later became “Stonewall Jackson College,” but closed in 1930.
GENE SCHMIEL, CIVIL WAR HISTORIAN, AUTHOR, AND LECTURER 