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“Comfort, productivity, stability, participation, fellowship, religious
freedom—Landis is right— far from being redundant, these words can’”t be
repeated enough.
from the editor
TThe men charged with establishing Babcock & Wilcox’s Atomic Energy Division were looking for more than a physically secure site for their new headquarters. They wanted a place to call home. As former B&W executive John W. Landis describes it, they were looking for a place where “families could live comfortably, work productively, participate in stable government and unselfish civic activity, worship as they wished, indulge in healthy pastimes, and enjoy good neighbors.”
Editors are always searching for opportunities to cut. And, at one point in the process, I considerably shortened the list of community attributes Landis had assembled above. Some of the items seemed obvious and, in the context of the entire piece, a bit redundant. Then Ann van de Graaf walked in the door with an article about the Lynchburg-educated African freedom fighter, John Chilembwe, and I had a change of heart. Comfort, productivity, stability, participation, fellowship, religious freedom—Landis is right—far from being redundant, these words can’t be repeated enough. They are words Chilembwe and his men were willing to die for in an ill-fated attempt to reclaim their home.
I’m sure Lt. Colonel W.W. Blackford would agree with my decision. In an excerpt from his War Years with Jeb Stuart he recounts his stopover at the Mt. Athos plantation on his journey home after the Civil War. His relative and owner of the mansion house, Judge John Roberston, first greets Blackford with hostility, mistaking the weather-beaten young man for a plundering “damn ruffian” Yankee. Then, realizing his error, he treats the soldier to supper, a hot bath, and a real
bed. “No one used to all these things every day,” writes Blackford, “knows how
to appreciate them.” His next stop was his “sweet old home on Clay Street” in Lynchburg.
Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson did not make it home alive. The “sad pageant” surrounding his passage through Lynchburg en route to his final resting place in Lexington is featured on the cover of this issue. Special thanks to the artist Mort Künstler for allowing us to use Going Home prior to its official unveiling
in mid-May during the Lynchburg Historical Foundation’s event-filled weekend
of Civil War history: The Stonewall Procession: From Rail to Water–Lynchburg’s Tribute to a Fallen Hero.
In his article, “Day in the Life of the City,” Bob Wimer does not focus exclusively on Jackson’s funeral procession. Instead the retired newspaperman offers a 360° account, answering the question: “So what else was going on in Lynchburg and its environs during the turbulent days of May 12 to May 14, 1863?”
Of course, much of life back then revolved around boats carrying produce and passengers up and down the James River and Kanawha Canal. It’s hard to think about the canal without thinking of T. Gibson Hobbs, Jr. He was an authority on the history of that era and has a book on the subject forthcoming from Blackwell Press. Hobb’s article in this issue focuses on another aspect of local history: the Mt. Athos plantation and its inhabitants. Hobbs wrote the piece in 1974 and fortunately gave a copy to John Landis who, while working on his B&W article, found Hobbs’s manuscript and gave a copy to us.
Landis has not lived in Lynchburg for many years yet he is still “euphoric about this city.” That is a great compliment and serves perhaps as the best definition of home: the place and the people you long to return to, if only in memory.
SPRING/SUMMER 2007 