Originally aired on June 16, 1995 - In part 42 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson gives an account of the life of Civil War soldier and prolific sculptor, Moses Ezekiel.
#42 – Moses J. Ezekiel
One of the enduring fascinations of the Civil War is its personal overtones. Unlike the world wars of this century, machinery in a sense played only a minor part in the struggle of the 1860s. The real fighting from first to last was between people: soldiers and civilians who say, served, and suffered through a 4-year cataclysm that shook the foundations of the young country. Some 3,000,000 men of North and South took part in the Civil War. Behind almost every one of them is a moving and human story that captures the mind.
Take Moses Jacob Ezekiel, for example. His is hardly a household name, but perhaps it ought to be.
Born in Richmond in October, 1844, Ezekiel entered the Virginia Military Institute just as the civil war began. He was a good cadet. As an 18-year-old corporal of the guard, Ezekiel sat with “Stonewall” Jackson’s body on the night before the General’s burial in Lexington.
The following spring, Ezekiel was a participant with the VMI Corps of Cadets at the battle of New Market. He displayed exceptional valor for one so young. After the fighting ended, Ezekiel went back to the blood-soaked and rain-drenched field in search of his roommate, 17-year-old Thomas Garland Jefferson of Amelia County. Ezekiel found his friend mortally wounded in the chest. Although barefooted, Ezekiel walked into New Market secured a wagon, and took Jefferson to the shelter of a nearby home.
For two days Ezekiel sat at the bedside of his dying friend. Near the end, Jefferson asked Ezekiel to read to him from the New Testament. Even though a Jew, Ezekiel earnestly repeated words from the Gospel of St. John:
“In my father’s house are many mansions…
I go to prepare a place for you.”
Ezekiel then took Jefferson in his arms and held him close through the teenager’s last moments of life.
After the Civil War, Moses Ezekiel moved to Italy and began creating what became over 200 sculptures. His works included the statues of General Jackson and Superintendent Francis H. Smith at VMI, another statue of Jackson on the statehouse lawn in Charleston, West Virginia, the Jefferson statue now in the center of the rotunda at the University of Virginia, and at least one likeness of General Robert E. Lee.
At the turn of the century, having been knighted by the heads of four European nations and honored dozens of times on two continents, Sir Moses Ezekiel produced the famous VMI tribute to the cadets slain at New Market. That sculpture, entitled Virginia Mourning Her Dead, stands today facing the VMI drill-field. The memorial has come with time to epitomize the Confederacy itself.
“Uncle Mosie”, as members of the family affectionately called the bachelor-artist, made periodic visits to the United States. Whenever he came into the South, his first request was for sweet potatoes, without question the American food he missed the most.
In 1914, Ezekiel completed the huge and awesome Confederate memorial that stands in Arlington National Cemetery. Three years later, the artist died – from pneumonia contracted while serving as a volunteer ambulance driver for the Italian army. In 1921, Ezekiel’s body was brought to Arlington for burial. His funeral was the first service ever held in the now-famous Memorial Amphitheater at the national cemetery. The artist was buried at the base of his monument.
One other point about Ezekiel needs to be added to complete the story. His gravestone could have announced for ages to come all that he had achieved as an internationally esteemed sculptor. Instead, by his wishes, the marker contains the words:
Moses J. Ezekiel:
Sergeant of Company C
Battalion of Cadets of the Virginia Military Institute
