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Preferred citation: [Identification of item], Alexander Sterrett Paxton Papers, WLU Coll. 0372, Special Collections and Archives, James G. Leyburn Library, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA.
In some cases the citation format may vary. Please contact Special Collections staff to verify the appropriate format.
Blue sheet prepared by Seth McCormick-Goodhart (Nov. 3, 2011)
Alexander Sterrett Paxton was a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia and an 1861 alumnus of Washington College. He was an original member of the Liberty Hall Volunteers, the Washington College Company established for the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he served as a professor of rhetoric and oratory and headmaster at a number of schools in Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina. He married twice, first to Mamie Nall of Mobile, Alabama, and later to Mary Frances Tapscott of Augusta County, Virginia.
This collection consiste of Alexander Sterrett Paxton's journals in six volumes (484 p.)during the American Civil War. They cover his service as a member of the 4th Virginia Infantry of the Stonewall Brigade, including his role as a Commissary Sergeant of the regiment. Journal entries explore the war experiences of a Confederate foot soldier and include: his insights into motives for war; observations and descriptions of ranking officers, fellow soldiers, friends and family; detailed accounts of battles and campaigns; and experiences in hospitals and camps, including a few pencil-drawn maps of Stonewall Brigade camps (1861-1862). Volume 6 includes a month-long dream journal that Paxton kept in 1864. The collection also includes correspondence between Paxton's second wife, Mary Frances Tapscott Paxton, and her family; ten pre and post-war photographs of Paxton, his brother, Joseph McClung Paxton and other family members (Tapscott family and Lilley family of Augusta County, Va.); and a ca.1860 fraternity/secret society bylaws document handwritten by Paxton.
Memory Days (1908) was a book written by Paxton -- "In which the Shenandoah Valley is seen in retrospection, with glimpses of school days and the life of Virginia people of fifty years ago."
A composition book and loose notes on Nall, Doak, Lilley, and Paxton families
8 images from Paxton, Tapscott, and Lilley families
Three items -- Stonewall Jackson, James Tapscott, James Lilley