The Soldier Lad Who Fought So Well
From VMI to the Day He Died Famed Sculptor Moses Ezekiel Loved and Served His Southern Homeland!
Moses Jacob Ezekiel was 13 years old when the Civil War commenced He came from a modest merchant family in Richmond. He would write later in his memoir that in his childhood, they were all jumbled together in Richmond, Christian ,Jew, blacks and whites. As a young boy, he was thrilled when war broke out. He begged his mother to let him attend Virginia Military Institute. He then attended VMI as one of the first Jewish cadets. Moses was far from the ideal cadet. One of his friends would later write that the only cadet who looked worse than himself was “Mose.”
VMI became part of the war in 1864, when Confederate Gen. John C. Breckinridge called on the young cadets to support his small army at the Battle of New Market. Aged 15-18, the cadets marched through the town of Staunton. The ladies gave them cake and sandwiches. The boys lacked basic field equipment, such as tents. But, in battle, they accorded themselves well. Ten of the cadets were killed, but the boys did not waiver. Later, after the battle, Moses and a cadet officer went across the battlefield looking for their friend Thomas G. Jefferson, descended from the third U.S. President.
They found Thomas wounded and hurting. Moses walked to town and secured a wagon and they took Thomas to a nearby house and tended him. Moses placed his own shirt on his dying friend. Moses would later write that he never closed his eyes through the long ordeal. Later that night, Thomas asked Moses to read to him from the Bible. Thomas asked for the chapter in St. john that “My Father’s house has many mansions.” Later, when all had gone to sleep, Thomas asked Moses to…