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Stringfellow goes home
12 July 2010
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It is with a great deal of sadness and misty eyes that we say good-bye to the incomparable Frank Stringfellow. I was blessed to have the opportunity to visit his great-granddaughter who lives in the house where Frank and Emma spent their last days. This experience was a journey back in time. The relatively unchanged farmhouse at Lindsay, Virginia, between Gordonsville and Charlottesville, contains much of their original furniture. I gently stroked my fingertips over the dining room table, trying to feel the presence of those who had prayerfully gathered around that table.
I had goose bumps when I stood on the front porch where on Sunday, June 8, 1913 the Lord brought the Reverend Stringfellow home. He was serenely sitting on the porch when he passed on to paradise almost instantly from a heart attack at age 73. And I imagine like Stonewall Jackson, he rejoiced that his homecoming was on the Sabbath.
The house faces the railroad where the casket was loaded on a train and taken to Alexandria. The funeral was conducted from the stately Caryle House, his wife Emma’s home. Stringfellow was buried in Ivy Hill Cemetery, Alexandria, in a most prestigious location. When one enters the circular drive, the Stringfellow marker is immediately visible across the circle. His beloved Emma joined him there on March 24, 1929. The only indication of his extraordinary achievements as a Confederate scout is a small metal marker at the base that says, “Capt. F. Stringfellow, confidential scout under Genl. R.E. Lee.”
Frank and Emma Stringfellow's grave
Perhaps the most reliable and greatest tribute to him was written on Aug. 3, 1892 by J.E.B. Stuart’s former adjutant, H. B. McClellan. He wrote, “My position on the staff of General J.E.B. Stuart gave me the opportunity to become fully acquainted with the character of the service rendered as a scout by Frank Stringfellow…I know that he had the confidence of General Stuart and of General R. E. Lee, and that they relied as much upon his accurate judgment in forecasting the movements of the enemy as they did in his courage and enterprise as a scout, in which qualities he was not surpassed by any man in the Army of Northern Virginia.”*
Medal marker at the base of the headstone
Frank and Emma, rest in peace. Well done good and faithful servants.
*From the Stringfellow papers in the Virginia Historical Society.
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