Virginia's Jack Jouett Rode Through the Night

His Warning Saved Jefferson and Virginia's Officials


This silhouette of Jack Jouett by his son Matthew is the only known image of the Revolutionary War hero.

On the night of June 3, 1781, Jack Jouett learned of an impending surprise attack on Charlottesville by British Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton's "Whitecoat" Regiment. Jouett was at Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa County, bedded down on the tavern's lawn according to some accounts. When he learned of the advancing Tarlton, he quickly mounted his horse and rapidly traveled along back roads and old trails to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Legislature at Monticello.

Legend has it that in his urgency to get to Charlottesville, Jouett was permenantly scarred by the branches he rode through. He rested briefly at Lousia Courthouse before proceeding on to Monticello. Arriving around four in the morning, he hastily awoke Jefferson and his guests, who enjoyed breakfast before they fled while Jefferson checked periodically with his telescope for signs of Tarlton, Monticello literally sitting on its own "little mountain."

The government of Virginia evacuated to Staunton, across the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the legislature reconvened and elected Thomas Nelson to be Virginia's next governor as Jefferson's term had officially expired. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized Paul Revere, but it wasn't until 1909 that a similar tribute was published by Charlottesville's newspaper:

"Hearken good people: awhile abide
And hear of stout Jack Jouett's ride;
How he rushed his steed, nor stopped nor stayed
Till he warned the people of Tarleton's raid.

The moment his warning note was rehearsed
The State Assembly was quickly dispersed.
In their haste to escape, they did not stop
Until they had crossed the mountain top.
And upon the other side come down.
To resume their sessions in Staunton Town.

His parting steed he spurred,
In haste to carry the warning
To that greatest statesman of any age,
The Immortal Monticello Sage.

Here goes to thee, Jack Jouett!
Lord keep thy memory green;
You made the greatest ride, sir,
That ever yet was seen."

--Charlottesville Daily Progress, October 26, 1909

In the Shadows of Monticello

Thomas Jefferson's Home is Part of His Story


Monticello, as painted in the Hampton Inn murals by Bob Kirchman and Russ Fisher. The enigmatic dome replaced an earlier full upper story as Jefferson restyled the house.

Myron Magnet has written a series of written portraits of our founding fathers that are significant in that they paint them neither as demigods or demons, but as actual men. That is what they were, ordinary mortals who found themselves at a crossroads of history.

Our founders were men with human weakness and human passion. Thomas Jefferson [click to read] as revealed by Magnet in City Journal is no exception.

Most instructive is Magnet's study of the beliefs and principles that guided Jefferson. Ideals and realities in conflict, to be sure. Jefferson's final great work was to be his University of Virginia... architecturally a study in the pure classical forms. He laid out his 'Academical Village' to reflect an order and vision for an educated Virginia population. The first students would prove to be another lesson in human nature. Still Jefferson began this institution with great optimism. This experiment in the Enlightenment idea of mankind's perfectibility was the crowning achievement of his 'retirement' years.

"But as an intellectual enterprise, the university proved less satisfactory to its creator when it opened the year before he died. The students turned out to be not so much an aristocracy of virtue and talent as a gang of rowdy young men with a taste for drink, gambling, breaking windows, firing guns into the air, and thrashing professors who tried to stop them. The horrified Jefferson came down from his mountain to Charlottesville to reprimand them. Flanked by his dear friends and fellow trustees, James Madison and James Monroe, the frail 82-year-old patriarch drew himself up to his full six foot two, began to speak, and burst into tears." -- Myron Magnet.


My rendering of the Monticello Visitor's Center. designed by Ayers Saint Gross. The rendering by The Kirchman Studio was used for promotion and development purposes. We are pleased to have had a small part in this great project.

Monticello Opens New Visitors Center

Unique Center Celebrates Third President's Legacy


My rendering of the proposed center.

Here is the Story [click to read] of the grand opening of the Monticello Visitors Center designed by Ayers Saint Gross. The rendering by The Kirchman Studio was used for promotion and development purposes. We are pleased to have had a small part in this great project.