In 1855, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson founded a Bible school for free black children and slaves where he and other volunteers taught them to read. He taught there regularly until the war, then continued funding it until he was killed.
Among the six slaves he owned was one who asked Jackson to buy him so that he could more easily buy his own freedom at a later date (with Jackson’s encouragement, he did). Another was an older woman who also requested that he purchase her. A third was a young girl, likely with disabilities, who an elderly widow asked Jackson to purchase from her to secure the girl’s future. When Jackson departed for the war, he left instructions that she was to be cared. The other three came into his possession via marriage.
Plenty of firsthand accounts beginning long before the war and up to his death describe a humble, kind, dutiful, and charitable man, who was socially awkward and almost completely unconcerned with what other people thought of him.
A statue of Stonewall Jackson was removed from Virginia’s Capitol Square today: