A somewhat more serious problem arose during Lee’s term as a church vestryman, which ran between 1842 and 1844. The dispute centered on High Church Anglo-Catholicism, which had made its way to America and was winning adherents–including, some in the congregation muttered, the rector of St. John’s. Although inclined toward Low Church Episcopalianism himself, Lee–then as later–was wary of embroiling himself in public controversy and sought to avoid offending either faction.

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Two years after Lee left Fort Hamilton in 1846, 24-year-old brevet Captain Thomas J. Jackson arrived. Just two years out of West Point, young Jackson owed his quick rise in the military to the Mexican War, where he had earned the praise of General Winfield Scott himself. Jackson was also a deeply spiritual man, almost mystically so, this despite the fact that he had never been baptized and officially belonged to no church. In Mexico he had come under the influence of Captain Francis Taylor, a Virginian and army veteran of 20 years service at the time of the Mexican War and a devout Episcopalian. Taylor urged young Jackson to think more about his spiritual welfare and advised him to study the Bible. Inclined in this direction anyway, Jackson took the advice to heart and began exploring the direction his religious impulse should take him.

While in Mexico, Jackson sought out the archbishop of Mexico City to learn about Roman Catholicism. The two men apparently had several long conversations, but the archbishop failed to win over the future Confederate general for the Roman church. Jackson concluded that Catholicism was anti-scriptural, though unlike many Americans of that period, he never harbored prejudice against anyone who professed the Catholic faith.

Perhaps the quiet of garrison life–Jackson spent much of his time at Fort Hamilton serving as an officer on Army court-martials in New York and Pennsylvania–
gave him the time for further reflection. At any rate, Jackson eventually resolved to be baptized. The record of that event, still preserved in the safe at St. John’s, reads as follows: “On Sunday, 29th day of April, 1849, I baptized Thomas Jefferson [sic] Jackson, major in the U.S. Army. Sponsors, Colonel Dimick and Taylor. M. Schofield, Rector.”

The formalities of religious belief, beyond that of baptism, seem to have had little attraction for Jackson; he does not appear to have become a parishioner at St. John’s after the event. Officially, he was now a Christian and a Protestant and that, apparently, was that. (The baptismal font that was used to baptize Jackson remains in use today and can be seen in the church.)

The military connections between St. John’s and Fort Hamilton did not end with the Civil War. Many officers who achieved battlefield fame in later wars were parishioners at St. John’s early in their military careers. These include General Matthew B. Ridgway, the World War II paratroop commander who went on to lead U.S. forces during the Korean War; General Walter Bedell Smith, chief of
staff to General Dwight D. Eisenhower in Europe during World War II, and later director of the Central Intelligence Agency; and Air Force General Hubert Harmon, the first superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy. St. John’s is thus well-deserving of its nickname, “the Church of the Generals.” St. John’s is located at 9818 Fort Hamilton Parkway in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn. For additional information, call (718) 745-2377.

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