We are about to do something here on KPGFootball which we haven’t shone a propensity for doing. We are going to tell you a story without citing a single reference for it.
The reason is simple…it is just a story commonly known to people our age who grew up in the South. It has become interwoven into an older southern male’s fabric of “common knowledge.” We don’t know from where we learned this, we just kind of know it.
Charleston, South Carolina produced many things of import during the Civil War. One of those was a man named Barnard Elliot Bee. He was appointed brigadier general of a brigade at Manassas Junction, but that’s not how you would know him. He commanded the third brigade of the Army of the Shenandoah, but that’s not how you would know him either.
You know exactly who Barnard Elliot Bee is because of a battle known as the First Battle of Bull Run. You don’t know him for anything he did during the battle, but rather for something he said about another famous Southern General, commanding a different brigade, at the same time during the same battle.
At the time Bee spoke his now immortal words, he was remarking about a fellow General named, Thomas J. Jackson, who Bee saw remaining both calm and unnerved during a furious onslaught. As one soldier put it, Jackson appeared to be moving “about in that shower of death as calmly as a farmer about his farm when the seasons are good.”
Bee to rally his own men, spoke what would be the reason you know exactly who he is, though you may not have realized it till this moment. Bee said, “Look, men! There is Jackson standing like a stone wall! Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer! Rally behind the Virginians!”
Barnard Elliot Bee would be shot through the gut during that battle and die the next day. He is buried at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Cemetery in Pendleton, South Carolina.
In football we use the term “getting stonewalled” much in the same fashion as it was coined in response to Stonewall Jackson and his “Stonewall Brigade.” During the “one on one” portions of a combine, defensive linemen challenge offensive linemen in a pass protection drill.
The defensive lineman is to make penetration and flush the QB from the pocket and the offensive lineman is to stem the defender’s charge. When an offensive lineman shuts the defender’s rush “dead at the line of scrimmage” that is called “getting stonewalled.”
We attended the Kentucky Wesleyan camp this past weekend. KPGFootball was really impressed with the talent in attendance, particularly the talent along the offensive and defensive lines of scrimmage.
There was this one offensive lineman who kept stonewalling defenders dead at the line. There is video of him, floating about, of his practically choke-slamming one unfortunate soul to the turf of Steele Stadium. We didn’t take the video (sadly) but it happened about six feet from where our correspondent was standing.
We remember when seeing it thinking, “Damn, that guy is good!” When he turned around and we saw it was Peyton Blackburn from Shelby Valley, we immediately thought, “Hey, that guy is really good.” No media outlet in Kentucky knows that any better than we.
We believe, and have before written, Blackburn may be the best RT in Kentucky High School football today. As long as his arms are, even with his being 6-2, we think he can play RT in college, though most are recruiting him to play OG.
Peyton Blackburn weighs anywhere from 314-320. Like is always the case with “good weight,” you could have told KPGFootball he weighed 260 and we wouldn’t have quibbled with you. We selected him to our sophomore All-State football team, and in 2018, he anchored an offensive front which led all of the 2A classification in rushing yards from scrimmage.
Schools are hot after the 2020 lineman. He has been offered by a Kentucky Wesleyan program which has committed itself to recruiting the best the commonwealth has to offer. He is being actively pursued by Marshall, and UTMartin and is camping this weekend on Saturday at Wake Forrest and then on Sunday at Western Kentucky. Next weekend, Kentucky’s very best RT will take in the University of Memphis’ “Big-Cat Mega-Camp.”
If Blackburn keeps turning in combine performances like what we saw in Owensboro, Kentucky, every program we just named will offer. Someone who would profess no surprise at that development, where he still around, would be the late Barnard Elliot Bee. Bee would probably remark, “Look, men! There is Blackburn standing [against that defender’s upfield rush] like a stone wall! Let us…rally behind the man from Shelby Valley!”
Those words might not be nearly as famous a quote as when he spoke them about Thomas J. Jackson. However, they would appear to be both equally true and entirely appropriate.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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