Prof Robert L DabneyRobert Lewis Dabney, a Southern Presbyterian preacher and theologian from Virginia, also served as a Confederate army chaplain and architect. He also served as Stonewall Jackson's chief of staff and biographer; Jackson's biography is still in print tday. Dabney and James Henley Thornwell were among Southern Presbyterianism's most important intellectuals. They were both Calvinists (Old School Presbyterians) and social conservatives. Some conservative Presbyterians, particularly those in the Presbyterian Church in America and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, still value Dabney's and Thornwell's theological writings, despite the fact that some in these churches have rejected Dabney's and Thornwell's views on white supremacy and antebellum slavery. Robert Lewis Dabney was born March 5, 1820. He was the sixth child (third son) of Charles William Dabney (1786-1833) and Elizabeth Randolph Price Dabney, as well as a descendant of Cornelius d'Aubigne from the extensive d'Aubigne (Dabney) Huguenot family that established in Virginia and Massachusetts in the 17th century. His brother, Charles William Dabney (1809-1895), was the captain of Company C, 15th Virginia Infantry Regiment. Dabney earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hampden-Sydney College in 1837, followed by a master's degree from the University of Virginia in 1842. He graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 1846. Read More Read Less