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Thomas Jonathan Jackson
(1824-1863)
"There is Jackson standing like a stone wall! Rally
behind the Virginians!" Brig. Gen. Barnard Elliott Bee referring to Jackson during the Battle of First Manassas (also known as First Bull Run.)
By defeating the Union army at Bull Run, Jackson's brigade was
henceforth known as the Stonewall Brigade. At Manassas, Jackson's brigade had suffered more casualties
than any other Southern brigade. Historians have long since debated the remarks of Gen. Barnard Bee; in particular the words
"stone wall." Jackson's stalwart performance at Bull Run, however, reflected and defined Bee's remarks. Bee had
exclaimed: "Rally behind the Virginians!" Why? Because the Virginians had held the ground. Jackson was
a general that was steadfast, tenacious and even ferocious in battle, and had previously performed "valiantly during
the Mexican War." Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's subsequent performances in Civil War battles also strongly underscore this
position. In legal terms, Jackson's valor during the Mexican War and at First Manassas is referred to as precedent.
A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point (1846), he served with valor in the artillery during the Mexican-American War, earning three brevets, before resigning to accept a professorship at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI). Thought strange by the cadets, he earned "Tom Fool Jackson" and "Old Blue Light" as nicknames.
Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he was commissioned a colonel in the Virginia forces and dispatched to Harpers Ferry where
he was active in organizing the raw recruits until relieved by Joe Johnston. His later assignments included: commanding 1st
Brigade, Army of the Shenandoah (May - July 20, 1861); brigadier general, CSA (June 17, 1861); commanding 1st Brigade, 2nd
Corps, Army of the Potomac (July 20 - October 1861); major general, CSA (October 7, 1861); commanding Valley District, Department
of Northern Virginia (November 4, 1861 - June 26, 1862); commanding 2nd Corps, Army of Northern Virginia (June 26, 1862-May
2, 1863); and lieutenant general, CSA (October 10, 1862).
Leaving Harpers Ferry,
his brigade moved with Johnston to join Beauregard at Manassas. In the fight at 1st Bull Run, they were so distinguished that
both the brigade and its commander were dubbed "Stonewall" by General Barnard Bee. The 1st Brigade was the only Confederate
brigade to have its nickname become its official designation. That fall, Jackson was given command of the Valley with a promotion
to major general.
That winter, he launched a dismal campaign into the western
part of the state that resulted in a long feud with General William Loring and caused Jackson to submit his resignation; subsequently, he
was persuaded not to resign. In March he launched an attack on what he thought was a Union rear guard at Kernstown. Faulty
intelligence from his cavalry chief, Turner Ashby, led to a defeat. A religious man, Jackson always regretted having fought
on a Sunday (although many of Jackson's victories occurred on that day). But the defeat had the desired result, halting reinforcements
being sent to McClellan's army from the Valley. In May, Jackson defeated Fremont's advance at McDowell and later that month
launched a brilliant campaign that kept several Union commanders in the area off balance. He won victories at Front Royal,
1st Winchester, Cross Keys, and Port Republic. He then joined Lee in the defense of Richmond but displayed a lack of vigor
during the Seven Days.
Detached from Lee, he advanced to the north to engage
John Pope's army and after a slipshod battle at Cedar Mountain, slipped behind Pope and captured his Manassas junction supply
base. He then hid along an incomplete branch railroad and awaited Lee and Longstreet. Attacked before they arrived, he held
on until Longstreet could launch a devastating attack which brought a Second Bull Run victory.
In the invasion of Maryland, Jackson was detached to capture Harpers
Ferry and was afterwards distinguished at Antietam with Lee. He was promoted after this and given command of the now-official
2nd Corps. Previously, it had been known as a wing or command. He was disappointed with the victory at Fredericksburg because
it could not be followed up. In Jackson's greatest day, he led his corps around the Union right flank at Chancellorsville and routed the 11th Corps. Reconnoitering that night, he was returning to his own lines when he was mortally wounded by some
of his own men.
| General "Stonewall" Jackson Memorial |
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| Courtesy of the National Park Service |
Following the amputation of his arm, he died eight days later on May 10, 1863, from pneumonia. Lee wrote
of him with deep feeling: "He has lost his left arm; but I have lost my right arm." A superb commander, Jackson has been criticized.
Personnel problems haunted him, as in the feuds with Loring and with Garnett after Kernstown. His choices for promotion were
often not first rate. He did not give his subordinates enough latitude, which denied them the training for higher positions
under Lee's loose command style. This was especially devastating in the case of his immediate successor, Richard Ewell. Although
he was sometimes balky when in a subordinate position, Jackson was supreme on his own hook. "Stonewall" Jackson is buried
in Lexington, Virginia.
"Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees." Final words of "Stonewall"
Jackson
Sources: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Stewart Sifakis, Who Was Who in the
Civil War.
Recommended
Reading: Stonewall Jackson:
The Man, the Soldier, the Legend (Hardcover: 950 pages). Description:
A distinguished Civil War historian unravels the complex character of the Confederacy's greatest general. Drawing on previously
untapped manuscript sources, the author refutes such long-standing myths as Stonewall Jackson's obsessive eating of lemons
and gives a three-dimensional account of the profound religious faith frequently caricatured as grim Calvinism. Though the
author capably covers the battles that made Jackson a legend--Sharpsburg,
Fredericksburg, etc.--he emphasizes "the life story of an
extraordinary man." The result is a biography that will fascinate even those allergic to military history. Continued
below...
The New York
Times Book Review, Stephen W. Sears . . . [T]wo dozen writers have attempted [Stonewall] biographies, and there are any number
of special studies, monographs and essays. Now going straight to the head of the class of Jackson biographers,
and likely to remain there, is James I. Robertson Jr. . . . Stonewall Jackson:
The Man, the Soldier, the Legend gives us far and away the sharpest picture we have ever had of this enigmatic
figure.
Also see:
Recommended
Reading: Four Years in the Stonewall
Brigade (American Civil War Classics) (412 pages) (University
of South Carolina Press). Description:
From his looting of farmhouses during the Gettysburg campaign and robbing of fallen Union soldiers as opportunity allowed
to his five arrests for infractions of military discipline and numerous unapproved leaves, John O. Casler’s actions
during the Civil War made him as much a rogue as a Rebel. Though he was no model soldier, his forthright confessions of his
service years in the Army of Northern Virginia stand among the most sought after and cited accounts by a Confederate soldier.
First published in 1893 and significantly revised and expanded in 1906, Casler’s Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade
recounts the truths of camp life, marches, and combat. Moreover, Casler’s recollections provide an unapologetic view
of the effects of the harsh life in Stonewall’s ranks on an average foot soldier and his fellows. A native of Gainesboro, Virginia, with an inherent wanderlust and thirst for adventure,
Casler enlisted in June 1861 in what became Company A, 33rd Virginia Infantry, and participated in major campaigns throughout
the conflict, including Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Captured
in February 1865, he spent the final months of the war as a prisoner at Fort McHenry,
Maryland.
Continued below...
His postwar
narrative recalls the realities of warfare for the private soldier, the moral ambiguities of thievery and survival at the
front, and the deliberate cruelties of capture and imprisonment with the vivid detail, straightforward candor, and irreverent
flair for storytelling that have earned Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade its place in the first rank of primary literature
of the Confederacy. This edition features a new introduction by Robert K. Krick chronicling Casler’s origins and his
careers after the war as a writer and organizer of Confederate veterans groups.
Recommended
Reading: Stonewall Jackson's Book of Maxims (Hardcover). Description:
Stonewall Jackson's Book of Maxims is inspiring to say the least. Thomas Jackson was raised as an orphan in
the mountains of [West] Virginia, had less than a fourth-grade education when he entered West Point and then catapulted himself as
an elite strategist/tactician and general of the Civil War. Thought to be obsessive, eccentric, and unable to chat at
social events....Jackson hid from the world a man that he hoped to be someday. That other Jackson, however, comes screaming
just like his famous bloodcurdling rebel yell. "You may be what ever you will resolve to be" is etched over
an archway at the Virginia Military Institute where he was also a professor. His works were saved, lost, and thankfully found
again... "A truly inspiring work."
General Stonewall Jackson, Thomas Jonathan Jackson Stonewall Brigade History List of Battles Results
Facts Photo Photos, VMI Virginia Military Institute Nickname List of Stonewall Jackson’s Nicknames
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