1. Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was a Confederate general and military officer who served during the American Civil War.
92 Facts About Stonewall Jackson
1. 2.
Stonewall Jackson played a prominent role in nearly all military engagements in the eastern theater of the war until his death.
3.
When Virginia seceded from the United States in May 1861 after the Battle of Fort Sumter, Stonewall Jackson joined the Confederate States Army.
4.
Stonewall Jackson performed exceptionally well in various campaigns over the next two years.
5.
Thomas Jonathan Stonewall Jackson was a great-grandson of John Stonewall Jackson and Elizabeth Cummins.
6.
John Stonewall Jackson was an Irish Protestant from Coleraine, County Londonderry, Ireland.
7.
Thomas Stonewall Jackson was born in the town of Clarksburg, Harrison County, Virginia, on January 21,1824.
8.
Stonewall Jackson was the third child of Julia Beckwith Jackson and Jonathan Jackson, an attorney.
9.
Stonewall Jackson's father died of typhoid fever on March 26,1827, after nursing his daughter.
10.
Stonewall Jackson's mother gave birth to his sister Laura Ann the day after Stonewall Jackson's father died.
11.
Julia Stonewall Jackson thus was widowed at 28 and was left with much debt and three young children.
12.
Stonewall Jackson sold the family's possessions to pay the debts.
13.
Stonewall Jackson declined family charity and moved into a small rented one-room house.
14.
In 1830, Julia Neale Stonewall Jackson remarried, against the wishes of her friends.
15.
Julia remained in such poor health, and caring for the children was such a strain on her strength, that she agreed to let their Grandmother Stonewall Jackson take them to her home in Lewis County, about four miles north of Weston, where she lived with her unmarried daughters and sons.
16.
Cummins Stonewall Jackson was strict with Thomas, who looked up to Cummins as a schoolteacher.
17.
Stonewall Jackson helped around the farm, tending sheep with the assistance of a sheepdog, driving teams of oxen and helping harvest wheat and corn.
18.
Stonewall Jackson once made a deal with one of his uncle's slaves to provide him with pine knots in exchange for reading lessons; Thomas would stay up at night reading borrowed books by the light of those burning pine knots.
19.
Virginia law forbade teaching a slave, free black or mulatto to read or write; nevertheless, Stonewall Jackson secretly taught the slave, as he had promised.
20.
Laura Stonewall Jackson Arnold was close to her brother Thomas until the Civil War period.
21.
Stonewall Jackson was so strident in her beliefs that she expressed mixed feelings upon hearing of Thomas's death.
22.
In 1842, Stonewall Jackson was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
23.
Stonewall Jackson graduated 17th out of 59 students in the Class of 1846.
24.
Stonewall Jackson began his United States Army career as a second lieutenant in Company K of the 1st US Artillery Regiment.
25.
Stonewall Jackson's unit was directed to report to General Taylor and proceed immediately via Matamoros and Camargo to Monterey and then to Saltillo.
26.
Stonewall Jackson served at the Siege of Veracruz and the battles of Contreras, Chapultepec, and Mexico City, eventually earning two brevet promotions, and the regular army rank of first lieutenant.
27.
Stonewall Jackson's judgment proved correct, and a relieving brigade was able to exploit the advantage Jackson had broached.
28.
Stonewall Jackson was stationed briefly at Fort Casey before being named second-in-command at Fort Meade, a small fort about thirty miles south of Tampa.
29.
Stonewall Jackson became Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, or Physics, and Instructor of Artillery.
30.
Stonewall Jackson was disliked as a teacher, with his students nicknaming him "Tom Fool", believing that Stonewall Jackson "could never be anything more than a martinet colonel, half soldier and half preacher".
31.
Stonewall Jackson memorized his lectures and then recited them to the class.
32.
In 1856, a group of alumni attempted to have Stonewall Jackson removed from his position.
33.
Stonewall Jackson was not known to the white inhabitants of Lexington, instead mostly being known by many of the African Americans in town, both slaves and free blacks.
34.
Stonewall Jackson's discipline was systematic and firm, but very kind.
35.
Stonewall Jackson's servants reverenced and loved him, as they would have done a brother or father.
36.
Stonewall Jackson neither apologized for nor spoke in favor of the practice of slavery.
37.
Stonewall Jackson purchased the only house he ever owned while in Lexington.
38.
Stonewall Jackson lived in it for two years before being called to serve in the Confederacy.
39.
Major Stonewall Jackson was placed in command of the artillery, consisting of two howitzers manned by twenty-one cadets.
40.
Stonewall Jackson then became a drill master for some of the many new recruits in the Confederate Army.
41.
Stonewall Jackson became known for his relentless drilling of his troops; he believed discipline was vital to success on the battlefield.
42.
Stonewall Jackson continued to wear a blue Union Army uniform up to this point, having only access to his old VMI major's jacket, and would not be issued with a gray Confederate uniform until 1862.
43.
Stonewall Jackson rose to prominence and earned his most famous nickname at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21,1861.
44.
Stonewall Jackson's hand was struck by a bullet or a piece of shrapnel and he suffered a small loss of bone in his middle finger.
45.
Stonewall Jackson refused medical advice to have the finger amputated.
46.
Stonewall Jackson was ordered by Richmond to operate in the Valley to defeat Banks's threat and prevent McDowell's troops from reinforcing McClellan.
47.
Edward "Allegheny" Johnson's small division, Stonewall Jackson increased his army to 17,000 men.
48.
Stonewall Jackson was still significantly outnumbered, but attacked portions of his divided enemy individually at McDowell, defeating both Brig.
49.
Stonewall Jackson defeated Banks at Front Royal and Winchester, ejecting him from the Valley.
50.
Lincoln decided that the defeat of Stonewall Jackson was an immediate priority.
51.
Stonewall Jackson ordered Irvin McDowell to send 20,000 men to Front Royal and Maj.
52.
Stonewall Jackson became the most celebrated soldier in the Confederacy and lifted the morale of the Southern public.
53.
Stonewall Jackson's troops served well under Lee in the series of battles known as the Seven Days Battles, but Stonewall Jackson's own performance in those battles is generally considered to be poor.
54.
Stonewall Jackson arrived late at Mechanicsville and inexplicably ordered his men to bivouac for the night within clear earshot of the battle.
55.
At Malvern Hill Stonewall Jackson participated in the futile, piecemeal frontal assaults against entrenched Union infantry and massed artillery, and suffered heavy casualties.
56.
The military reputations of Lee's corps commanders are often characterized as Stonewall Jackson representing the audacious, offensive component of Lee's army, whereas his counterpart, James Longstreet, more typically advocated and executed defensive strategies and tactics.
57.
Stonewall Jackson has been described as the army's hammer, Longstreet its anvil.
58.
Longstreet commanded the Right Wing and Stonewall Jackson commanded the Left Wing.
59.
Stonewall Jackson started the campaign under Lee's orders with a sweeping flanking maneuver that placed his corps into the rear of Union Maj.
60.
At Manassas Junction, Stonewall Jackson was able to capture all of the supplies of the Union Army depot.
61.
Stonewall Jackson then retreated and then took up a defensive position and effectively invited Pope to assault him.
62.
When Lee decided to invade the North in the Maryland Campaign, Stonewall Jackson took Harpers Ferry, then hastened to join the rest of the army at Sharpsburg, Maryland, where they fought McClellan in the Battle of Antietam.
63.
Stonewall Jackson's men bore the brunt of the initial attacks on the northern end of the battlefield and, at the end of the day, successfully resisted a breakthrough on the southern end when Stonewall Jackson's subordinate, Maj.
64.
Stonewall Jackson asked his staff to thank Stuart, saying that although the coat was too handsome for him, he would cherish it as a souvenir.
65.
Stonewall Jackson's staff insisted that he wear it to dinner, which caused scores of soldiers to rush to see him in uncharacteristic garb.
66.
Stonewall Jackson was so embarrassed with the attention that he did not wear the new uniform for months.
67.
The results were far better than even Stonewall Jackson could have hoped.
68.
Stonewall Jackson's eyes burned with a brilliant glow, lighting up a sad face.
69.
Stonewall Jackson's expression was one of intense interest, his face was colored slightly with the paint of approaching battle, and radiant at the success of his flank movement.
70.
Stonewall Jackson immediately returned to his corps and arranged his divisions into a line of battle to charge directly into the oblivious Federal right.
71.
Stonewall Jackson pursued back toward the center of the Federal line until dusk.
72.
Stonewall Jackson was hit by three bullets: two in the left arm and one in the right hand.
73.
Surgeon Hunter McGuire amputated Stonewall Jackson's left arm, and Stonewall Jackson was moved to Fairfield plantation at Guinea Station.
74.
Stonewall Jackson's body was moved to the Governor's Mansion in Richmond for the public to mourn, and he was then moved to be buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia.
75.
Stonewall Jackson's body was buried in "ordinary dress," but wearing a military coat.
76.
Stonewall Jackson's funeral proceeded with great pomp: all pallbearers were generals, four white horses pulled the hearse, and a crowd two miles long followed the procession.
77.
Stonewall Jackson was martial and stern in attitude and profoundly religious, a deacon in the Presbyterian Church.
78.
Stonewall Jackson held a lifelong belief that one of his arms was longer than the other, and thus usually held the "longer" arm up to equalize his circulation.
79.
Stonewall Jackson was described as a "champion sleeper", and occasionally even fell asleep with food in his mouth.
80.
Stonewall Jackson suffered a number of ailments, for which he sought relief via contemporary practices of his day including hydrotherapy, popular in America at that time, visiting establishments at Oswego, New York and Round Hill, Massachusetts although with little evidence of success.
81.
Stonewall Jackson suffered a significant hearing loss in both of his ears as a result of his prior service in the US Army as an artillery officer.
82.
Stonewall Jackson encouraged the Confederate States Army revival that occurred in 1863, although it was probably more of a grass-roots movement than a top-down revival.
83.
In command, Stonewall Jackson was extremely secretive about his plans and extremely meticulous about military discipline.
84.
Stonewall Jackson wore a cap pulled down nearly to his nose and was riding a rawboned horse that did not look much like a charger, unless it would be on hay or clover.
85.
Stonewall Jackson certainly made a poor figure on a horseback, with his stirrup leather six inches too short, putting his knees nearly level with his horse's back, and his heels turned out with his toes sticking behind his horse's foreshoulder.
86.
Stonewall Jackson rode Little Sorrel throughout the war, and was riding him when he was shot at Chancellorsville.
87.
Mary Anna Stonewall Jackson wrote two books about her husband's life, including some of his letters.
88.
Stonewall Jackson never remarried, and was known as the "Widow of the Confederacy", living until 1915.
89.
Chesty Puller idolized Stonewall Jackson, and carried George Henderson's biography of Stonewall Jackson with him on campaigns.
90.
Stonewall Jackson later replaced the wooden box with a metal one, and reburied the arm.
91.
Stonewall Jackson left a plaque on the granite monument marking the burial place of Jackson's arm; the plaque is no longer on the marker but can be viewed at the Chancellorsville Battlefield Visitor Center.
92.
Stonewall Jackson is featured on the 1925 Stone Mountain Memorial half-dollar.