stonewall

** Thomas Jackson was born on January 21st, 1824 in Clarksburg, Virginia. **
 * Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson **

** In 1842 Jackson began his military dream at West Point. He graduated 17th out of 59th in the class of 1846. **

** Jackson began his military career as a 2nd Lt. in the 1st US artillery regiment and was sent to fight in the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848. He served in the siege of Veracruz and at the battles of Contreras, Chapultepec, and Mexico City. He earned 2 promotions and the rank of 1st Lt. It was in Mexico where Jackson first met Robert E. Lee. **

** In 1851 Jackson accepted a teaching position at VMI in Lexington, Virginia. He became a professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and an instructor of Artillery. While at VMI in 1853 Jackson married Elinor Junkin, whose father was the president of Washington College. **

** On April 27th, 1861 Jackson was ordered to take command at Harpers Ferry, where assembled the famous “Stonewall Brigade” consisting of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 27th, and 33rd Virginia infantry regiments. Following the Great Train Raid of 1861 Jackson was promoted to Brigadier General. His horses name was Little Sorrel. **

** Jackson received his famous nickname at the Battle of Manassas on July 21st, 1861. As the confederate lines began to crumble, Jackson’s brigade provided crucial reinforcements on Henry House Hill. Brig, General Barnard Elliot Bee Jr. exhorted his own troops to re-form by shouting “There is Jackson standing there like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer. Rally behind the Virginian’s.” During the battle Jackson was shot in the middle finger and suffered a small loss of bone. He refused the medical advice from the doctors to have the finger amputated. After the battle he was promoted to Major General and given command of the Shenandoah Valley. **

** Jackson’s heroics in the Valley campaign proved to be a crucial point to the outcome of the Peninsula Campaign. As McClellan approached Richmond from Ft. Monroe, Maj. General Nathaniel P. Banks army threatened the Shenandoah Valley and Major General Irwin McDowell’s corps was in position to strike Richmond from the north. Jacksons only defeat in the valley was at Kernstown on March 23rd, 1862. When faulty intelligence led him to believe he was attacking a small detachment. Although the confederates lost the battle, it was a strategic victory as Jacksons aggressiveness suggested that his force was much larger, convincing Lincoln to keep Banks troops in the valley and McDowell’s 30,000 –man corps near Fredericksburg, keeping almost 50,000 troops from reinforcing McClellan’s invasion force. The Valley campaign was a classic military campaign of surprise and maneuver. Jackson pressed his troops to travel 646 miles in 48 days, and won 5 significant battles with a force of only 17,000 against a combined force of over 60,000 Yankees. His reputation of moving his forces so quickly earned them the nickname “foot cavalry”. After the campaign Jackson and his forces were called upon to join Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. **

** Jackson continued to live up to his name by playing big roles in the battle of 2nd Manassas on August 28th to the 30th. Jackson’s troops bore the blunt of the initial attacks at Antietam before A.P. Hill arrived at the last second. After the battle Jackson was promoted to Lt General and put in command of the 2nd corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. In November of 1862, Jackson’s corps held off a strong union assault on the confederate’s right flank at the battle of Fredericksburg. The battle became a decisive confederate victory. **

** “Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible; and when you strike and overcome him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow; for an army routed, if hotly pursued, becomes panic-stricken, and can then be destroyed by half their number. The other rule is, never fight against heavy odds, if by any possible maneuvering you can hurl your own force on only a part, and that the weakest part, of your enemy and crush it. Such tactics will win every time, and a small army may thus destroy a large one in detail, and repeated victory will make it invincible”. **

** -Thomas Stonewall Jackson to General Imboden **

** At the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Army of Northern Virginia was faced with a serious threat by the Army of the Potomac and its commanding general, Major General Joseph Hooker. General Lee decided to split his forces. Jackson and his entire corps were sent on a flanking maneuver to find the right of the Union lines. This flanking movement turned out to be one of the most successful and dramatic moves of the war. Jackson sent out Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry on a reconnaissance mission to find the exact location of the Union right and rear. Lee hit the jackpot, as he found the entire right side of the Federal lines in the middle of open field, guarded merely by two guns that faced westward, as well as the supplies and rear encampments. The Northern troops were completely unaware that the entire 2nd corps of the Army of Northern Virginia was less than a mile away. Jackson arranged his troops into a line of battle to charge directly into the oblivious Federal right. They marched silently until they were merely several hundred feet from the Union position, and then released a bloodthirsty cry and then busted into a full charge. Many of the Federals were captured without a shot fired, the rest were driven into a full rout. Jackson pursued relentlessly back toward the center of the Federal line until dark. **

** As darkness came about on May 2nd, the assault ended and Jackson and his staff returned to camp. They were mistaken for a union cavalry force by the 18th North Carolina infantry regiment. Jackson was hit by three bullets, two in the left arm and one in the right hand. Several other men in his staff were killed. Jackson had to have his left arm amputated because of his injuries. Unfortunately Jackson came down with pneumonia and died on May 10th, 1863. On his death bed Jackson was still shouting out commands to his staff. “Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks” he abruptly stopped and never finished the sentence. His final words before passed away were “Let us cross the river, and rest under the shade of the trees”. Lee sent a final message to Jackson while he was on his death bed through Chaplain Lacy. “Give General Jackson my affectionate regards, and say to him; he has lost his left arm but I my right”. His body was moved to the Governor’s mansion in Richmond for the public to mourn, and then he was moved to his final resting place at the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia. **

**[|www.civilwarhome.com/jackbio.htm]**

**[|www.vmi.edu/archives.aspx?id=3747]**

Ben Holden