| Stonewall Jackson |
Article Index for Stonewall Jackson |
Articles about Stonewall Jackson |
Website Links For Stonewall |
Information AboutStonewall Jackson |
Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson ( of 1862 and as a corps commander in the Army Of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee. His own troops accidentally shot him at the Battle Of Chancellorsville and he died of complications from an amputated arm and Pneumonia several days later. Military historians consider Jackson to be one of the most gifted tactical commanders in United States History . His Valley Campaign and his envelopment of the Union Army right wing at Chancellorsville are studied worldwide even today as examples of innovative and bold leadership. He excelled as well at the First Battle Of Bull Run (where he received his famous nickname), Second Bull Run , Antietam , and Fredericksburg . Jackson was not universally successful as a commander, however, as displayed by his weak and confused efforts during the Seven Days Battles around Richmond in 1862. His death was a severe setback for the Confederacy, affecting not only its military prospects, but the morale of its army and the general public; as Jackson lay dying, General Robert E. Lee sent a message to Jackson through Chaplain Lacy, saying "Give General Jackson my affectionate regards, and say to him: he has lost his left arm but I my right."Roberston, p. 746. EARLY YEARS Paternal ancestry Thomas Jonathan Jackson was the great-grandson of John Jackson (1715 or 1719 – 1801) and Elizabeth Cummins (also known as Elizabeth Comings and Elizabeth Needles) (1723 – 1828). John Jackson was born in Coleraine , County Londonderry , in Northern Ireland , of Scots-Irish descent. While living in London , he was convicted of the capital crime of larceny for stealing £ 170; the judge at the Old Bailey sentenced him to a seven-year Indenture in America. Elizabeth, a strong, blonde woman over 6 feet tall, born in London, was also convicted of larceny in an unrelated case for stealing 19 pieces of silver, jewelry, and fine lace, and received a similar sentence. They both were transported on the prison ship ''Litchfield'', which departed London in May 1749 with 150 convicts. John and Elizabeth met on board and were in love by the time the ship arrived at Annapolis, Maryland . Although they were sent to different locations in Maryland for their indenture, the couple married in July 1755.Robertson, pp. 1-2. The family migrated west across the Blue Ridge Mountains to settle near Moorefield, Virginia , (now West Virginia ) in 1758. In 1770, they moved further west to the Tygart Valley . They began to acquire large parcels of virgin farmland near the present-day town of Buckhannon , including 3,000 acres (12 km&2) in Elizabeth's name. John and his two teenage sons were early recruits for the American Revolutionary War , fighting in the Battle Of Kings Mountain on October 7 , 1780 ; John finished the war as Captain and served as a Lieutenant of the Virginia Militia after 1787. While the men were in the Army, Elizabeth converted their home to a haven, "Jackson's Fort," for refugees from Indian attacks.Robertson, pp. 2-3. John and Elizabeth had four children. Their second son was Edward Jackson ( March 1 , 1759 – December 25 , 1828 ), and Edward's third son was Jonathan Jackson, Thomas's father.Robertson, p. 4. Early childhood Thomas Jackson was the third child of Julia Beckwith (née Neale) Jackson (1798 – 1831) and Jonathan Jackson (1790 – 1826), an Attorney . Both of Jackson's parents were natives of Virginia . The family already had two young children and were living in Clarksburg , in what is now West Virginia. This is where their third child, Thomas, was born. He was named for his maternal grandfather. Thomas's sister Elizabeth (age six) died of Typhoid Fever on March 6 , 1826 , while two-year-old Thomas sat by her bedside. His father died of the same disease March 26 . Jackson's mother gave birth to Thomas's sister Laura Ann the day after Jackson's father died.Robertson, p. 7. Julia Jackson thus was widowed at 28 and was left with much debt and three young children (including the newborn). She sold the family's possessions to pay the debts. She declined family charity and moved into a small rented one-room house. Julia took in sewing and taught school to support herself and her three young children for about four years. In 1830, Julia Neale Jackson remarried. Her new husband, Blake WoodsonRobertson, p. 8., an attorney, did not like his stepchildren. There were continuing financial problems. The following year, after giving birth to Thomas's half-brother, she died of complications, leaving her three older children orphaned.Robertson, p. 10. Julia was buried in an unmarked grave in a homemade coffin in Westlake Cemetery along the James River And Kanawha Turnpike in Fayette County within the corporate limits of present-day Ansted, West Virginia . Working and teaching at Jackson's Mill Jackson was seven years old when his mother died. He and his sister Laura Ann were sent to live with their paternal uncle, Cummins Jackson , who owned a grist mill in Jackson's Mill (near present-day Weston in Lewis County in central West Virginia ). Cummins Jackson was strict with Thomas, who looked up to Cummins as a Schoolteacher . His older brother, Warren, went to live with other relatives on his mother's side of the family, but he later died of Tuberculosis in 1841 at the age of 20. Jackson helped around his uncle's farm, tending sheep with the assistance of a Sheepdog , driving teams of Oxen and helping harvest wheat and corn. Formal education was not easily obtained, but he attended school when and where he could. Much of Jackson's education was self-taught. He once made a deal with one of his uncle's Slave s 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. Virginia law forbade teaching a slave, free black or mulatto to read or write, as enacted following Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion in Southampton County in 1831. Nevertheless, Jackson secretly taught the slave to read, as he had promised. Once literate, the young slave fled to Canada via the Underground Railroad .Robertson, p. 17. In his later years at Jackson's Mill, Thomas was a schoolteacher. West Point In 1842, Jackson was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York . Because of his inadequate schooling, he had difficulty with the entrance examinations and began his studies at the bottom of his class. As a student, he had to work harder than most cadets to absorb lessons. However, displaying a dogged determination that was to characterize his life, he became one of the hardest working cadets in the academy, and moved steadily up the academic rankings. Jackson graduated 17th out of 59 students in the Class of 1846. It was said by his peers that if they had stayed there another year, he would have graduated first. U.S. Army and the Mexican War Jackson began his U.S. Army career as a Brevet Second Lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Artillery Regiment and was sent to fight in the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848. He 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 . It was in Mexico that Jackson first met Robert E. Lee . During the assault on Chapultepec Castle, he refused what he felt was a "bad order" to withdraw his troops. Confronted by his superior, he explained his rationale, claiming withdrawal was more hazardous than continuing his overmatched artillery duel. His judgment proved correct, and a relieving brigade was able to exploit the advantage Jackson had broached. In contrast to this display of strength of character, he obeyed what he also felt was a "bad order" when he raked a civilian throng with artillery fire after the Mexican authorities failed to surrender Mexico City at the hour demanded by the U.S. forces.Robertson, p. 69. The former episode, and later aggressive action against the retreating Mexican army, earned him field promotion to the brevet rank of major. Lexington and the Virginia Military Institute In the spring of 1851,Robertson, pp. 108-10. He left the Army on combined with an Infantry assault. However, despite the high quality of his work, he was not popular as a teacher. The students mocked his apparently stern, religious nature and his eccentric traits. In 1856, a group of alumni attempted to have Jackson removed from his position. ''Virginia Military Institute Archives: Stonewall Jackson FAQ'' Little as he was known to the white inhabitants of Lexington, Jackson was revered by many of the African-American s in town, both slaves and free blacks. He was instrumental in the organization in 1855 of Sunday school classes for blacks at the Presbyterian Church. His second wife, Mary Anna Jackson, taught with Jackson, as "he preferred that my labors should be given to the colored children, believing that it was more important and useful to put the strong hand of the Gospel under the ignorant African race, to lift them up." Mary Anna Jackson, Memoir of Stonewall Jackson, (Louisville, Kentucky, 1895),78. The pastor, Dr. William Spottswood White, described the relationship between Jackson and his Sunday afternoon students: "In their religious instruction he succeeded wonderfully. His discipline was systematic and firm, but very kind. ... His servants reverenced and loved him, as they would have done a brother or father. ... He was emphatically the black man's friend." He addressed his students by name and they in turn referred to him affectionately as "Marse Major."Robertson, p. 169. Jackson's family owned six slaves in the late 1850s. Three (Hetty, Cyrus, and George, a mother and two teenage sons) were received as a wedding present. Another, Albert, requested that Jackson purchase him and allow him to work for his freedom; he was employed as a waiter in one of the Lexington hotels and Jackson rented him to VMI. Amy also requested that Jackson purchase her from a public auction and she served the family as a cook and housekeeper. The sixth, Emma, was a four-year-old orphan with a Learning Disability , accepted by Jackson from an aged widow and presented to his second wife, Anna, as a welcome-home gift.Robertson, pp. 191-92. After the American Civil War began, he appears to have hired out or sold his slaves. Mary Anna Jackson, in her 1895 memoir, said, "our servants ... without the firm guidance and restraint of their master, the excitement of the times proved so demoralizing to them that he deemed it best for me to provide them with good homes among the permanent residents." Mary Anna Jackson, Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson, by His Widow (Louisville, Ky, 1895), 152. James Robertson wrote about Jackson's view on slavery:Robertson, p. 191. While an instructor at VMI, in 1853, Thomas Jackson married Elinor "Ellie" Junkin, whose father was president of Washington College (later named , 1854 , experiencing a hemorrhage an hour later that proved fatal.Robertson, p. 157. After a tour of Europe, Jackson married again, in 1857. Mary Anna Morrison was from North Carolina, where her father was the first president of Davidson College . They had a daughter named Mary Graham on April 30 , 1858 , but the baby died less than a month later. Another daughter was born in 1862, shortly before her father's death. The Jacksons named her Julia Laura , after his mother and sister. Jackson purchased the only house he ever owned while in Lexington. Built in 1801, the brick town house at 8 East Washington Street was purchased by Jackson in 1859. He lived in it for two years before being called to serve in the Confederacy. Jackson never returned to his home. In November 1859, at the request of the governor of Virginia, Major William Gilham led a contingent of the VMI Cadet Corps to Charles Town to provide an additional military presence at the execution by hanging on December 2 , 1859 of militant abolitionist John Brown following his raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry . Major Jackson was placed in command of the artillery, consisting of two Howitzer s manned by 21 cadets. CIVIL WAR In 1861, as the American Civil War broke out, Jackson became a drill master for some of the many new recruits in the Confederate Army . On April 27 , 1861 , Virginia Governor John Letcher ordered Colonel Jackson to take command at Harpers Ferry , where he would assemble and command the famous " Stonewall Brigade ", consisting of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 27th, and 33rd Virginia Infantry regiments. All of these units were from the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia. Jackson became known for his relentless drilling of his troops; he believed discipline was vital to success on the battlefield. He was promoted to Brigadier General on June 17 .Eicher, p. 316. First Bull Run Jackson rose to prominence and earned his most famous nickname at the , stopped the Union assault and suffered more casualties than any other Southern brigade that day.McPherson, p. 342. After the battle, Jackson was promoted to Major General ( October 7 , 1861 ) and given command of the Valley District, with headquarters in Winchester . Valley Campaign In the spring of 1862, Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan 's massive Army Of The Potomac approached Richmond from the southeast in the Peninsula Campaign , Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell 's large corps was poised to hit Richmond from the north, and Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks 's army threatened the Shenandoah Valley. Jackson was ordered by Richmond to operate in the Valley to defeat Banks's threat and prevent McDowell's troops from reinforcing McClellan. Jackson possessed the attributes to succeed against his poorly coordinated and sometimes timid opponents: a combination of great audacity, excellent knowledge and shrewd use of the terrain, and the ability to inspire his troops to great feats of marching and fighting. The campaign started with a tactical defeat at Kernstown on March 23 , 1862 , when faulty intelligence led him to believe he was attacking a much smaller force than was actually present, but it was a strategic victory for the Confederacy, forcing President Abraham Lincoln to keep Banks's forces in the Valley and McDowell's 30,000-man Corps near Fredericksburg , subtracting about 50,000 soldiers from McClellan's invasion force. In addition, it was Jackson's only defeat in the Valley. By adding Maj. Gen. Richard S. Ewell 's large Division and Maj. Gen. Edward "Allegheny" Johnson's small division, Jackson increased his army to 17,000 men. He was still significantly outnumbered, but attacked portions of his divided enemy individually at McDowell , defeating both Brig. Gens. Robert H. Milroy and Robert C. Schenck . He defeated Banks at Front Royal and Winchester , ejecting him from the Valley. Lincoln decided that the defeat of Jackson was an immediate priority (even though Jackson's orders were solely to keep Union forces occupied away from Richmond). They ordered Irvin McDowell to send 20,000 men to Front Royal and Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont to move to Harrisonburg . If both forces could converge at Strasburg, Jackson's only escape route up the Valley would be cut. After a series of maneuvers, Jackson defeated Frémont at Cross Keys and Brig. Gen. James Shields at Port Republic on June 8 and June 9 . Union forces were withdrawn from the Valley. It was a classic military campaign of surprise and maneuver. Jackson pressed his army to travel in 48 days of marching and won five significant victories with a force of about 17,000 against a combined force of 60,000. Stonewall Jackson's reputation for moving his troops so rapidly earned them the Oxymoronic nickname " Foot Cavalry ". He became the most celebrated soldier in the Confederacy (until he was eventually eclipsed by Lee) and lifted the morale of the Southern public. Peninsula McClellan's Peninsula Campaign toward Richmond stalled at the Battle Of Seven Pines on May 31 and June 1 . After the Valley Campaign ended in mid-June, Jackson and his troops were called to join Robert E. Lee 's Army Of Northern Virginia in defense of the capital. By utilizing a railroad tunnel under the Blue Ridge Mountains and then transporting troops to Hanover County on the Virginia Central Railroad , Jackson and his forces made a surprise appearance in front of McClellan at Mechanicsville . Reports had last placed Jackson's forces in the Shenandoah Valley; their presence near Richmond added greatly to the Union commander's overestimation of the strength and numbers of the forces before him. This proved a crucial factor in McClellan's decision to re-establish his base at a point many miles downstream from Richmond on the James River at Harrison's Landing, essentially a retreat that ended the Peninsula Campaign and prolonged the war almost three more years. Jackson's troops served well under Lee in the series of battles known as the wrote that "Stonewall Jackson and his troops did little or nothing in these battles of the Chickahominy" (Robertson, p. 504). He arrived late at Mechanicsville and inexplicably ordered his men to bivouac for the night within clear earshot of the battle. He was late and disoriented at Gaines' Mill . He was late again at Savage's Station , and at White Oak Swamp , he failed to employ fording places to cross White Oak Swamp Creek, attempting for hours to rebuild a bridge, which limited his involvement to an ineffectual artillery duel and a missed opportunity. At Malvern Hill , Jackson participated in the futile, piecemeal frontal assaults against entrenched Union infantry and massed artillery and suffered heavy casualties, but this was a problem for all of Lee's army in that ill-considered battle. The reasons for Jackson's sluggish and poorly coordinated actions during the Seven Days are disputed, although a severe lack of sleep after the grueling march and railroad trip from the Shenandoah Valley was probably a significant factor. Both Jackson and his troops were completely exhausted. Second Bull Run to Fredericksburg 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. Jackson has been described as the army's hammer, Longstreet its anvil.Wert, p. 206. In the Northern Virginia Campaign of August 1862, this stereotype did not hold true. Longstreet commanded the Right Wing (later to become known as the First Corps) and Jackson commanded the Left Wing. Jackson started the campaign under Lee's orders with a sweeping flanking maneuver that placed his corps into the rear of Union Maj. Gen. John Pope 's Army Of Virginia , but he then took up a defensive position and effectively invited Pope to assault him. On August 28 and August 29 , the start of the Second Battle Of Bull Run (or the Second Battle of Manassas), Pope pounded Jackson as Longstreet and the remainder of the Army marched north to reach the battlefield. On August 30 , Pope came to believe that Jackson was starting to retreat and Longstreet took advantage of this by launching a massive assault on the Union army's left flank with over 25,000 men. Although the Union troops put up a furious defense, Pope's army was forced to retreat in a manner similar to the embarrassing Union defeat at First Bull Run, fought on roughly the same battleground. When Lee decided to invade the North in the Maryland Campaign , 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 . Antietam was primarily a defensive battle fought against superior odds, although McClellan failed to exploit his advantage. 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 Jackson's subordinate, Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill , arrived at the last minute from Harpers Ferry. The Confederate forces held their position, but the battle was extremely bloody for both sides, and Lee withdrew the Army Of Northern Virginia back across the Potomac River , ending the invasion. Jackson was promoted to Lieutenant General on October 10 and his command was redesignated the Second Corps. Before the armies camped for winter, Jackson's Second Corps held off a strong Union assault against the right flank of the Confederate line at the Battle Of Fredericksburg , in what became a decisive Confederate victory. Just before the battle, Jackson was delighted to receive a letter about the birth of his daughter, Julia Laura Jackson, on November 23 .Robertson, p. 645. Chancellorsville At the Battle Of Chancellorsville , the Army of Northern Virginia was faced with a serious threat by the Army of the Potomac and its new commanding general, Major General Joseph Hooker . General Lee decided to employ a risky tactic to take the initiative and offensive away from Hooker's new southern thrust—he decided to divide his forces. Jackson and his entire corps were sent on an aggressive flanking maneuver to the right of the Union lines. This flanking movement would be one of the most successful and dramatic of the war. While riding with his infantry in a wide berth well south and west of the Federal line of battle, Jackson employed Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee 's cavalry to provide for better reconnaissance in regards to the exact location of the Union right and rear. The results were far better than even Jackson could have hoped. Lee 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 men were eating and playing games in carefree fashion, completely unaware that an entire Confederate corps was less than a mile away. What happened next is given in Lee's own words:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|