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General Thomas "Stonewall"Jonathan Jackson was a famous general in the American Civil War (1861-1865). During the Civil War, Thomas Jackson led the Stonewall Brigade into many battles, and through ingenious strategem he overcame many obstacles to defeat the Northern Army. His fellow troops and commanders held General Thomas J. Jackson in high prestige. One example on this was on July 21, 1861, when the Northern Army clashed with the Southern Army at the First Battle of Bull Run, or Manassas. As the disorganized Rebels of Even's, Bee's, and Bartow's units straggled up Henry House Hill, only Hampton's and Jackson's units were still cohesive. When General Bee rode up, Jackson suggested that he regroup his men behind the First Brigade. Bee quickly rode into the mass of retreating Southerners and urged them to rally behind the Virginians. "There stands Jackson like a stone wall!" Bee cried. Bee's men eagerly rallied and other refugees assembled around Jackson's Brigade -- forever after known as the Stonewall Brigade -- and, somewhat haphazardly, began to recover their organization and coherence.
Stonewall Jackson was incredibly brave. As a commander he was, like Lee, a gambler, daring to the point of rashness. He was also mission oriented. He refused to allow his personal feelings or his own comfort, the welfare of his men or their danger, to impede the accomplishment of his military objectives. Like Lee, he was exceptionally agressive.
During the battle of Chacellorsville on May 2, 1863, Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded during the night. He was shot by one of his own men. As news of Jackson's wound reached the doctors, they rushed to his side. Quickly they amputated his left arm. Lee remarked that night, "He [Thomas Jackson] has lost his left arm; but I have lost my right arm." Eight days later on May 10, 1863, Stonewall Jackson died. His last words were, "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees." Among those who came to pay their last respects was Brigadier General Richard Garnett, who told Pendleton: "I believe he did me a great injustice, but I also belive he acted from the purest motives. He is dead. Who can fill his place?"
Seven weeks after the funeral of Stonewall Jackson the Confederate army journeyed into Pennsylvania. "I grieve over the death of Stonewall Jackson. I agree with you in believing that our army would be invincible if it could be properly organized and officered. there never were such men [as Jackson] in the army before," Lee told John Bell Hood. Lee's misgivings were soon put to the test when he was forced into combat at Gettysburg without Jackson's steadying influence. When the great battle opened only July1, 1863, Ewell, at the head of Jackson's old command, initially drove Meade's army eatward to the famed Cemetary Ridge. But there Ewell hesitated, although Lee had ordered him to attack "if possible." Ewell's hesitation at dusk on the first day at Gettysburg remains an imponderable of the entire war as he allowed Federals a respite to reinforce their already formidable positions. Lafayette McLaws, himself a participant in the fight, was convinced that had Jackson been beside Lee "when the enemy were in full retreat and in confusion upon the hill and ridge on which the battle of July 2 occurred, there would have been no delay in the onward march of his then victorious troops." McLaws feels that the events of July 3 "would not have occurred" had Jackson been there. "Jackson was needed," offers Douglass Southall Freeman. General Lee, "He never failed me. Why, if I had Stonewall Jackson at Gettysburg I should have won that battle, and if I had won a decided victory there we would have established the independence of the Confederacy."
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