Life span: 01/21/1824 to 05/10/1863TabsLife SummaryFull name: Thomas Jonathan JacksonPlace of Birth: Clarksburg, VABurial Place: Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery, Lexington, VABirth Date Certainty: ExactDeath Date Certainty: ExactGender: MaleRace: WhiteSectional choice: SouthOrigins: Slave StateNo. of Spouses: 2Family: Jonathan Jackson (father), Julia Beckwith (mother), Eleanor Junkin (first wife, 1853), Mary Anna Morrison (second wife, 1857)Education: West Point (US Military Academy)Occupation: MilitaryEducatorChurch or Religious Denomination: PresbyterianMilitary: US military (Pre-Civil War)Confederate Army Note Cards Thomas Jonathan Jackson (American National Biography) ScholarshipJackson swept into war with cool professionalism and grim determination. He viewed the Civil War as a test of America by the Almighty: bloodshed would be terrible, but victory would come to the more devout side. Hence, Jackson carried into the conflict the faith of the New Testament and the ferocity of the Old Testament. Following his appointment as colonel of infantry in April 1861, Jackson took charge of volunteers and militia defending the important outpost of Harpers Ferry. On 17 June he was promoted to brigadier general and assigned to lead a brigade of five regiments from western Virginia. The most famous nickname in the Civil War came to the general and his men a month later in the first major battle of the war (First Manassas). Federals were driving southern troops back in confusion when South Carolina general Barnard E. Bee sought to rally his broken lines. Pointing to the top of a hill that was the key to the battlefield, Bee shouted something to the effect of: "Look, men! There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!" Jackson's subsequent attack helped turn the tide and bring victory to the Confederates as well as fame and the sobriquet of "Stonewall" to himself.James I. Robertson, "Jackson, Thomas Jonathan," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00555.html. Events Date span begin Life span End Event 12/02/1859 12/02/1859 Virginia executes John Brown 07/21/1861 07/22/1861 The first pitched battle of the war between armies results in a Union disaster at Bull Run 01/04/1862 01/04/1862 In western Virginia, the Confederate "Stonewall Brigade" occupies Bath in Morgan County 01/05/1862 01/05/1862 Confederate artillery shells Hancock, Maryland, firing across the Potomac from Morgan County, Virginia 03/21/1862 03/22/1862 In western Virginia, Stonewall Jackson's infantry marches at a grueling pace towards Winchester 03/23/1862 03/23/1862 In the Shenandoah Valley, Stonewall Jackson suffers his only defeat at the first Battle of Kernstown 04/01/1862 04/01/1862 Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson arrests a subordinate for "neglect of duty" at Kernstown 04/01/1862 04/01/1862 In the Shenandoah Valley, Union forces skirmish with retreating Confederates around Woodstock 05/23/1862 05/23/1862 In the Shenandoah Valley, Stonewall Jackson takes Front Royal after a three day forced march 05/23/1862 05/23/1862 The Confederate First Maryland meets the Union First Maryland at the Battle of Front Royal 05/25/1862 05/25/1862 Stonewall Jackson wins a major victory at Winchester and drives Union forces back into Maryland 05/26/1862 05/26/1862 Major General Banks completes his withdrawal from the Shenandoah Valley to Maryland 04/27/1863 04/30/1863 The Army of the Potomac concentrates on Chancellorsville in preparation for an attack on Lee 05/01/1863 05/01/1863 Union and Confederate armies collide near Chancellorsville in Spotsylvania County, Virginia 05/02/1863 05/02/1863 "Friendly fire" strikes and wounds General T.J. Jackson and several members of his staff on the Chancellorsville battlefield 05/02/1863 05/02/1863 "Stonewall" Jackson's flanking movement seizes the initiative in the Battle of Chancellorsville 05/03/1863 05/03/1863 Lee's Army of Northern Virginia forces back entrenched Union forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville 05/05/1863 05/06/1863 The beaten Union Army retreats across the Rappahannock, ending the Battle of Chancellorsville 05/10/1863 05/10/1863 General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson dies of his wounds and pneumonia at Guinea Station, Virginia 06/03/1863 06/03/1863 In northern England, textile manufacturers honor General "Stonewall" Jackson and mourn his death Documents Author Docs Date Title 12/02/1859 Entry by Thomas Jonathan Jackson, December 2, 1859 Subject Docs Date Title 09/07/1862 to 09/08/1862 William Elisha Stoker to Elizabeth E. Stoker, September 7-8, 1862 05/15/1863 Entry by Cornelia Peake McDonald, May 15, 1863 05/17/1863 New York Herald, “The Pen and the Sword,” May 17, 1863 Images Thomas Jonathan Jackson, First Lieutenant, circa 1850 Thomas Jonathan Jackson Thomas Jonathan Jackson, detail Thomas Jonathan Jackson, engraving, 1862 Thomas Jonathan Jackson, engraving, 1862, detail Grave of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Lexington, Virginia, June 1866, artist's impression Bibliography Chicago Style Entry Link Frye, Dennis E. "‘Through God's Blessing’." North & South 5, no. 7 (2002): 66-74. View Record Grimsley, Mark. " ‘Stonewall’ Jackson: The Life of a Confederate Hero." Civil War Times Illustrated 27, no. 2 (1988): 12-17. View Record Grimsley, Mark. "Jackson: The Wrath of God." Civil War Times Illustrated 23, no. 1 (1984): 10-19. View Record Robertson, James I., Jr. "Mexico and a Hero's Mantle: Stonewall Jackson in the Mexican War, 1846-1848." Virginia Cavalcade 46, no. 3 (1997): 100-117. View Record Waugh, John C. The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox : Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan, and Their Brothers. New York: Warner Books, 1994. View Record Jackson, Mary Anna. Life and Letters of General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson). New York: Harper & Brothers, 1892. View Record Robertson, James I., Jr. Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend. New York: Macmillan Pub., 1997. View Record Cozzens, Peter. Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008. View Record
Thomas Jonathan Jackson (American National Biography) ScholarshipJackson swept into war with cool professionalism and grim determination. He viewed the Civil War as a test of America by the Almighty: bloodshed would be terrible, but victory would come to the more devout side. Hence, Jackson carried into the conflict the faith of the New Testament and the ferocity of the Old Testament. Following his appointment as colonel of infantry in April 1861, Jackson took charge of volunteers and militia defending the important outpost of Harpers Ferry. On 17 June he was promoted to brigadier general and assigned to lead a brigade of five regiments from western Virginia. The most famous nickname in the Civil War came to the general and his men a month later in the first major battle of the war (First Manassas). Federals were driving southern troops back in confusion when South Carolina general Barnard E. Bee sought to rally his broken lines. Pointing to the top of a hill that was the key to the battlefield, Bee shouted something to the effect of: "Look, men! There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!" Jackson's subsequent attack helped turn the tide and bring victory to the Confederates as well as fame and the sobriquet of "Stonewall" to himself.James I. Robertson, "Jackson, Thomas Jonathan," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00555.html.
