Thomas Jackson

Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, and probably the most revered Confederate commander after General Robert E. Lee. His military career includes such famous exploits as the audacious Valley Campaign of 1862 and as a corps commander in the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee. Confederate pickets accidentally shot him at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863, which the general survived, albeit with the loss of an arm to amputation. However, he died of complications of pneumonia eight days later.

Thomas Jackson in Southern Victory
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (1824-after 1882) was one of the Confederacy's most gifted generals. He served in the War of Secession and the as General-in-Chief during the Second Mexican War.

When the War of Secession began, Jackson threw in his lot with the Confederate States. He was given brigade command by the governor of Virginia. He earned the nickname "Stonewall" for both himself and his brigade at First Bull Run by standing firm in the face of battle, prompting another brigade commander to shout "Look! There is Jackson, standing like a stone wall! Let us determine to die here today and we will conquer! Rally around the Virginians!" (Possibly not exact wording.) After the battle Jackson was given command of a division and the First Brigade he had commanded that day became the "Stonewall Brigade".

He held independent command in the Shenandoah Valley in the spring of 1862, where he defeated a much larger Union force. It was here that he earned his reputation as a brilliant planner of tactical offensives as well as a general capable of moving large bodies of infantry at speeds close to that of cavalry.

Following this action he was transferred to the Peninsula, where his command was attached to the Army of Northern Virginia. It was here that Jackson met Robert E. Lee.

Jackson proved instrumental to the Army's efforts on the Peninsula as well as at Second Bull Run, where he turned John Pope's flank. Jackson took part in the final campaign of the war, helping to destroy the Army of the Potomac at Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1862, then advancing on Philadelphia, ensuring the Confederate victory.

After the war, Jackson became General-in-Chief of the Confederate army. During the Second Mexican War, he personally commanded field armies: first a small army which beat back a small US invasion from West Virginia, then the Army of Kentucky in its defense of Louisville, Kentucky, that war's primary front. He easily defeated Orlando Wilcox's badly planned and executed offensives. He received Wilcox's formal surrender in the spring of 1882.

While Jackson was initially opposed to President James Longstreet's plan for the end of slavery after the war, he grew to see Longstreet's logic, and supported the decision. Thus, when Wade Hampton III approached Jackson about possibly launching a coup to overthrow Longstreet, Jackson harshly rebuked Hampton.

Jackson was married twice in his life. He married his second wife, Mary, a few years after the death of his first wife, and a few years before the War of Secession. While Jackson would never have considered a tryst with another woman, he acknowledged that his love for the heat of battle competed with his love for his wife.

Jackson's used heavy entrenchments at Louisville, proving the effectiveness of the tactic and leading to its extensive use by all sides in the Great War thirty years later.

After his death, Jackson's likeness was minted onto Confederate five-dollar gold coins, which colloquially came to be known as "Stonewalls".