Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson
Born January 21, 1824 in Clarksburg, Virginia (now West Virginia)
Died May 10, 1863 at Guinea Station, Virginia
Married to Elinor Junkin and later to Mary Anna Morrison
Father of one daughter, Julia Laura
West Point graduate, U.S. Army brevet major in artillery corps,
Mexican War veteran, professor at Virginia Military Institute,
major in the Virginia militia, Confederate Army lieutenant general
and commander of the 2nd Corps under Robert E. Lee
8Engraving of Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, The Museum of the Confederacy
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Thomas J. Stonewall graduated 17th of 59 cadets in the Class of 1846 from the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point. He entered the academy as an alternate candidate and steadily rose from
the bottom of the class to the top third, earning the respect of this fellow cadets and the nickname
“General.”
Jackson was a devout Presbyterian Sunday school teacher, who taught local African Americans to
read the Bible contrary to Virginia law. During the war, he detested fighting on Sabbath and was
comforted when he learned he would die on a Sunday.
Jackson earned his nickname “Stonewall” at the Battle of First Manassas (Bull Run) in July of
1861, when Brigadier General Barnard Bee sought to rally his South Carolina troops behind
Jackson’s Virginia men, saying “Look, there stands Jackson like a stone wall.”
General H. Norman Schwartzkopf studied Jackson’s tactics at Chancellorsville extensively before
setting his own strategy for the Gulf War, successfully subduing the Iraqi Army in 1991.
Jackson was a professor at Virginia Military Institute from 1852 to 1861, teaching natural and
experimental philosophy and artillery drill. He was not popular among the cadets, who called
him “Tom Fool” and tried to have him dismissed from the teaching staff. One disgruntled cadet
challenged him to a duel that was never fought. One of Jackson’s former students, Brigadier
General James H. Lane, led the North Carolina troops that accidentally fired on and fatally
wounded Jackson.
Jackson’s horse, Little Sorrel, also The Sorrel or Old Sorrel, was kept at Virginia Military
Institute for several years after the Civil War. After the horse’s death, it was stuffed and placed
on exhibit at The Soldier’s Home in Richmond, Virginia. Today his hide remains on display at
the VMI Museum. Little Sorrel’s skeletal remains were not buried until 1997.
Legend maintains that Jackson sucked on lemons on a regular basis. In fact, he rarely did,
preferring instead peaches, strawberries and cherries.
Thomas J. Jackson was an early and persistent advocate of carrying the war to the Federals by
invading the North and directly targeting their economic resources.
Although he was a well-known introvert and strict disciplinarian, Jackson was very popular in the
rebel army. Despite a close relationship with Jackson, Lee was unable to attend to his favorite
lieutenant neither after his wounding nor at his funeral due to his command duties. Confederate
President Jefferson Davis was also very fond of Jackson, and upon his death placed a bust of the
fallen general on the mantel of the state dining room in the White House of the Confederacy.
Jackson had an ongoing feud with Major General Ambrose Powell Hill that dated back to their
days at West Point. However, Hill served as Jackson’s subordinate and the two kept an icy
civility through the war. After Jackson’s untimely wounding, Hill was first on the scene to offer
his assistance and then assumed command of Jackson’s troops, until he too was killed during the
fall of Petersburg near the end of the war.
8Courtesy of The Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia. Open Daily. Call 804-649-1861 for more information.