Death of “Stonewall” Jackson

Foggy sunrise over looking the ground of the Jackson Flank Attack.

NPS

On May 2, 1863, Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson set out to turn the tide of the Battle of Chancellorsville.¹ His death eight days later, in the aftermath of the apparent height of Confederate military success, has loomed large over Civil War memory ever since. Jackson’s final days, and the sometimes conflicting and often romanticized versions told and retold over time, became a powerful story of Confederate martyrdom in post war Confederate memory. ²

Stonewall Jackson Arrives at Fairfield

NPS

Wounding

Early on May 2, Jackson began the most legendary military movement of his career, marching 28,000 men twelve miles to catch 11,000 men of the US 11th Corps by surprise. The 11th Corps was outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and been ordered to prepare for a pursuit of the supposedly retreating Confederate Army.³ While the attack was initially successful, portions of the 11th Corps put up as much resistance as they could, and the rest of the US Army of the Potomac rallied. By 8 pm, Jackson’s troops started running out of daylight, and the attack began slow and stall.⁴ Hoping to press his advantage, Jackson considered a night attack to cut the US Army from their bridges. This action would cut the US Army from its lines of supply and communication across the Rappahannock River. In the dark woods, Jackson and his staff made the fateful decision to ride towards the front. In the process, they worked themselves in front of the main Confederate battle line. As the group attempted to return to the Confederate lines, the soldiers of the 18^th North Carolina Infantry Regiment mistook them for Union cavalry and fired. Three of their bullets hit Jackson.⁵ After his wounding, Jackson's staff transported him to an ambulance wagon that took Jackson to a nearby field hospital just north of Wilderness Tavern.⁶ There, doctors examined the wounds, one to Jackson's right hand and two to his left arm. His left arm was unrecoverable, and Jackson's doctor, Hunter McGuire, decided it needed to be amputated. Early the morning of May 3, McGuire anesthetized Jackson and amputated the limb just below the shoulder with no complications.⁷ With Jackson seemingly through the worst of the ordeal, it was time to move him away from the battlefield to someplace he could safely recover. The most obvious choice was Richmond, and the best way to get to Richmond was by train. To get Jackson on a train, he needed to be moved 27 miles from the field hospital to the nearest Confederate-controlled railhead at Guinea Station.

Modern photo of the Fairfield Plantation Office

NPS

Treatment and Death

Around 6 am on May 4, Jackson was packed into a wagon for the 14-hour trip to Guinea Station. The rough roads were choked with supply wagons moving to the battlefield and ambulances moving away, leading to a long trip. Jackson arrived at Guinea Station by 8 pm in good condition. Once at Guinea, Jackson needed a place to stay while waiting for the train south, and the small farm office of Thomas Chandler's Fairfield slave plantation proved the most appropriate space available at the time. Chandler initially planned to place Jackson in the main house, but other wounded Confederates were already being cared for in the main house. The Chandlers offered to prepare the farm office to receive him instead.The stay at Guinea Station was only intended to be temporary. Upon their arrival, however, they discovered that the trains weren't running thanks to interference by US cavalry forces. Jackson needed to wait until Confederate forces secured the rail connection to Richmond. At first, this seemed a simple annoyance. Jackson was doing well, eating, drinking, and holding conversations. There was no sign of dangerous infection in his wounds or the amputation site. That changed late in the evening of May 6, when he began to complain of worsening chest pain. After an examination on the morning of May 7, McGuire diagnosed him with pneumonia, suggesting that a bruised lung was the cause.⁸ Trains began running again on May 7, allowing the transport of other wounded Confederates to Richmond. However, McGuire believed Jackson was no longer in a condition to make the trip. Over the next several days, McGuire summoned a series of doctors to assist in caring for Jackson, including a pneumonia specialist brought up from Richmond to double-check the original diagnosis. While Civil War doctors became experts in physical trauma, the tools and knowledge to combat illness were limited. Ultimately, there was very little they could do to treat pneumonia. Jackson slowly deteriorated over the next several days. He died in the afternoon of May 10th, eight days after his wounding.

Stonewall Jackson Wounding Trail

NPS

Legacy

Jackson’s death has often been retold through a romanticized lens. Popular accounts emphasize the visit from his wife and infant daughter or linger and his last words depicting them as an emotional last breath rather than Jackson’s last intelligible words spoken as much as 45 minutes before his death.⁹ The popular dramatized version of Jackson’s death aided his transformation into a symbol of idealized Christian virtue, martial brilliance, and noble sacrifice. In the aftermath of Jackson’s death, the historical reality of actual events gave way to sweeping narratives of destiny, tragedy, and national loss. One part of a long history of shaping Civil War memory to emphasize Confederate heroism to excuse, obscure, or justify the cause those soldiers served.Examining Jackson’s final days, and the mythology that followed, invites us to consider why certain stories rise to prominence and what they reveal about the society that preserves them. Why have these details mattered to so many for so long? How have Americans used Jackson’s death to define identity, justify belief, or find meaning from conflict? What can revisiting these stories reveal about our history and ourselves? Jackson’s death is not just a story about the end of a Confederate general’s life. It is a window into how history is created, remembered, and reshaped across generations.

Sources

1. Bigelow, John, The Campaign of Chancellorsville, (Yale University Press, 1910), 274
2. Mathew Lively, Calamity at Chancellorsville, (Savas Beatie, 2013), 163.
3. Sears, Stephen Sears, Chancellorsville. (Easton Press, 2004), 264.
4. Bigelow, 295-313.
5. Letter from Richard Wilbourn to Robert Dabney, December 12, 1864. Charles William Dabney Papers (#1412), Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514.
6. Lively, 83.
7. Lively, 86.
8. McGuire, “Last Wound of the Late Gen. Jackson,” 410; McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; McGuire, “Death of Stonewall Jackson,” 160-161a.
9. Lively, 151-152.