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Person1824 – 1863

Stonewall Jackson

Also called: Thomas J. Jackson, Thomas Jonathan Jackson

Confederate general who earned the name “Stonewall” at First Bull Run and was mortally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville

Born Thomas Jonathan Jackson, he graduated from West Point, fought in the Mexican War and taught at the Virginia Military Institute. At First Bull Run in 1861 he stood “like a stone wall” and earned his nickname. His 1862 Valley Campaign in the Shenandoah, in which swift marches tied down several times his number of Union troops, made him famous, and as Lee’s right hand he won many battles. In 1863 at Chancellorsville he led a daring flank march around the Union army, but was shot by his own men that night and died eight days later.

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3 related events

  1. 1
    1861First Battle of Bull Runcommander

    Marching on Richmond, the Union army was beaten by the Confederates on Bull Run creek near Manassas, Virginia, and fled back to Washington; hopes of a short war collapsed.

  2. 2
    1862Battle of Antietamcommander

    McClellan’s Union army stopped Lee’s invasion of the North at Sharpsburg, Maryland; with some 23,000 casualties it was the bloodiest single day in American history.

  3. 3
    1863Battle of Chancellorsvillecommander

    Lee defeated Hooker’s Union army, more than twice his size, with a daring division of his forces; but Stonewall Jackson was shot by his own men and died.

People who appear alongside

  • Robert E. Lee1807 – 1870

    Confederate general who led the Army of Northern Virginia to many victories, lost at Gettysburg and surrendered at Appomattox in 1865

  • George B. McClellan1826 – 1885

    Union general who built the Army of the Potomac but was overcautious; he checked Lee at Antietam and lost the 1864 election to Lincoln as the Democratic candidate

  • Abraham Lincoln1809 – 1865

    16th US president (1861–1865) who preserved the Union in the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation; assassinated just after the war ended

Themes this person appears in

  • The American Civil War1850 – 1865

    From the Compromise of 1850 to Lincoln’s assassination — a nation divided over slavery fought four years of civil war, preserving the Union and ending slavery