Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Thomas Jackson, 'Stonewall".

Stonewall Jackson was, of course one of the greats to fight in the Civil War. A self made man, and an interesting man.
Thoughts?

One of the finest men this country has ever produced. A true hero. God bless him.

A complex, and interesting fellow to say the least. I've always admired him.

Mister Woody, what do those dusty old books say about Stonewall?

He died in Thornberg (VA) after being severally wounded. There is a Stonewall Jackson Shrine at the house where he died.

https://www.nps.gov/frsp/learn/historyculture/js.htm

A man of amazing talent who never lost a battle. Had we not had the Civil War he would only be remembered as the eccentric teacher at VMI known by his students as Tom Fool.

He lost at Malvern Hill and at Antietam with heavy casualties. Longstreet was a better general.

What Mr. Hitchcox said!!!

Apparently he had a pretty serious learning disorder. Possibly dyslexia. He worked hard to overcome this. He memorized verbatim his lectures while instructing at VMI. It is said cadets would purposely ask him to repeat portions of his lectures and apparently it was like replay on a tape recorder.

AP Hill saved his butt at Sharpsburg.

He was a great general. He was a hard charger and was never afraid to risk his life, or his command. He loved to attack and he was a great lieutenant for General Lee.

Longstreet was better? In 1975 I was going to college in Milledgeville Georgia. This is an old time southern town and was capitol of Georgia during the war.
In the apartment next to mine was an old granny about 65 years old. A Southern Belle.
I got talking to her, and noticed a portrait of General Longstreet above her mantel.
I told her, "So you have a portrait of General Longstreet?"

She was impressed that I recognized the General. She said, "Yes, he was my great grandfather."
I said "He was a great general."

She said, "I think he was a little late going into the battle at Gettysburg, I think he cost General Lee the battle."

I

Stonewall's legacy was not as a teacher, and he must have stood out in the Mexican war.

Who among us have not have their "butt saved", at one time, or another?

A.P. Hill has my vote for the best division leader in the Army of Northern Virginia.

If aggressive action was needed, there was none better. Further, he was probably the bravest or most foolhardy American soldier EVER. At Chapultepec he manned a cannon single handily in the middle of a road just yards from the entire Mexican army that situated behind walls. By himself he fired the cannon over and over for something like thirty minutes or longer. His men were all in ditches beside the road taking casualties because thefire was so hot. Finally, one sergeant was stirred by his example and joined him.

People who saw it were absolutely amazed by his bravery and the fact that he wasn't killed.

One night after a very high fever I woke up pretty drained. But broke the fever. Wife asked me "who is A P Hill?"
I told her who he was and then asked her why she was asking me.

Her response. "Well you had a pretty rough night. Tossing turning. And once you yelled out "Have AP Hill Bring up his Corps!!!" I was just curious who A P Hill was?"

True story.

JoeBob? Didn't something occur in this incident with the gun or something that one of the observers said only brought a miffed look into the face of Jackson. And he went on manning the gun.

Actually Lee lost the battle by not listening to Longstreet. It was folly to charge up a long hill with no cover against entrenched enemies. Longstreet suggested pulling out of Gettysburg, marching toward Washington DC, positioning on a hill there, and letting the Union attack up hill against the Confederates. There was nothing of any value in Gettysburg except a northern army on the nearby hills. Instead, Lee ordered the famous "Pickett's" charge.

Contributing factors: Lee's artillery barrage mostly missed because they had the range wrong, a flanking cavalry attack was thwarted by the Union, and Lee's G2 was hurting because his cavalry had roamed far away and was incommunicado.

Also the South could have taken the hills the previous night if Lee had ordered General Ewell to do so. Instead his order suggested Ewell attack that night if he was able. Ewell decided, in the absence of an attack order, to rest and attack the next day, by which time the North had reinforced the hills.

For ol Blue Light.

His two gun section got caught in a narrow causeway underneath the castle walls. All twelve of his horses were killed immediately and one cannon was disabled. He manned the one gun and walked around upright trying to get his men out of the ditch as the road was raked with shot and shell. At one point he was telling his men to get up as that there was no danger and a cannon ball zipped between his legs. His commander came up to order him to withdraw and had his horse immediately shot out from under him. Jackson refused the order and continued, with the one gun to duel more or less the entire Mexican army as that his little unit was in the advance of the entire American army.

His record suggests that he was an excellent General Officer whose philosophies and skills seem to have been more in sync with Lee than any of Lee's other senior subordinates, except maybe Stuart. Neither of the Generals who replaced him, Ewell and Hill, were ever as aggressive/decisive. You have to wonder how much longer the American Civil War might have been if Jackson had survived his wounds and led 2nd Corps at Gettysburg and beyond.

How long before you liberals rip that shrine out?