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

So my ten year old daughter who has never shown a particular interest in history went to a Texas leadership camp thing this summer. Ask ally for a week they got to different cool museums and other cool places all over. So, one of the places they went was the Texas Civil War museum.

My child comes home with their great big crap eating grin like she can't wait to show me something. From behind her back, she pulls out this little metal tin with a big confederate battle flag on the top. Inside is a big assed knife with the handle bearing a portrait of Stonewall Jackson. She wouldn't let me have it long. She said it was hers. I guess I'm doing something right.

When I was an infantryman the mantra was "Shoot, Move, and Communicate". Lee had the first 2, but lacked the 3rd because of the length of his exterior lines. The lag in communication time kept Lee from coordinating his attacks. If Lee had known that Stuart's attack at East Cavalry Field had failed, he might not have sent Pickett's Division to the slaughter. I'd bet that any of the Union soldiers on Cemetery Hill who had survived the slaughter at Fredericksburg were happy to the ones who were on top of a hill and behind a stone wall, instead of being below and in front of it on July 3, 1863.

In the long run what finally counted was that Gen. Meade was getting his resupplies by the trainload. And Gen. Lee was living off the land.
That is the story of all the final battles.

Professionals focus on logistics, while amateurs focus on tactics.

Amen!

I don't believe the South was ever going to be able to win final victory in the field.

If they had won big at Gettysburg or any other place, I think the North would have just geared up for total war.

Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.

That's funny right there. Still hoping the South wins war 150 years later, still won't change the outcome.

Glad you think so, but like your comments TOTALLY irrelevant. The South's cause was lost after the first round was fired in Charleston, but your comment of "where was he"? is not only irrelevant, but stupid. Akin to saying "where was Rommel when Stalingrad fell"? Forrest's campaigns were mainly in another AOR, which was my point (and factual, NBF never lost one). Sorry I over tasked you..

Stonewall Jackson was Christian gentleman first, and great general secondly. He was the main reason the South was able to hold it's own in the early years of the war, because he was their best leader. As far as Gettysburg goes, we can speculate all we want, but Lee owned the outcome. I think it could gone either way. Had Jackson not been killed, it is very probable that Gettysburg would have turned out differently.

Now, in my opinion, the South's best leader was Nathan Bedford Forrest. The "politics" of the Confederacy kept in the Western theatre of the war, fighting against an enemy who was always better equipped and who outnumbered him.......yet he still kicked their asses on a regular basis. Had Davis transferred Forrest to Virginia, and given him a real command position, there is no telling what would have happened. I have always been a huge fan of Jackson, Stuart, Mosby, Hood, and other Confederate leaders, but I think Forrest was the best of all.

Just a throw out. Not trying to refight anything. Wonder how things cavalry would have gone in the east of Turner Ashby had lived.

Yeah who????

In reality, I'm sure just about the same results in long run.

Again. I emphasize I'm not trying to refight anything. Simple learning discussion.

Ashby and Jackson clashed a lot. Jackson came to admire his fighting qualities but he was no fan of his unit's lack of discipline nor Asby's personal qualities.

LOL! I can certainly appreciate that. There was also tension between Jackson and Hill (AP) i believe as well was there? Concerning Hill's personal quailities?

Jackson actually had him arrested for deriliction of duty. I think Hill refused to continue one of Jackson's insane marches or something like that and Jackson had him art aged. Hill kept demanding a court martial and Lee kept demurring and ignoring the request.

Jackson was constantly into it with his subordinates and Lee kept putting off or dismissing the charges lodged by Jackson. Hill and Armistead were probably the best known of Jackson's men to endure his wrath. Some think Armistead welcomed Pickett's Charge to end his life gallantly instead of being courtmartialed.

I have never read about trouble between Armistead and Jackson. Garnett and Jackson had serious issues after Jackson charged him with cowardice. To recover his honor, he rode to his death at Gettysburg as one of Pickett's brigade commanders.

Nope. The south had inferior weapons. They fought with clubs.

O.K. In your mind, relevant only has to do with your thought process. Whether Forrest was at those battles or somewhere else, you do have to realize the relevance of Custer's fighting abilities. If Custer had made his reputation by striking supply trains and evacuated battlefields, his relevance may have been inconsequential, but that isn't where he was. This dialogue isn't complete without recognition of great ladership on both sides during the war and forgotten is the fact all of them were Americans and most of them were classmates at West Point.

Custer can't be denied his place in History in regards to the Civil War. Phil Sheridan recognized him as one of the most influential generals during the war and to this day, all people want to remember is that he died on a battlefield in Montana and they ridicule him for another war they know nothing about.

I don't think the issue is the Yankees...its the fact that the south imported slaves by the boat load...and we all know how thats playing out. Thanks for that...

The south started a war they could not win...and lost hard. These things happen...ask the Germans

You omitted the fact that most slave ships were owned by Yankees and that the Yankees even insured the plantation owners against losses from runaway slaves. There was no good guy side there. Not to mention that slavery existed in all 13 colonies at one time. Not excusing the Southerners, slavery was a nasty institution.

A little known fact about stonewall Jackson is he taught a black Sunday school class.