October 21, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, he was one of the Civil War’s most gifted commanders—and one of its most enigmatic. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson moved through history like a myth in motion: calm in combat, withdrawn in peace, and utterly sure of his faith. Yet behind the reputation was a man wrestling with illness, loneliness, and an almost obsessive sense of duty. This episode revisits Jackson’s life through the eyes of those who knew him, the soldiers who followed him, and the historians who have spent decades trying to understand him. His story, like the war itself, refuses to rest easily.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people coming to you from the city where the West begins.
Fort Worth, Texas. Tom Stonewall Jackson is a legendary Confederate
general whose story has been narrowly reduced to fault finding
and his Civil War experience. What we are about to
(00:32):
do is take a holistic look at the man dubbed
Stonewall with the help of an array of Jackson experts.
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
The father and Tom's oldest sister died when he was two.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
He still had siblings.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And his mother left pennelists was Catholic by the community.
She soon married again, and the second husband brought children
to their wedding, but not a lot of assets.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
And so at the age of.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Seven, Tom Jackson underwent the trauma being given away. His
mother simply couldn't care for him and his sister, and
he was given to an uncle to live.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
And he never forgot the sight.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And the pain of being taken from his mother's arms,
being put on the horse riding away, looking back, and
she's standing in the load with her arms extended, wailing
and It was a vision he never forgot, and it
would affect him the rest of his life.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
One of the legacies of Stonewall Jackson is the legacy
of a good man arising in terrible times and demonstrating
by character and courage the ability of right to prevail
in the midst of many wrongs. For me, that's the
(01:57):
great story of Stonewall. He was then whose goodness caused
him to rise.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Missus Jackson and her new husband and the family had
moved to the southern end of what is now West Virginia,
and they had a little community called Instead, and she
died of tuberculosis. We think about six or eight months
after she gave him away.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Stonewall Jackson was brought to his mother's bedside. One of
the things she made him promise as she'd near death
was that he would take part in Christian faith and
join a church.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
He goes to live with an uncle who so many previous.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Biographers have said was wise and sagacious and calling.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I didn't find that at all with coming Jackson.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I found him gruff, unfeeling, uncolling, irreligious, greedy. I don't
think he gave Tom Jackson love. Jackson later thought he did,
but Jackson didn't know what love was. Jackson spent his
youth in solitude and loneliness.
Speaker 6 (03:02):
He put his hand to the plow literally for his uncle,
with lots of physical labor and many hours spent at
hard work. I think that's where his contemplative nature probably
came from, as well as maybe his reflections on the
losses that he had suffered.
Speaker 7 (03:24):
Jackson was exposed to the faith of the family slaves.
His uncle was one of the largest slave owners in
Lewis County, West Virginia, so he was exposed of their
faith and their prayer life.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
He also had slaves that would tend to them as
young children. I'm sure, as all children do, they become very.
Speaker 7 (03:43):
Close to the people that spend the most time with them.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
He was a quiet young man. He did like to play.
His playmates liked to put him in charge of things,
and when he was at the head, his team was
usually victorious.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Jackson's boy who took a distinct turn when he befriended
Joe Lightburn, who years later would become a distinguished general
in the Union Army.
Speaker 8 (04:07):
More than anyone else, Joe Lightburn influenced Tom Jackson to
accept the Gospel.
Speaker 9 (04:15):
They were kindred spirits, teenage boys together out here in
the frontier living together.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
It was a wonderful friendship for Jackson because it was
the Lightven family who introduced Jackson for the Bible. He
never seeing the Bible and it wouldn't see it Jackson's meal.
So the Lfvens introduced in for the Bible. He attended
Baptist church services with them, and his first love of
religion I think came from them, and along with his
friend Joe Lightmann.
Speaker 9 (04:42):
The Lifeburns had books and that was wonderful, and Tom
loved books, and so he would go to their home
and actually mister Lightburn spent a lot of time with
Tom and with his own son Joe with the books.
They loved the Revolutionary War soldier the swamp Foll Then
they read all about him, and I can just imagine
(05:03):
they're out there playing Revolutionary War soldiers as boys would do.
And he kind of found a spiritual soul and Joe
Lightburn and they stayed that way and right up until
the end.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
Lightburn challenged Jackson to Christian excellence in many areas of life.
He once told Jackson that slaves ought to be taught
to read so that they could read the Bible.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
He knew that West Point offered him the one opportunity
to improve himself. If he failed that, he was condemned
to go back to Jackson's meal.
Speaker 6 (05:37):
He spent all of his time studying, unlike some of
his comrades there who spent their time in levity and partying.
Speaker 7 (05:45):
He was very, very adamant about finishing something.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You never hear of him, you never see him, because
the poor kid was studying around the clock. He permanently
damaged his eyes. He wore spectacles in private after but
he did nothing for four years, which I had to graduate.
And then that famous class for forty six, which gave
twenty one jenerals to the armies of fifty nine cadets.
(06:11):
In that class, he stood seventeenth, and.
Speaker 9 (06:13):
They said, had he been on one more year, he
would have graduated number one in his class.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
And it was determination to me.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
That is the one word that characterizes this man from
beginning to end.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Determination.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And you've been listening to an assortment of Stonewall Jackson
experts telling the story of the young Tom Stonewall Jackson
and the influences that made him who he was, and
my goodness, that memory of that separation from his mother,
the searing nature of that, the long lasting nature of that,
(06:49):
but also the profound upside it introduced him to people
he would unlikely not have met and influenced his faith journey,
his Christian walk, and his seriousness. Is he young man
knowing in the end that hard work, determination could get
him to West Point, and that West Point could change
the arc of his life. When we come back more
(07:11):
of the life story of Tom Stonewall Jackson, the rest
of this story here on our American stories. This is
Lee Hibibe, and this is our American stories, and all
(07:33):
of our history stories are brought to us by our
generous sponsors, including Hillsdale College, where students go to learn
all the things that are beautiful in life and all
the things that matter in life. If you can't get
to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu. That's
(07:53):
Hillsdale dot edu. And we continue with our American stories
and with the life of legendary Confederate General Tom Stonewall Jackson.
Speaker 10 (08:18):
Let's pick up where we last left.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
Off, the Mexican War came, and it came right at
the end of his senior year, and he knew that
he would be in it. He was a sign of
the artillery, which he expected and desired, and was sent
to Mexico.
Speaker 10 (08:36):
It just so happened.
Speaker 6 (08:37):
The commanding officer of his artillery battalion was a devoted
and mature Christian Captain Taylor, later major, later colonel. They
became good friends, and on top of that, his commanding
officer challenged him to define his faith, to learn the scriptures,
(08:58):
to have an act of Christian testimony.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
It's Taylor who Lee introduces him to the Bible. It's
Taylor who, at Fort Hamilton and elsewhere at Jacksonville Station,
introduced him to the various religious denominations. Taylor had deep
spiritual feelings and he imparted them to a hungry Jackson.
The Mexican experience is important for two reasons. One, Jackson
(09:25):
found that he liked the military. He liked the structured
regiment of army life. He liked the stepping stone processes
and whatnot. And then he suddenly discovered, I believe he
was in battle.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
He was brave to a fault, he was fearless, he
was a hero. In one of the battles, one of
the last battles of the war, he stood in the
middle of the road being shelled by the Mexicans. His
men were falling all around, and the cannon shot went
between his legs, and he continued manning the gun until
help arrived.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
He was utterly fearless.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
He was brevetted three times for gallanty in the field.
There were a few others who got three buvets, none
got more. So Jackson comes out of that war one
of the two heroes. He goes to Mexico one year
as a buvet second lieutenanty comes home with avet Major.
So Jackson found his niche with the military in the
Mexican War, and he discovered, perhaps to his supplies, he
(10:21):
was quite good at it.
Speaker 6 (10:24):
He is in a way mesmerized by the Roman Catholic
Church that he sees in Mexico, and he embarks on
a mission to discover the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church.
He converses with the bishop in Mexico City and other
Catholic priests. The devotion of the people is what had
caught his attention. In the end, he rejected the Roman
(10:47):
Catholic Church as not conforming to the scriptures as he
understood it. He looked at things from every possible angle
to find the solution and to know everything about it.
Mexican War, he was stationed at Fort Hamilton, and while
there he made a public profession and was baptized. After
(11:09):
leaving Fort Hamilton, he took with him a firm Christian faith.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Returning from the Mexican War with many honors and promotions,
Jackson applied to teach at Virginia Military Institute. He became
a professor of mathematics at the Distinguished Military Academy and
now named Lexington as his home.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Once he settles in Lexington, then he begins a quest
if you will a crusade on our offensive for culture.
To better himself, he began keeping a book of Maxims.
When he got to Lexington. He had absolutely no social glaces,
and he had to figure out how he would behave
in public. He certainly learned nothing at Jackson's meal about
(11:53):
society and politeness.
Speaker 7 (11:55):
He settled in and became the professor of VMI, became
an elder at the Presbyterian Church, served on the board
of a bank, was involved in some other business enterprises
with other locals.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
In late summer eighteen fifty one, a new Jackson begins
to emerge, not all positive. He probably was the worst
teacher in the history of Virginia Military Institute. He memorized
his lectures the day before because of bad eyesight, and
then in the morning he would spew off this recorded spiel,
so to speak. If a cadet had a question about
(12:31):
a point, all Johnson could do is pull back the
tape and spew off the same thing. Work forward again.
What people forget is that these negative remarks were made
the first two or three years he was at the institute.
Starting about eighteen fifty four et CE, these cadets began
to realize, well, he's kookie, but there's something substantive in
(12:53):
this van. And one of these cadets loading his class
notebook toward the end of a terribly dull of course
under Major Jackson, the cadet wrote, I can't stand the
way this man teaches, but if I ever have to
go to war, I want to go with him because
there's something substantive in the Major.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And this cadet went to war with him and.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Died for him at Kernstown in March eighteen sixty two.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Steal. Jackson's greatest aspiration in life was to have a
family like what he did not have as a child.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Jackson the family became far more important to him than
it worked to a normal person, and this was especially
true with children. When Jackson got around little children, he
couldn't stay away from them, and he just.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Had to love them.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
His love of children was really and literally overwhelming. They
tell the story in Winchester of him riding in from
a military action outside Winchester. He had on his uniform coat,
it was dusty and whatnot. And seconds later he's on
his hands and knees playing horseye with the children. So
here comes this great warrior at one moment, and seconds
(14:05):
later he's down on the floor playing with children.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
This is Stone Lawick Jackson.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
While in Lexington, he found and married the love of
his life, Eleanor Jenkin, who was the daughter of the
president of Washington College. He wrote that he didn't think
he could be possibly happier in his life than being
married to Eleanor.
Speaker 11 (14:29):
At last, he's able to begin to create this thing
that he had sought, this intimacy, the bond of family.
Speaker 7 (14:37):
He was a very devoted husband you know, it's hard
sometimes to picture the fearless Confederate warrior as a family man.
But loved his wife.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
Dearly, yet she died in childbirth and the baby died
as well, and he had to bury his beloved wife.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
It was overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
He is a man who has fallen in love for
the first time in his life, and he marries this
girl and fourteen months later she's dead and the son she.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Died with us.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
So Jackson lost his wife, he lost his son, he
lost his family, all in one tremendous blow. And the
night after the shear Wal no one could find him
in Lexington. He just disappeared, and someone thought of going
out to the cemetery, and it's pouring rain and Jackson's
lying atop his wife's grave, clawing it to hearth, trying
to bring her back. I'm of the opinion that he
(15:33):
would have died from that if he had not acquired
that overwhelming faith that is his driving force as an adult.
And he's eventually came to the conclusion that God had
a reason for taking Ellie and his son, and he
must continue his life and let God's will be done.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
After the death of Eleanor and his Son. Jackson took
an unexpected journey, boarding a ship bound for Europe.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
He went to Europe not only to see the sites
in Lane history. He went to Europe to Leoni and
himself catch his breath more or lesson to come back
and file again. And it was upon his return from
Ula that he contacted an old Flynn and said, hello,
Hope you live on the Meion.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
This led to in the coin us an very quick proposal.
Speaker 9 (16:19):
Her name was Mary Anna Morrison. They had met years
earlier when he was actually engaged to Eleanor Jenkin.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And you've been listening to the story of Tom Stonewall Jackson,
and what a story you're hearing, and a full and
complete picture of this remarkable man who was simply caught
on the wrong side of history in the epic battle
we now know as a civil war. Right after graduating
from West Point, he's off to the Mexican War where
(16:48):
he's going to learn first hand about battle. And he
had this commanding officer, Commanding Officer Taylor, who helped Jackson
forge a deeper faith. But it was there that Jackson
discovered he liked the structure of the military and that
he had an aptitude for battle. He was brave to
a fault, we heard fearless in battle. And he comes
(17:11):
out of the war a true hero and a major,
mesmerized by the Roman Catholic Church. While in Mexico he dabbles,
and when he comes out of the war he has
no social graces.
Speaker 10 (17:23):
What to do next.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
He plans at VMI, where he's a professor, and not
a terribly good one. As one student said of Jackson,
I can't stand the way this man teaches. But if
I ever go to war, I want to go to
war with him. And of course the importance of family
for Jackson. He married and his wife was pregnant when
(17:44):
she died. He lost a family all over again. When
we come back more of this remarkable story, the story
of General Stonewall Jackson. Here on our American story, and
(18:08):
we continue with our American stories and the story of
Tom Stonewall Jackson.
Speaker 10 (18:14):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 9 (18:17):
From reading between the lines. Anna fell in love with
Major Jackson. When she first met him. She described, as
a young girl I think would in her early twenties,
what he looked like when she first saw him, and
she said he was five foot eleven and three quarters.
I mean even then she had described exactly how tall
he was, and that he had dark brown hair, and
(18:40):
he had his hair cut short. She thought that a
beard would look much better on him, and of course
eventually she talks him into growing that beard. She said
that when he laughed, though, or when he would smile,
his whole face would light up, and he had his
papa's blue gray eyes. And she said that he was
really quite wonderful.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
His past show was always for family. He was so
loyal to his family, and the love affair with his
wife is one of the most beautiful stories in all
of American history.
Speaker 9 (19:11):
He used to play practical jokes on her all the time.
He used to hide behind doors, and he'd jump out
and pick her up, turn around, give her a kiss.
That's not exactly what we think about. The strong general
called Stonewall.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
The greatest joy of his life. The thing he wanted
more than anything else was to be married and to
establish a Christian home and to raise children.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
As the nation simmered with an impending collision of ideals,
Jackson chose a course that transcended predictable stereotypes and established
a Sunday school class for both slaves and free blacks.
So resolved was his conviction to educate and evangelize those
with lesser opportunities.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
The Sunday School class just became an overwhelming, a cruise
sad point, because he believed fundamentally that every human being
was a child of God and had an equal right
to seek salvation, and he was contributing his pot toward
the black race.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
He taught his students to read because he believed that
every Christian had to be able to read the Bible
for themselves, and so, at least on this one occasion
in his life, ignored the law.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
He had met in violation of Virginia stature, which for
bad blacks gathering and public to speak, and Jackson said
they weren't doing that.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
They were gathering to worship God.
Speaker 11 (20:37):
Jackson felt that there is man's law in God's law,
and when he perceives that there is a disconnect between
the two, then it's his duty to follow God's law.
And that is what we see him doing in his
involvement with the Sunday School class.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
No one ever challenged him legally on the subject. That
was some rumbles of discontent, of course, but he conducted
that's school class all the way up to war, and
at one point it was up to about one hundred
and five, and he led them scriptures from the Bible,
explain them as best he could. They would have priss.
They would always sing amazing Grace. I don't know why
(21:14):
now did Jackson He loved amazing grace, but he was
totally tone deaf when music was concerned.
Speaker 11 (21:21):
Stays interested even when he's called away from VMI and
Lexington during the Civil War, continues to be interested in
supports through his tithing the efforts of the Sunday School.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
Would send five dollars and say, put this toward the class,
so they were even on his mind when he was
on active campaign. He saw the miss people for whom
he was responsible.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Stonewall was a Southern gentleman who was the champion of
enslaved men and women, a man who was feared on
the battlefield, but who was the the gentle proclaimer of
good news for me. The great appeal of Thomas Stonwall
(22:07):
Jackson is simply that you can't pin this guy down.
He is such a surprise.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
What people easily misunderstand is that when the walk comes,
Jackson is not fighting to possess.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
The first time that the people of Virginia voted, they
said no, they were not going to secede from the Union.
And Jackson was a union man. He was a pro
union man. But when Abraham Lincoln called for seventy five
thousand volunteers to invade the South, and he demanded Virginia
to supply their contingent to that army of invasion, then
(22:47):
the General Assembly of Virginia put it up for a
vote again, and Virginia succeeded a big time.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
He was fighting for his home land, his home state
of Virginia. Virginia had been invaded.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Have gone to.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
War for ages in this country for identically the same reason,
defend our homes, defend our way of life.
Speaker 6 (23:08):
His name was, you know, Thomas Jonathan Jackson, Tom. And
in the very first great battle of the war, Battle
First Manassas, Jackson's brigade was brought from the valley, joined
the Army of Johnston in Beauregard and brought into the
(23:33):
field at the Battle of Manassas kind of late in
the battle had been swirling for a number of hours
on that hot July day, eighteen sixty one, and Jackson's
men came up, were set up behind the line at
the Henry House Hill. Jackson was told to hold that line.
(23:54):
And so as the battle flowed back and forth, and
as the Confederate lines broke and reformed and broke again,
and finally it seemed like the Union assault was going
to succeed and break apart the Confederate line. And as
the South Carolina regiment of Bernard B. Was falling back,
be allegedly said Haltman formed behind the Virginians, there stands
(24:20):
Jackson like a stone wall. Enough people heard it that
Jackson took on that sobriquet of stonewall. In some ways
it's a metaphor of his life, and it was character.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
In almost every letter Jackson wrote to doctor White during
the war.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
He inquired about Sundaku glass.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And indeed Lexington stood back breathless waiting to hear from
Jackson after the bottle of manassas to the word seeped
into the valley that Beaugard had won the bottle, Johnson
had won the battle. John Jackson won that battle. So
LExEN it was very anxious to hear from Jackson. In
a lot of our lives follow doctor White, and in
town gathers a land.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Doctor White opens a letter.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
And Jackson says something, owing to some affairs yesterday, I
was not able to send you what I wanted to do,
But encloses my donation for the Colored Sunday School. Well,
the busy ordeal Jackson that had it been the bottle
of Nassas, and he makes no mention of it. He
simply sends doctor White a contribution toward the Sunday School.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
To the enemy of Jackson was totally unpredictable. He was
all he was predictable for doing the unpredictable. You never
knew where he was. Jackson's two great secrets for secrecy and.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Speed in marching and in fighting, and he just popped
up out of nowhere. And the Shenandoa Valley Campaign demonstrates that.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
The legacy of his Valley Campaign is still studied in
military schools in different parts of the world. By the
end of the Valley Campaign, the men in the ranks
adored Jackson.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
And you've been listening to the story of General Tom
Stonewall Jackson. We even learned how he got the nickname,
how he earned the nickname, I might add, and we
learned so much more about the complexity of this man
and what he was willing to do, and how he
was willing to view slaves not fully free right, but
(26:20):
fully human. Why else break Virginia statutes in law to
teach black slaves and free blacks how to read and
to read so they could read the Bible.
Speaker 10 (26:32):
This was, of.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Course a violation of the Virginia law, as I said earlier,
But Jackson saw it as his obligation as a Christian,
just as Martin Luther King had written in letters from
a Birmingham jail that when God's law was in contradiction
to man's, it was God's law that had to prevail.
And of course, in the end, what we learned this
(26:54):
man was born to fight and born to lead. And
in the end, what we learn is that Jackson was
for his home state. When Lincoln issued the proclamation for
the invasion of the South, his home Virginia, his home state.
He had to take a stand and side with his home.
When we come back more of this remarkable story, this
(27:15):
nuance story capturing the full complexity of this human being.
The story of Tom Stonewall Jackson continues here on our
American stories, and we continue with our American stories, and
(27:40):
with the story of Tom Stonewall Jackson the full complex
and nuanced picture of this remarkable man and this great general.
Speaker 10 (27:49):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 7 (27:52):
Jim Lewis was Jackson's body servant slave, though the records,
of course are sketchy on Lewis, but it appears that
Lewis was owned by a fellow church member and Jackson
leased him during the war for his cooking abilities, and
he was a great cook, and he was very loyal
to Jackson. They had a great relationship. They trusted each other.
(28:17):
Jackson one time got an argument with Lewis about which
horse he was going to ride in battle, and Jackson
wanted a particular horse.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Lewis said.
Speaker 7 (28:27):
No words were exchanged, and eventually Jackson agreed to Lewis's recommendation,
which is really you know, that's unusual because Jackson took
counsel a few people.
Speaker 9 (28:42):
He never let anybody bother Tom when he was praying,
he made everyone quiet around the camp.
Speaker 7 (28:49):
There was an incident one time when Jackson was praying
in his tent and the rest of the camp they
were taking their tents down, getting ready to move, and
there was a lot of chatter going on, and Lewis
steps up, and he holds his hand up and tells
they want to be quiet. The general's praying. Jackson always
kept his battle plans close to his chest, wouldn't share
(29:10):
that with even his very closest officers. But Jim Lewis
knew something was about when Jackson got up early in
the morning to pray.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
This often said that in the North mothers would put
misbehaving children to bed and say, if you're not careful, Stonewall,
Jackson's coming to get you, and that would do it.
He was a mystery, frightening unknown to the Northern armies
threw out his brief but spectacular culia.
Speaker 6 (29:37):
His name became a byword in the North end in
the South. It also stayed the hand of the Union
invasion of Virginia to some extent, because they had to
worry about Jackson in the valley. Three armies was not
enough to subdue him.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
On May second, Jackson had led his most famous flank attack.
The flank attack votes the Union about three miles It
had been its lines into almost a U shape, and
then that night Jackson did a couple of things that
were major mistakes. We can say in retrospect he should
have known better to find out why the Union lines
were He himself went out there. An army commander doesn't
(30:18):
do that, you send scouts.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
He was hit three times.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
One of the balls shattered his left shoulder to such
an extent that I think amputation would be in order
today because the bones were just reduced to splinters. The
amputation took place early on.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
The morning of the third.
Speaker 7 (30:40):
During that night that Jackson was suffering with the fever
and the chills and all the pain from the wounding.
Speaker 6 (30:47):
His only child that was to be born and survive
was born during the war itself. And he did get
to holder in his arms before he died, but just barely.
And that was it was. It was a grief to
him to see that he would he would not see
or grow up. And his deathbed he had resigned his
(31:10):
life to God and to eternal salvation and saw this
God's will, but he didn't have that regret.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
On Sunday, May tenth, eighteen sixty three, surgeon Maguire and
form Missus Jackson that he would not make it through
the day. That's kind of strange to be able to
tell when the time of death is coming. Indeed, you
could almost predict the hour, but you couldn't do anything
for the illness itself. And at three point fifteen, on
(31:39):
the afternoon of May tenth, Jackson went home. It was devastating.
His was probably the greatest personal loss the South suffered
in the Civil War. The whole nation mourned because Jackson
was so revered by then, he was a member of
everybody's family. They took his by to the state Capitol,
(32:01):
in whichmen he lay in state and it was spring time,
and an estimated twenty five thousand people came to tell
him goodbye. And in those days, death was callous. You
did not get emotional at death, you because that's the
left death conquer you. But the dead man here was
Stonewall Jackson, and people just could not conceal their grief.
(32:24):
And thousands of in passing his casket in the motanda
the State Capitol instinctively lays fring flowers at the base.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Of the coffee Union.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
General Joseph Leitburn, Jackson's boyhood friend, learned of his passing
while leading Lightburn's Northern troops in the Battle of Vicksburg.
Speaker 8 (32:43):
He wept, of course, he remembered all their childhood days together,
and you never can replace a memory like that.
Speaker 6 (32:52):
The grief that infected the men who had served under
him was was deep and widespread, and there were those
who despaired for the Confederate because God had taken Jackson
from them.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
In the years following his death, Jackson's influence continued to grow. Yes,
he was regarded as a military hero, but another of
his most significant contributions was that the slaves and free
blacks who attended Jackson's Sunday school class went on to
form four churches, three of which are still in existence today.
(33:26):
To the legacy of Jackson is a stained glass window
in rural North Virginia, commissioned by a descendant of slaves
who came to faith in Jackson's Sunday school class. The
stained glass reads, in memory of Stonewall Jackson, let us
cross the river and rest in the shade of the trees.
Speaker 11 (33:47):
The slaves that had been a part of Jackson's Sunday
school class in Lexington would become the feedment of the
African American community in the post war Lexington and Valley
of Virginia.
Speaker 9 (33:58):
And they still revered him. Those that were from Lexington,
the blacks and the slaves, former slays, even free blacks
still revered him.
Speaker 11 (34:07):
Tom Jonathan Jackson appeals to us yet today for several
fundamental reasons. As Americans, we like to root for the underdog,
and Jackson provides us with a great, almost Horatio Alger underdog.
In his early years in the western part of Virginia,
his struggling to improve himself through his years at West Point,
(34:29):
in his constant insistence on the betterment, being the best
person he could possibly be in his private family.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Life, Thomas Jackson was one of the few military geniuses,
and couple with that was an abiding faith that, by
owadays standards is enviable.
Speaker 11 (34:50):
How would Jackson wish to be remembered by us today,
perhaps most succinctly as a Christian soldier who did his duty.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
What we see Stonewall Jackson is really a complete man,
a man who understood the value of home, who understood
the value of courage, of sacrifice, and what it took
to rise from very ordinary, oftentimes deprived circumstances to make
(35:20):
a difference in the world. He was one of those
unique men who understood his calling and never felt that
his calling was in any way limited by his experiences.
One of the things that makes a fairy tale so
appealing is irony in paradox, the fact that a very
(35:45):
ordinary person does extraordinary things, the fact that somebody who
has a very unlikely background is suddenly able to rise
to the occasion and then do very surprising things. That,
to me is the appeal of Thomas Stonewall Johnson.
Speaker 6 (36:05):
His convictions were like a stonewall, his beliefs, his convictions,
his attention and devotion to duty, and so he earned
it on the battlefield, and it went with him throughout
his life, and we're talking about it today. He's Stonewall Jackson.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
And a terrific job by the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler.
Speaker 10 (36:29):
And we'd like to thank the contributing.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Experts to this story, George Grant, William Potter, James Robertson,
Richard Williams, Dean Hardman, Jeene Carter, Francis Lightburn, Crisman, Susan Church,
Gary Smith, and Colonel Keith Gibson. And a special thanks
Division Video for giving us special access to the interviews
(36:52):
in their documentary Still Standing The Stonewall Jackson's Story. My goodness,
what we learned a year. Is what the name Stonewall
Jackson even meant to Northerners and Southerners.
Speaker 10 (37:05):
He was an.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Unknown and a fearful unknown to many in the North,
and an unknown and a fearful unknown to those in
the South too, a warrior, a military genius. But it
was those relationships with the slaves what's so special. And
I have a deep connection to Virginia. I went to
law school at the University of Virginia, and we took
(37:26):
many a road trip. Product of the North, I grew
up in New Jersey. I really came to understood Southerners too,
and the Southern stories, particularly a Southern hero story like this,
and those slaves that he taught the Bible to would
found four churches. And in this one church in Roanoke
on stained glass is this inscription to the man in
(37:50):
memory of Stonewall Jackson quote, let us cross the river
and rest in the shade of the trees. The story
of Tom Stonewall Jackson here on our American stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people coming to you from the city where the West begins.
Fort Worth, Texas. Tom Stonewall Jackson is a legendary Confederate
general whose story has been narrowly reduced to fault finding
and his Civil War experience. What we are about to
(00:32):
do is take a holistic look at the man dubbed
Stonewall with the help of an array of Jackson experts.
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
The father and Tom's oldest sister died when he was two.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
He still had siblings.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
And his mother left pennelists was Catholic by the community.
She soon married again, and the second husband brought children
to their wedding, but not a lot of assets.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
And so at the age of.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Seven, Tom Jackson underwent the trauma being given away. His
mother simply couldn't care for him and his sister, and
he was given to an uncle to live.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
And he never forgot the sight.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And the pain of being taken from his mother's arms,
being put on the horse riding away, looking back, and
she's standing in the load with her arms extended, wailing
and It was a vision he never forgot, and it
would affect him the rest of his life.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
One of the legacies of Stonewall Jackson is the legacy
of a good man arising in terrible times and demonstrating
by character and courage the ability of right to prevail
in the midst of many wrongs. For me, that's the
(01:57):
great story of Stonewall. He was then whose goodness caused
him to rise.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Missus Jackson and her new husband and the family had
moved to the southern end of what is now West Virginia,
and they had a little community called Instead, and she
died of tuberculosis. We think about six or eight months
after she gave him away.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Stonewall Jackson was brought to his mother's bedside. One of
the things she made him promise as she'd near death
was that he would take part in Christian faith and
join a church.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
He goes to live with an uncle who so many previous.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Biographers have said was wise and sagacious and calling.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I didn't find that at all with coming Jackson.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I found him gruff, unfeeling, uncolling, irreligious, greedy. I don't
think he gave Tom Jackson love. Jackson later thought he did,
but Jackson didn't know what love was. Jackson spent his
youth in solitude and loneliness.
Speaker 6 (03:02):
He put his hand to the plow literally for his uncle,
with lots of physical labor and many hours spent at
hard work. I think that's where his contemplative nature probably
came from, as well as maybe his reflections on the
losses that he had suffered.
Speaker 7 (03:24):
Jackson was exposed to the faith of the family slaves.
His uncle was one of the largest slave owners in
Lewis County, West Virginia, so he was exposed of their
faith and their prayer life.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
He also had slaves that would tend to them as
young children. I'm sure, as all children do, they become very.
Speaker 7 (03:43):
Close to the people that spend the most time with them.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
He was a quiet young man. He did like to play.
His playmates liked to put him in charge of things,
and when he was at the head, his team was
usually victorious.
Speaker 5 (03:59):
Jackson's boy who took a distinct turn when he befriended
Joe Lightburn, who years later would become a distinguished general
in the Union Army.
Speaker 8 (04:07):
More than anyone else, Joe Lightburn influenced Tom Jackson to
accept the Gospel.
Speaker 9 (04:15):
They were kindred spirits, teenage boys together out here in
the frontier living together.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
It was a wonderful friendship for Jackson because it was
the Lightven family who introduced Jackson for the Bible. He
never seeing the Bible and it wouldn't see it Jackson's meal.
So the Lfvens introduced in for the Bible. He attended
Baptist church services with them, and his first love of
religion I think came from them, and along with his
friend Joe Lightmann.
Speaker 9 (04:42):
The Lifeburns had books and that was wonderful, and Tom
loved books, and so he would go to their home
and actually mister Lightburn spent a lot of time with
Tom and with his own son Joe with the books.
They loved the Revolutionary War soldier the swamp Foll Then
they read all about him, and I can just imagine
(05:03):
they're out there playing Revolutionary War soldiers as boys would do.
And he kind of found a spiritual soul and Joe
Lightburn and they stayed that way and right up until
the end.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
Lightburn challenged Jackson to Christian excellence in many areas of life.
He once told Jackson that slaves ought to be taught
to read so that they could read the Bible.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
He knew that West Point offered him the one opportunity
to improve himself. If he failed that, he was condemned
to go back to Jackson's meal.
Speaker 6 (05:37):
He spent all of his time studying, unlike some of
his comrades there who spent their time in levity and partying.
Speaker 7 (05:45):
He was very, very adamant about finishing something.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You never hear of him, you never see him, because
the poor kid was studying around the clock. He permanently
damaged his eyes. He wore spectacles in private after but
he did nothing for four years, which I had to graduate.
And then that famous class for forty six, which gave
twenty one jenerals to the armies of fifty nine cadets.
(06:11):
In that class, he stood seventeenth, and.
Speaker 9 (06:13):
They said, had he been on one more year, he
would have graduated number one in his class.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
And it was determination to me.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
That is the one word that characterizes this man from
beginning to end.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Determination.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And you've been listening to an assortment of Stonewall Jackson
experts telling the story of the young Tom Stonewall Jackson
and the influences that made him who he was, and
my goodness, that memory of that separation from his mother,
the searing nature of that, the long lasting nature of that,
(06:49):
but also the profound upside it introduced him to people
he would unlikely not have met and influenced his faith journey,
his Christian walk, and his seriousness. Is he young man
knowing in the end that hard work, determination could get
him to West Point, and that West Point could change
the arc of his life. When we come back more
(07:11):
of the life story of Tom Stonewall Jackson, the rest
of this story here on our American stories. This is
Lee Hibibe, and this is our American stories, and all
(07:33):
of our history stories are brought to us by our
generous sponsors, including Hillsdale College, where students go to learn
all the things that are beautiful in life and all
the things that matter in life. If you can't get
to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu. That's
(07:53):
Hillsdale dot edu. And we continue with our American stories
and with the life of legendary Confederate General Tom Stonewall Jackson.
Speaker 10 (08:18):
Let's pick up where we last left.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
Off, the Mexican War came, and it came right at
the end of his senior year, and he knew that
he would be in it. He was a sign of
the artillery, which he expected and desired, and was sent
to Mexico.
Speaker 10 (08:36):
It just so happened.
Speaker 6 (08:37):
The commanding officer of his artillery battalion was a devoted
and mature Christian Captain Taylor, later major, later colonel. They
became good friends, and on top of that, his commanding
officer challenged him to define his faith, to learn the scriptures,
(08:58):
to have an act of Christian testimony.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
It's Taylor who Lee introduces him to the Bible. It's
Taylor who, at Fort Hamilton and elsewhere at Jacksonville Station,
introduced him to the various religious denominations. Taylor had deep
spiritual feelings and he imparted them to a hungry Jackson.
The Mexican experience is important for two reasons. One, Jackson
(09:25):
found that he liked the military. He liked the structured
regiment of army life. He liked the stepping stone processes
and whatnot. And then he suddenly discovered, I believe he
was in battle.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
He was brave to a fault, he was fearless, he
was a hero. In one of the battles, one of
the last battles of the war, he stood in the
middle of the road being shelled by the Mexicans. His
men were falling all around, and the cannon shot went
between his legs, and he continued manning the gun until
help arrived.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
He was utterly fearless.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
He was brevetted three times for gallanty in the field.
There were a few others who got three buvets, none
got more. So Jackson comes out of that war one
of the two heroes. He goes to Mexico one year
as a buvet second lieutenanty comes home with avet Major.
So Jackson found his niche with the military in the
Mexican War, and he discovered, perhaps to his supplies, he
(10:21):
was quite good at it.
Speaker 6 (10:24):
He is in a way mesmerized by the Roman Catholic
Church that he sees in Mexico, and he embarks on
a mission to discover the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church.
He converses with the bishop in Mexico City and other
Catholic priests. The devotion of the people is what had
caught his attention. In the end, he rejected the Roman
(10:47):
Catholic Church as not conforming to the scriptures as he
understood it. He looked at things from every possible angle
to find the solution and to know everything about it.
Mexican War, he was stationed at Fort Hamilton, and while
there he made a public profession and was baptized. After
(11:09):
leaving Fort Hamilton, he took with him a firm Christian faith.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Returning from the Mexican War with many honors and promotions,
Jackson applied to teach at Virginia Military Institute. He became
a professor of mathematics at the Distinguished Military Academy and
now named Lexington as his home.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Once he settles in Lexington, then he begins a quest
if you will a crusade on our offensive for culture.
To better himself, he began keeping a book of Maxims.
When he got to Lexington. He had absolutely no social glaces,
and he had to figure out how he would behave
in public. He certainly learned nothing at Jackson's meal about
(11:53):
society and politeness.
Speaker 7 (11:55):
He settled in and became the professor of VMI, became
an elder at the Presbyterian Church, served on the board
of a bank, was involved in some other business enterprises
with other locals.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
In late summer eighteen fifty one, a new Jackson begins
to emerge, not all positive. He probably was the worst
teacher in the history of Virginia Military Institute. He memorized
his lectures the day before because of bad eyesight, and
then in the morning he would spew off this recorded spiel,
so to speak. If a cadet had a question about
(12:31):
a point, all Johnson could do is pull back the
tape and spew off the same thing. Work forward again.
What people forget is that these negative remarks were made
the first two or three years he was at the institute.
Starting about eighteen fifty four et CE, these cadets began
to realize, well, he's kookie, but there's something substantive in
(12:53):
this van. And one of these cadets loading his class
notebook toward the end of a terribly dull of course
under Major Jackson, the cadet wrote, I can't stand the
way this man teaches, but if I ever have to
go to war, I want to go with him because
there's something substantive in the Major.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And this cadet went to war with him and.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Died for him at Kernstown in March eighteen sixty two.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Steal. Jackson's greatest aspiration in life was to have a
family like what he did not have as a child.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Jackson the family became far more important to him than
it worked to a normal person, and this was especially
true with children. When Jackson got around little children, he
couldn't stay away from them, and he just.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Had to love them.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
His love of children was really and literally overwhelming. They
tell the story in Winchester of him riding in from
a military action outside Winchester. He had on his uniform coat,
it was dusty and whatnot. And seconds later he's on
his hands and knees playing horseye with the children. So
here comes this great warrior at one moment, and seconds
(14:05):
later he's down on the floor playing with children.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
This is Stone Lawick Jackson.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
While in Lexington, he found and married the love of
his life, Eleanor Jenkin, who was the daughter of the
president of Washington College. He wrote that he didn't think
he could be possibly happier in his life than being
married to Eleanor.
Speaker 11 (14:29):
At last, he's able to begin to create this thing
that he had sought, this intimacy, the bond of family.
Speaker 7 (14:37):
He was a very devoted husband you know, it's hard
sometimes to picture the fearless Confederate warrior as a family man.
But loved his wife.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
Dearly, yet she died in childbirth and the baby died
as well, and he had to bury his beloved wife.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
It was overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
He is a man who has fallen in love for
the first time in his life, and he marries this
girl and fourteen months later she's dead and the son she.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Died with us.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
So Jackson lost his wife, he lost his son, he
lost his family, all in one tremendous blow. And the
night after the shear Wal no one could find him
in Lexington. He just disappeared, and someone thought of going
out to the cemetery, and it's pouring rain and Jackson's
lying atop his wife's grave, clawing it to hearth, trying
to bring her back. I'm of the opinion that he
(15:33):
would have died from that if he had not acquired
that overwhelming faith that is his driving force as an adult.
And he's eventually came to the conclusion that God had
a reason for taking Ellie and his son, and he
must continue his life and let God's will be done.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
After the death of Eleanor and his Son. Jackson took
an unexpected journey, boarding a ship bound for Europe.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
He went to Europe not only to see the sites
in Lane history. He went to Europe to Leoni and
himself catch his breath more or lesson to come back
and file again. And it was upon his return from
Ula that he contacted an old Flynn and said, hello,
Hope you live on the Meion.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
This led to in the coin us an very quick proposal.
Speaker 9 (16:19):
Her name was Mary Anna Morrison. They had met years
earlier when he was actually engaged to Eleanor Jenkin.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And you've been listening to the story of Tom Stonewall Jackson,
and what a story you're hearing, and a full and
complete picture of this remarkable man who was simply caught
on the wrong side of history in the epic battle
we now know as a civil war. Right after graduating
from West Point, he's off to the Mexican War where
(16:48):
he's going to learn first hand about battle. And he
had this commanding officer, Commanding Officer Taylor, who helped Jackson
forge a deeper faith. But it was there that Jackson
discovered he liked the structure of the military and that
he had an aptitude for battle. He was brave to
a fault, we heard fearless in battle. And he comes
(17:11):
out of the war a true hero and a major,
mesmerized by the Roman Catholic Church. While in Mexico he dabbles,
and when he comes out of the war he has
no social graces.
Speaker 10 (17:23):
What to do next.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
He plans at VMI, where he's a professor, and not
a terribly good one. As one student said of Jackson,
I can't stand the way this man teaches. But if
I ever go to war, I want to go to
war with him. And of course the importance of family
for Jackson. He married and his wife was pregnant when
(17:44):
she died. He lost a family all over again. When
we come back more of this remarkable story, the story
of General Stonewall Jackson. Here on our American story, and
(18:08):
we continue with our American stories and the story of
Tom Stonewall Jackson.
Speaker 10 (18:14):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 9 (18:17):
From reading between the lines. Anna fell in love with
Major Jackson. When she first met him. She described, as
a young girl I think would in her early twenties,
what he looked like when she first saw him, and
she said he was five foot eleven and three quarters.
I mean even then she had described exactly how tall
he was, and that he had dark brown hair, and
(18:40):
he had his hair cut short. She thought that a
beard would look much better on him, and of course
eventually she talks him into growing that beard. She said
that when he laughed, though, or when he would smile,
his whole face would light up, and he had his
papa's blue gray eyes. And she said that he was
really quite wonderful.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
His past show was always for family. He was so
loyal to his family, and the love affair with his
wife is one of the most beautiful stories in all
of American history.
Speaker 9 (19:11):
He used to play practical jokes on her all the time.
He used to hide behind doors, and he'd jump out
and pick her up, turn around, give her a kiss.
That's not exactly what we think about. The strong general
called Stonewall.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
The greatest joy of his life. The thing he wanted
more than anything else was to be married and to
establish a Christian home and to raise children.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
As the nation simmered with an impending collision of ideals,
Jackson chose a course that transcended predictable stereotypes and established
a Sunday school class for both slaves and free blacks.
So resolved was his conviction to educate and evangelize those
with lesser opportunities.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
The Sunday School class just became an overwhelming, a cruise
sad point, because he believed fundamentally that every human being
was a child of God and had an equal right
to seek salvation, and he was contributing his pot toward
the black race.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
He taught his students to read because he believed that
every Christian had to be able to read the Bible
for themselves, and so, at least on this one occasion
in his life, ignored the law.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
He had met in violation of Virginia stature, which for
bad blacks gathering and public to speak, and Jackson said
they weren't doing that.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
They were gathering to worship God.
Speaker 11 (20:37):
Jackson felt that there is man's law in God's law,
and when he perceives that there is a disconnect between
the two, then it's his duty to follow God's law.
And that is what we see him doing in his
involvement with the Sunday School class.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
No one ever challenged him legally on the subject. That
was some rumbles of discontent, of course, but he conducted
that's school class all the way up to war, and
at one point it was up to about one hundred
and five, and he led them scriptures from the Bible,
explain them as best he could. They would have priss.
They would always sing amazing Grace. I don't know why
(21:14):
now did Jackson He loved amazing grace, but he was
totally tone deaf when music was concerned.
Speaker 11 (21:21):
Stays interested even when he's called away from VMI and
Lexington during the Civil War, continues to be interested in
supports through his tithing the efforts of the Sunday School.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
Would send five dollars and say, put this toward the class,
so they were even on his mind when he was
on active campaign. He saw the miss people for whom
he was responsible.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Stonewall was a Southern gentleman who was the champion of
enslaved men and women, a man who was feared on
the battlefield, but who was the the gentle proclaimer of
good news for me. The great appeal of Thomas Stonwall
(22:07):
Jackson is simply that you can't pin this guy down.
He is such a surprise.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
What people easily misunderstand is that when the walk comes,
Jackson is not fighting to possess.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
The first time that the people of Virginia voted, they
said no, they were not going to secede from the Union.
And Jackson was a union man. He was a pro
union man. But when Abraham Lincoln called for seventy five
thousand volunteers to invade the South, and he demanded Virginia
to supply their contingent to that army of invasion, then
(22:47):
the General Assembly of Virginia put it up for a
vote again, and Virginia succeeded a big time.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
He was fighting for his home land, his home state
of Virginia. Virginia had been invaded.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Have gone to.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
War for ages in this country for identically the same reason,
defend our homes, defend our way of life.
Speaker 6 (23:08):
His name was, you know, Thomas Jonathan Jackson, Tom. And
in the very first great battle of the war, Battle
First Manassas, Jackson's brigade was brought from the valley, joined
the Army of Johnston in Beauregard and brought into the
(23:33):
field at the Battle of Manassas kind of late in
the battle had been swirling for a number of hours
on that hot July day, eighteen sixty one, and Jackson's
men came up, were set up behind the line at
the Henry House Hill. Jackson was told to hold that line.
(23:54):
And so as the battle flowed back and forth, and
as the Confederate lines broke and reformed and broke again,
and finally it seemed like the Union assault was going
to succeed and break apart the Confederate line. And as
the South Carolina regiment of Bernard B. Was falling back,
be allegedly said Haltman formed behind the Virginians, there stands
(24:20):
Jackson like a stone wall. Enough people heard it that
Jackson took on that sobriquet of stonewall. In some ways
it's a metaphor of his life, and it was character.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
In almost every letter Jackson wrote to doctor White during
the war.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
He inquired about Sundaku glass.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
And indeed Lexington stood back breathless waiting to hear from
Jackson after the bottle of manassas to the word seeped
into the valley that Beaugard had won the bottle, Johnson
had won the battle. John Jackson won that battle. So
LExEN it was very anxious to hear from Jackson. In
a lot of our lives follow doctor White, and in
town gathers a land.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Doctor White opens a letter.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
And Jackson says something, owing to some affairs yesterday, I
was not able to send you what I wanted to do,
But encloses my donation for the Colored Sunday School. Well,
the busy ordeal Jackson that had it been the bottle
of Nassas, and he makes no mention of it. He
simply sends doctor White a contribution toward the Sunday School.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
To the enemy of Jackson was totally unpredictable. He was
all he was predictable for doing the unpredictable. You never
knew where he was. Jackson's two great secrets for secrecy and.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Speed in marching and in fighting, and he just popped
up out of nowhere. And the Shenandoa Valley Campaign demonstrates that.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
The legacy of his Valley Campaign is still studied in
military schools in different parts of the world. By the
end of the Valley Campaign, the men in the ranks
adored Jackson.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
And you've been listening to the story of General Tom
Stonewall Jackson. We even learned how he got the nickname,
how he earned the nickname, I might add, and we
learned so much more about the complexity of this man
and what he was willing to do, and how he
was willing to view slaves not fully free right, but
(26:20):
fully human. Why else break Virginia statutes in law to
teach black slaves and free blacks how to read and
to read so they could read the Bible.
Speaker 10 (26:32):
This was, of.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Course a violation of the Virginia law, as I said earlier,
But Jackson saw it as his obligation as a Christian,
just as Martin Luther King had written in letters from
a Birmingham jail that when God's law was in contradiction
to man's, it was God's law that had to prevail.
And of course, in the end, what we learned this
(26:54):
man was born to fight and born to lead. And
in the end, what we learn is that Jackson was
for his home state. When Lincoln issued the proclamation for
the invasion of the South, his home Virginia, his home state.
He had to take a stand and side with his home.
When we come back more of this remarkable story, this
(27:15):
nuance story capturing the full complexity of this human being.
The story of Tom Stonewall Jackson continues here on our
American stories, and we continue with our American stories, and
(27:40):
with the story of Tom Stonewall Jackson the full complex
and nuanced picture of this remarkable man and this great general.
Speaker 10 (27:49):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 7 (27:52):
Jim Lewis was Jackson's body servant slave, though the records,
of course are sketchy on Lewis, but it appears that
Lewis was owned by a fellow church member and Jackson
leased him during the war for his cooking abilities, and
he was a great cook, and he was very loyal
to Jackson. They had a great relationship. They trusted each other.
(28:17):
Jackson one time got an argument with Lewis about which
horse he was going to ride in battle, and Jackson
wanted a particular horse.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Lewis said.
Speaker 7 (28:27):
No words were exchanged, and eventually Jackson agreed to Lewis's recommendation,
which is really you know, that's unusual because Jackson took
counsel a few people.
Speaker 9 (28:42):
He never let anybody bother Tom when he was praying,
he made everyone quiet around the camp.
Speaker 7 (28:49):
There was an incident one time when Jackson was praying
in his tent and the rest of the camp they
were taking their tents down, getting ready to move, and
there was a lot of chatter going on, and Lewis
steps up, and he holds his hand up and tells
they want to be quiet. The general's praying. Jackson always
kept his battle plans close to his chest, wouldn't share
(29:10):
that with even his very closest officers. But Jim Lewis
knew something was about when Jackson got up early in
the morning to pray.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
This often said that in the North mothers would put
misbehaving children to bed and say, if you're not careful, Stonewall,
Jackson's coming to get you, and that would do it.
He was a mystery, frightening unknown to the Northern armies
threw out his brief but spectacular culia.
Speaker 6 (29:37):
His name became a byword in the North end in
the South. It also stayed the hand of the Union
invasion of Virginia to some extent, because they had to
worry about Jackson in the valley. Three armies was not
enough to subdue him.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
On May second, Jackson had led his most famous flank attack.
The flank attack votes the Union about three miles It
had been its lines into almost a U shape, and
then that night Jackson did a couple of things that
were major mistakes. We can say in retrospect he should
have known better to find out why the Union lines
were He himself went out there. An army commander doesn't
(30:18):
do that, you send scouts.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
He was hit three times.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
One of the balls shattered his left shoulder to such
an extent that I think amputation would be in order
today because the bones were just reduced to splinters. The
amputation took place early on.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
The morning of the third.
Speaker 7 (30:40):
During that night that Jackson was suffering with the fever
and the chills and all the pain from the wounding.
Speaker 6 (30:47):
His only child that was to be born and survive
was born during the war itself. And he did get
to holder in his arms before he died, but just barely.
And that was it was. It was a grief to
him to see that he would he would not see
or grow up. And his deathbed he had resigned his
(31:10):
life to God and to eternal salvation and saw this
God's will, but he didn't have that regret.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
On Sunday, May tenth, eighteen sixty three, surgeon Maguire and
form Missus Jackson that he would not make it through
the day. That's kind of strange to be able to
tell when the time of death is coming. Indeed, you
could almost predict the hour, but you couldn't do anything
for the illness itself. And at three point fifteen, on
(31:39):
the afternoon of May tenth, Jackson went home. It was devastating.
His was probably the greatest personal loss the South suffered
in the Civil War. The whole nation mourned because Jackson
was so revered by then, he was a member of
everybody's family. They took his by to the state Capitol,
(32:01):
in whichmen he lay in state and it was spring time,
and an estimated twenty five thousand people came to tell
him goodbye. And in those days, death was callous. You
did not get emotional at death, you because that's the
left death conquer you. But the dead man here was
Stonewall Jackson, and people just could not conceal their grief.
(32:24):
And thousands of in passing his casket in the motanda
the State Capitol instinctively lays fring flowers at the base.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Of the coffee Union.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
General Joseph Leitburn, Jackson's boyhood friend, learned of his passing
while leading Lightburn's Northern troops in the Battle of Vicksburg.
Speaker 8 (32:43):
He wept, of course, he remembered all their childhood days together,
and you never can replace a memory like that.
Speaker 6 (32:52):
The grief that infected the men who had served under
him was was deep and widespread, and there were those
who despaired for the Confederate because God had taken Jackson
from them.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
In the years following his death, Jackson's influence continued to grow. Yes,
he was regarded as a military hero, but another of
his most significant contributions was that the slaves and free
blacks who attended Jackson's Sunday school class went on to
form four churches, three of which are still in existence today.
(33:26):
To the legacy of Jackson is a stained glass window
in rural North Virginia, commissioned by a descendant of slaves
who came to faith in Jackson's Sunday school class. The
stained glass reads, in memory of Stonewall Jackson, let us
cross the river and rest in the shade of the trees.
Speaker 11 (33:47):
The slaves that had been a part of Jackson's Sunday
school class in Lexington would become the feedment of the
African American community in the post war Lexington and Valley
of Virginia.
Speaker 9 (33:58):
And they still revered him. Those that were from Lexington,
the blacks and the slaves, former slays, even free blacks
still revered him.
Speaker 11 (34:07):
Tom Jonathan Jackson appeals to us yet today for several
fundamental reasons. As Americans, we like to root for the underdog,
and Jackson provides us with a great, almost Horatio Alger underdog.
In his early years in the western part of Virginia,
his struggling to improve himself through his years at West Point,
(34:29):
in his constant insistence on the betterment, being the best
person he could possibly be in his private family.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Life, Thomas Jackson was one of the few military geniuses,
and couple with that was an abiding faith that, by
owadays standards is enviable.
Speaker 11 (34:50):
How would Jackson wish to be remembered by us today,
perhaps most succinctly as a Christian soldier who did his duty.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
What we see Stonewall Jackson is really a complete man,
a man who understood the value of home, who understood
the value of courage, of sacrifice, and what it took
to rise from very ordinary, oftentimes deprived circumstances to make
(35:20):
a difference in the world. He was one of those
unique men who understood his calling and never felt that
his calling was in any way limited by his experiences.
One of the things that makes a fairy tale so
appealing is irony in paradox, the fact that a very
(35:45):
ordinary person does extraordinary things, the fact that somebody who
has a very unlikely background is suddenly able to rise
to the occasion and then do very surprising things. That,
to me is the appeal of Thomas Stonewall Johnson.
Speaker 6 (36:05):
His convictions were like a stonewall, his beliefs, his convictions,
his attention and devotion to duty, and so he earned
it on the battlefield, and it went with him throughout
his life, and we're talking about it today. He's Stonewall Jackson.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
And a terrific job by the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler.
Speaker 10 (36:29):
And we'd like to thank the contributing.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Experts to this story, George Grant, William Potter, James Robertson,
Richard Williams, Dean Hardman, Jeene Carter, Francis Lightburn, Crisman, Susan Church,
Gary Smith, and Colonel Keith Gibson. And a special thanks
Division Video for giving us special access to the interviews
(36:52):
in their documentary Still Standing The Stonewall Jackson's Story. My goodness,
what we learned a year. Is what the name Stonewall
Jackson even meant to Northerners and Southerners.
Speaker 10 (37:05):
He was an.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Unknown and a fearful unknown to many in the North,
and an unknown and a fearful unknown to those in
the South too, a warrior, a military genius. But it
was those relationships with the slaves what's so special. And
I have a deep connection to Virginia. I went to
law school at the University of Virginia, and we took
(37:26):
many a road trip. Product of the North, I grew
up in New Jersey. I really came to understood Southerners too,
and the Southern stories, particularly a Southern hero story like this,
and those slaves that he taught the Bible to would
found four churches. And in this one church in Roanoke
on stained glass is this inscription to the man in
(37:50):
memory of Stonewall Jackson quote, let us cross the river
and rest in the shade of the trees. The story
of Tom Stonewall Jackson here on our American stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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