The legend of General Stonewall Jackson stands second only to that of his commander, General Robert E Lee. However, during his lifetime, Jackson's popularity far outpaced that of General Lee, and Jackson's tragic death lifted him to the level of akin to sainthood in the minds of Southerners.
One of the greatest and most daring military maneuvers ever attempted, happened at a small crossroads in Virginia during the American Civil War, at a battle that would come to be known as Chancellorsville. General Lee was facing a new commander of the Union Army after the disaster of Burnside at Fredericksburg, Lincoln had replaced him with General Hooker. Hooker had developed a brilliant plan that he hoped would force Lee to abandon
his Fredericksburg entrenchments, leading to the demise of the Army of Northern Virginia. Yet, in true Lee fashion, he did not act as expected, and despite already having divided his meager force in hopes of finding food and supplies, Lee defied conventional military wisdom, and instead of retreating to avoid a trap, he divided his army again and went to meet the enemy head on. What would be come to be known as "Lee's greatest victory" would also cost him one of his most valuable assets.
This kind of aggressive and unconventional type of warfare was right up General Jackson's alley, and he had the light of battle kindled in him. In his eagerness to continue to press the advantage the Confederate Army had gained by the daring maneuver (and the subsequent hesitation of General Hooker) Jackson had rode ahead of his men to do recon. However, by the time he began to return to his lines, the sun had set and it had become dark. Jackson's troops were jumpy, after hearing rumors of Union troops slinking through the woods. The men began shooting at shadows. Quite by mistake, Jackson and his staff ran into the main Confederate line, and upon hearing voices in the dark and seeing shadowy figures, his troops began firing, and two volleys rang out. Despite the efforts of Lieutenant Joseph Morrison, (Jackson's brother in law) to get the men to stop firing by yelling to the soldiers that they were firing on their own men, the soldiers did not believe them. After having time
to reload, they fired on the men with the strength of a full volley. The thick underbrush of the Wilderness protected most of the men, but one staff officer died and another was wounded. While the others survived unscathed, General Jackson was not so lucky. He was struck 3 times, one in the right hand, one in the left forearm, and one just a few inches below his left shoulder. His horse had bolted in panic, and Jackson had to use his arm to protect himself from the underbrush, with one branch almost unhorsing him. When he was finally able to rein the horse in and his staff came up to him, they asked if he had been wounded. He said he feared his arm was broken, and complained of soreness in his hand, and he marveled that "all my wounds are by my own men."
The initial wounds were not very bad, but the necessary movement of the General from the battlefield would cause additional damage. He was put on a stretcher and lifted to shoulder height to be carried, but the men had to work through the thick underbrush of the Wilderness, while while being bombarded by Union artillery, causing the soldiers carrying the General to drop him twice. Less than 50 yards after starting to move, a piece of artillery hit the soldier carrying the front left of the stretching, causing him to drop it, and subsequently pitching General Jackson to fall from shoulder height, landing on his injured shoulder. After recruiting more men, the soldiers lifted the General again, and they began to move again. This time, it was the underbrush that would cause the issue. One of the liter bearers tripped on a vine, causing the General to be dropped again. One of the liter accidents had caused the General's shoulder to begin hemorrhaging. When medical staff was finally able to assess Jackson's wounds, he was also complaining of pain in his side and chest, but those complaints were ignored as nothing looked wrong with the area, and the doctors decided to focus on the visible wounds. It was a unanimous decision by the doctors to amputate the arm, as they feared that removing the bullets and bandaging the wound would allow the arm to be overtaken by gangrene.
The amputation was a success, but Jackson had some peculiar medical ideas, and insisted that damp towels be placed on him, as he believed they would make him better. However, it had the opposite affect, and those damp towels became a key factor in him developing pneumonia. The side pain he had complained about was an injury from the fall during his movement, and it is believed that those wounds may have also contributed to him getting pneumonia. Unfortunately, no one realized he had pneumonia before it was too late. General Jackson would die not from bullet wounds, or an arm amputation, but severe pneumonia.
Jackson's amputated arm was about to be thrown onto a pile of other disregarded limbs, when his chaplain decided that the arm of one of the great General's of the Confederacy deserved more honor than that, so he ensured that it was buried at a private cemetery near by. The arm received a full Christian burial, and when the General's widow was asked if she wanted it dug up and brought to his body, she said she did not want to disturb a Christian burial, so it would stay where it was. In 1864, Union soldiers claimed to have dug up the arm and buried it in an unknown location. In 1903, a member of the General's staff erected a simple stone to mark the burial place of the limb, with the inscription "Arm of Stonewall Jackson May 3, 1863". It is unknown if the stone it marks the actual burial location, or just the general area. The NPS is unwilling to disturb the burial site to find out the answer to the question of the location of the arm, adding another layer of mystique to Jackson's arm.
His body would be transported to Lexington Virginia to be buried in the family plot at the Presbyterian Cemetery. Later, the body would be moved again, to a central location in the cemetery, underneath a grand statue of the General. In April of 1949, the cemetery would be renamed "Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery" in Jackson's honor. The cemetery would bare that name for 71 years, until it was unanimously voted to be changed to Oak Grove Cemetery in 2020, removing the reference to General Jackson.
And that friends, is the true, but almost unbelievable story, of how one of the greatest military generals of the 19th century would have his body buried nearly 100 miles away from his amputated arm. The South never recovered from the death of General Jackson, and his death has left many "what if" and "if only" scenarios in the minds of generations after the war, causing both his body burial site and his arm burial site to become meccas for those fascinated by the eternally fascinating General Stone Wall Jackson.
*****
I have been able to visit the Chancellorsville battlefield, along with the site of General Jackson's wounding, and the burial site of his arm. His actual burial site was too far of a drive for the trip we were on, but it is on my list of must see places. I highly recommend a visit to the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania battlefields, because you can't fully understand the events of the battle of Chancellorsville without seeing it in person. Being able to stand where you know General Jackson fell, to see where he and Lee had their last great meeting, gave me goosebumps. It is an experience to visit the battlefield, and I highly recommend it.
Additional Resources:
If you want to learn more about the battle, you can get a detailed account on the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park website by using the following link: https://www.nps.gov/frsp/learn/historyculture/cvillehist-opening.htm
Due to the ongoing pandemic, you can actually do a virtual trip of the battlefield by using the following link: https://www.nps.gov/frsp/learn/photosmultimedia/chanvirtual.htm
You can also virtually follow Wounding of General Jackson trail by clicking on the following link: https://www.nps.gov/frsp/planyourvisit/trails-brochures.htm
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