Existing comment:
Stonewall Jackson, 1824-1863
This c. 1863 lithograph by the New York–based firm of Currier & Ives testifies to the fame of Confederate general Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson. The likeness is based on the last photograph of him, taken by Virginia photographer George W. Minnis just a few days before Jackson's death at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
Despite humble beginnings, Jackson attended West Point, graduating seventeenth in a class of fifty-nine, and later demonstrated his extraordinary resolve on the battlefield. After success in the Mexican American War, Jackson became an instructor at the Virginia Military Institute, from which he led cadets into war in 1861. Jackson, who earned his nickname during the First Battle of Bull Run, became one of the South's most successful military tacticians. Setting an example that would lead to an early southern victory, Jackson's fellow general Barnard E. Bee is reported to have exclaimed: "Look, men! There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!"
Currier & Ives Lithography Company, c 1863 |