Calamity at Chancellorsville Page 14

  At 1:30 p.m., McGuire somberly told Anna that her husband had only two hours to live. Kneeling beside him, she softly relayed to him that his time of departure was near. “Very good,” he feebly responded. “It is all right.”20

  Jimmy Smith entered the room at 2:30 p.m. and stood silently by as Jackson slipped into a semi-comatose state. “Order A. P. Hill to prepare for action,” Jackson suddenly called out, “Pass the infantry to the front. Tell Maj. Hawks. . . .” then the sentence trailed off as Jackson fell back into unconsciousness.21

  The physical and emotional toll of the past week finally hit Hunter McGuire. The realization that all his knowledge and formidable skills had been unable to save the life of a close friend was almost too much for him to bear. “I left the room then,” McGuire recalled, “unable in my enfeebled condition to restrain my grief at seeing him die.”22

  For several minutes, Jackson continued to intermittently mumble disconnected words. Then, very clearly and with “an expression as if of relief,” he quietly remarked, “Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.”23

  Those immortal words would be Jackson’s last, as his breathing became increasingly shallow over the ensuing minutes. His life was slipping away, but Anna refused to let go. She called out to Dr. Tucker, “Doctor, can’t you do something more?”

  “No, madam,” he solemnly replied, “human power can do no more.”24

  The sound of his wife’s desperate voice momentarily brought Jackson back from the brink of death. He opened his eyes and lovingly looked into Anna’s tearful face. At that moment the clock on the mantel struck 3:15 p.m., and Stonewall Jackson slowly closed his eyes forever.25

  1 McGuire, “Last Wound of the Late Gen. Jackson,” 411; McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; James P. Smith to sister, May 9, 1863, Thomas J. Jackson Collection, MOC.

  2 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson.”

  3 Jackson, “Narrative.”

  4 Samuel Morrison, “Narrative,” Dabney-Jackson Collection, LVA; Samuel B. Morrison to uncle, May 13, 1863; Jackson, Life and Letters, 466.

  5 Samuel Morrison, “Narrative.”

  6 Jackson, Life and Letters, 466; Jackson, “Narrative.”

  7 Smith, “Lt. Smith Narrative.”

  8 Samuel B. Morrison to uncle, May 13, 1863.

  9 Jackson, Life and Letters, 467; Lacy, “Narrative.”

  10 Ibid.; Hotchkiss, Make Me a Map of the Valley, 142.

  11 Douglas Southall Freeman, R. E. Lee: A Biography, 4 vols. (New York, NY, 1934), vol. 2, 561.

  12 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; Jackson, “Narrative”; Samuel B. Morrison to uncle, May 13, 1863.

  13 Jackson, “Narrative”; Anna Jackson to Laura Arnold, September 12, 1864.

  14 McGuire, “Last Wound of the Late Gen. Jackson,” 411; Jackson, Life and Letters, 470; Anna Jackson to Laura Arnold, September 12, 1864.

  15 McGuire, “Last Wound of the Late Gen. Jackson,” 411-412; McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson.”

  16 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; Jackson, “Narrative”; Jackson, Life and Letters, 470; Samuel B. Morrison to uncle, May 13, 1863.

  17 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; McGuire, “Last Wound of the Late Gen. Jackson,” 412.

  18 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; McGuire, “Last Wound of the Late Gen. Jackson,” 412; Samuel B. Morrison to uncle, May 13, 1863.

  19 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; McGuire, “Last Wound of the Late Gen. Jackson,” 412.

  20 Ibid.

  21 Smith, “Lt. Smith Narrative”; McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson.”

  22 Ibid.

  23 Jackson, Life and Letters, 471; McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; McGuire, “Last Wound of the Late Gen. Jackson,” 412. See Appendix I for a detailed discussion of Jackson’s final words.

  24 Smith, “Lt. Smith Narrative.”

  25 Ibid.; Alexander Pendleton to father, Sandie Pendleton Papers, VMI.

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  The first indication to those outside Jackson’s inner circle that he had died came when a despondent Anna was escorted from the building, supported by her brother Joseph on one side and Jimmy Smith on the other. Witnessing the scene from the main house were Mary Chandler and her 11-year-old daughter, Lucy, who reportedly cried at the time, “O, how willingly I would have died for him.”1

  The new dress coat Jackson was wearing at the time of his wounding had been cut open during his treatment and was not suitable for burial. Instead, Jimmy Smith and Sandie Pendleton dressed Jackson’s body in a dark civilian suit and covered that with the general’s heavy blue military overcoat. His body was then placed in a simple pine coffin and carried to the parlor of the Chandler home. Viewing the body later that evening, Anna Jackson commented that “all traces of suffering had disappeared from the noble face . . . and he looked more natural than I had dared to hope.”2

  Tucker Lacy tried to comfort Anna that Sunday evening by talking to her of Heaven, “giving such glowing descriptions of its blessedness . . . that at last peace, the ‘peace of God,’ came into my soul,” Anna wrote, “and I felt that it was selfish to wish to bring back to this sorrowful earth, for my happiness, one who had made such a blissful exchange. But this frame of mind did not last, and many were the subsequent conflicts to attain and keep this spirit.”3

  After being informed of Jackson’s death, Robert E. Lee sent a telegram to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who stated in reply: “[A] great national calamity has befallen us.” The following day, Lee issued General Order No. 61:

  With deep grief, the commanding general announces to the army the death of Lieut. Gen. T. J. Jackson, who expired on the 10th instant, at 3:15 p.m. The daring, skill, and energy of this great and good soldier, by the decree of an all-wise Providence, are now lost to us. But while we mourn his death, we feel that his spirit still lives, and will inspire the whole army with his indomitable courage and unshaken confidence in God as our hope and strength. Let his name be a watchword to his corps, who have followed him to victory on so many fields. Let officers and soldiers emulate his invincible determination to do everything in the defense of our beloved country.

  R. E. Lee,

  General 4

  In a note that day to Jackson’s friend, cavalry general Jeb Stuart, Lee was more personal: “I regret to inform you that the great and good Jackson is no more. He died yesterday at 3:15 p.m., of pneumonia, calm, serene, and happy. May his spirit pervade our whole army; our country will then be secure.”5

  Privately, Lee was heartbroken. That same day he wrote to his wife, “I know not how to replace him,” and later openly wept when discussing the death with Sandie Pendleton’s father.6

  On behalf of the officers of the Stonewall Brigade, Lt. Henry K. Douglas approached Lee and asked whether the brigade, or at least part of it, could be allowed to escort the general’s remains to Richmond. Keenly aware that his army was constantly outnumbered in battle, Lee sadly denied the request. “I am sure no one can feel the loss of General Jackson more deeply than I do, for no one has the same reasons,” Lee said to Douglas. “I am sorry the situation of affairs will not justify me in letting them go to Richmond or even to Lexington. Those people over the river are again showing signs of movement and I cannot leave my headquarters long enough to ride to the depot and pay my dear friend the poor tribute of seeing his body placed upon the cars. He never neglected a duty while living and he would not rest the easier in his grave if his old brigade had left the presence of the enemy to see him buried.”7

  On Monday morning, May 11, Jackson’s casket was taken to Guiney Station, where a locomotive and one car were waiting to carry it to Richmond. Upon arriving at the outskirts of the capitol, the train stopped briefly so Anna could detrain and board a waiting carriage, so as to quietly enter the city along more deserted side streets. The train then continued on and pulled int
o the Richmond station at 4:00 p.m.

  The surrounding area was packed with thousands of citizens who had assembled hours earlier in anticipation of seeing the coffin. A deep sorrow “enshrouded every heart,” the Richmond (VA) Enquirer reported, and “it seemed as if every man felt himself an orphan.” The casket was removed from the train, covered with a new flag, and placed on a hearse led by two white horses. Weeks before, the Confederate Congress had authorized the creation of a new national flag, the “Stainless Banner,” as it became known due to its large white field. The first flag produced had been assigned to fly over the capitol building in Richmond, but it was used instead to drape Jackson’s casket.8

  Death mask of Jackson made by Frederick Volck.

  Valentine Richmond History Center

  Every business in Richmond, including government offices, was closed and all flags in the city were flying at half-mast for the arrival of Jackson’s body. Major General Arnold Elzey, commander of the Department of Richmond, led a military and civic escort from the train station as church bells throughout the city began to ring, continuing to sound until sundown. Staff members walking behind the hearse included Jimmy Smith, Sandie Pendleton, and Hunter McGuire. With tears streaming down his face, Pendleton would later tell Anna, “God knows I would have died for him.”9

  The long procession slowly made its way to the governor’s mansion, where the casket was placed in a reception room. Undertakers embalmed the body later that evening while sculptor Frederick Volck made a death mask of the general’s face. The body was then sealed in a new metallic coffin with a glass pane over the face and a silver plate that read: “Lieutenant-General T. J. Jackson. Born January 21st, 1824; died May 10, 1863.” The coffin was placed on a bier and surrounded with spring flowers. After viewing the body in state, Anna sadly remarked, “The beloved face could only be seen through the glass plate, which was disappointing and unsatisfactory.”10

  The next morning was very warm. A large funeral procession was organized to take the casket from the executive mansion to the capitol building, where the general’s body was to lie in state. The coffin, still draped in the Confederate flag, was placed on a hearse that was now pulled by four white horses. Walking alongside were the pallbearers: Gens. James Longstreet, Richard S. Ewell, Arnold Elzey, George E. Pickett, John H. Winder, Richard B. Garnett, James L. Kemper, Montgomery D. Corse, and George H. Steuart, and Admiral French Forrest of the Confederate navy. Jim Lewis walked behind the hearse leading one of Jackson’s horses with reversed boots fastened in the stirrups.11

  The lengthy procession winding through the streets of Richmond was “very solemn and imposing,” one witness described, “because the mourning was sincere and heartfelt.” Arriving at the capitol, the pallbearers carried the casket into the House of Representatives’ chamber, to which the doors remained open for the public. A reported 20,000 people would file past the casket before the day’s end. Henry K. Douglas watched as “a continuous stream” of individuals passed through “for a first and last view of the great general, whom they had learned to honor without seeing and love without knowing.” Women brought so many flowers Anna said that “not only the bier was covered, but the table on which it rested overflowed with piles of these numerous tributes of affection.”12

  On Wednesday, May 13, 1863, a military guard escorted the coffin back to the train station, where it departed for Gordonsville en route to Lynchburg, Virginia. “All along the route,” Anna recalled, “at every station at which a stop was made, were assembled crowds of people and many were the floral offerings handed in for the bier. His child was often called for, and, on several occasions, was handed in and out of the car windows to be kissed.”13

  Early the next morning in Lynchburg, the casket was placed on the canal boat Marshall for a final 15-mile river journey to Lexington, a trip that took a full day. Arriving in the city that evening, the entire corps of cadets of the Virginia Military Institute was waiting at the pier. The coffin was placed on a caisson and taken to Jackson’s old classroom at VMI, where it laid in state overnight with an honor guard of cadets.

  Although the body had been embalmed in Richmond, the relatively new process had yet to be perfected, and Jackson’s body was beginning to show signs of decay. “Decomposition had already taken place,” wrote one of the honor guards, “in consequence of which his face was not exposed to view as the features were said not to be natural.”14

  VMI cadets at Jackson’s grave in Lexington, Virginia.

  Courtesy of the Virginia Military Institute Archives

  * * *

  On Friday morning at 10:00 a.m., Jackson’s military funeral was held at the Presbyterian Church of Lexington, Virginia, in front of an overflowing crowd. Conducting the service was Jackson’s pastor, William S. White, who focused his sermon around the 15th chapter of I Corinthians: “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” White finished by tearfully reciting a letter that Jackson had written to the minister after his own son, Capt. Hugh A. White, was killed at the battle of Second Manassas: “The death of your noble son and my much esteemed friend, Hugh, must have been a severe blow to you, yet we have the sweet assurance that, whilst we mourn his loss to the country, to the church, and to ourselves, all has been gain for him. . . . That inconceivable glory to which we are looking forward is already his. . . .”15

  The two-hour service was followed by another procession that escorted the casket to the Presbyterian cemetery in town, where Stonewall Jackson was buried next to his first daughter with Anna, and not far from his first wife and stillborn child. Years later, in 1891, Jackson’s casket was ceremoniously moved to a nearby vault topped by an eight-foot-tall bronze statue of the general by sculptor Edward V. Valentine. The gravesite and statue remain today in what has been renamed the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia.16

  * * *

  The Civil War would continue for another two horrific and bloody years after the death of Stonewall Jackson. Some of his friends and comrades would survive the war, others would not. Family members, friends, and artifacts associated with his life took divergent paths following his death:

  Mary Anna Jackson

  Known throughout the South as “The Widow of the Confederacy,” Anna moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, following her husband’s death, where she remained active in postwar reunions of Confederate veterans. She never remarried and wore black mourning clothes for the rest of her life. She died at the age of 83 on March 24, 1915, and is buried in Lexington, Virginia, next to her husband.

  Julia Laura Jackson Christian

  Julia Jackson married William Christian in 1885 and had two children, a daughter named Julia Jackson Christian and a son named Thomas Jonathan Jackson Christian. Her life was cut short at the age of 26 when she contracted typhoid fever and died in 1889. She is buried with her parents in the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery.

  Jim Lewis

  Following Jackson’s death, Lewis became a servant to Sandie Pendleton until that officer’s death in 1864. He then returned to Lexington, Virginia, where he died shortly thereafter during the winter of 1864. He is buried in an unmarked grave.

  Hunter Holmes McGuire

  McGuire remained medical director of the Second Corps for the remainder of the war. Afterward he returned to Richmond, Virginia, where he held the chair of surgery at the Medical College of Virginia. He had a distinguished postwar medical career and was elected president of both the American Surgical Association and the American Medical Association. He suffered a severe stroke in March 1900 and died six months later at the age of 64.

  James Power Smith

  Smith continued to serve as a general staff officer in the Army of Northern Virginia until the end of the war. He then became minister of the Presbyterian Church of Fredericksburg, Virginia, for 22 years, and was the editor of the Central Presbyterian newspaper. He became the oldest surviving member of Jackson’s staff, dying in 1923 at the age of 86.

  Alexander “Sandie” Pendleton<
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  Rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel, Pendleton was subsequently killed at the battle of Fisher’s Hill in September 1864, five days short of his 24th birthday. He is buried in Lexington, Virginia, in the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery.

  Joseph G. Morrison

  Jackson’s brother-in-law survived the war but lost a foot after suffering a wound at the battle of Petersburg in 1865. He became a cotton mill operator in North Carolina after the war and died at his sister Anna’s home in 1906 at the age of 63.

  Jedediah Hotchkiss

  Hotchkiss continued his duties as a cartographer for the Army of Northern Virginia until the war’s end. He moved to Staunton, Virginia, where he had a successful postwar career as an engineer and geologist. He died in 1899 at the age of 70.

  Beverly Tucker Lacy

  Lacy continued as chaplain to the Second Corps following Jackson’s death. He served as pastor for churches in Virginia and Missouri after the war. He died in 1900 at the age of 81, and is buried in the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery.

  Robert E. Lee

  Lee remained commander of the Army of Northern Virginia until surrendering his army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, in April 1865. After the war he served as president of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia, until his death in 1870 at the age of 63. He is buried on the university grounds, a short distance from the cemetery containing his trusted lieutenant, Stonewall Jackson.

  James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart

  Returning to command of the cavalry after the battle of Chancellorsville, Stuart was wounded at the battle of Yellow Tavern on May 11, 1864, and died the next day at the age of 31.