Stonewall Jackson
Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson was born in Virginia on Jan. 21, 1824. He was a Confederate general, and was the second most popular person in the military in the South, next to General Lee. He was left an orphan at a very early age, but was able to graduate from the West Point Academy. He fought in the Mexican War, then resigned so he could teach at the Virginia Military Institute. During his ten years of teaching, Jackson’s first wife died. He then remarried. Jackson was had very strange habits, so strange that you could call him eccentric. For example, he thought that half of his body was heavier than the other so he kept one of his hands suspended in the air to restore his balance. He even stood up while he was eating because he insisted that it aided his digestion. In 1861, he joined the Confederate army. That July, He earned his famous nickname. As the Confederates neared defeat the first battle of Bull Run (a small field by a stream), Jackson and his troops stood , ”Like a stone wall,” according to General Bee. In 1862, Jackson commanded a Confederate army in the Shenandoah Valley. Hard marching and hard fighting brought him and his army many victories against Union generals whose combined strength was much greater than his. At Chancellerville that next spring, Jackson fought his last battle. On May 2, 1863, Jackson died.