Stonewall Jackson died May 10, 1863

Stonewall Jackson died on May 10th 1863 at a field hospital near Guiney Station, VA, about 30 miles from Chancellorsville where he was taken from the battlefield on the evening of May 2nd after having been accidentally shot by fellow Confederate soldiers tragically.

Jackson would spend his remaining days bed-ridden in Thomas C. Chandler’s plantation office, having refused an offer from Chandler to use is personal residence.

At first it seemed he might recover nicely from the wound, just losing his left arm. Jackson’s left arm had to be amputated by Dr. Hunter McGuire. But his situation turned mortal as the days wore on. He had symptoms of pneumonia and complained of a sore chest. Since he was carried roughly from the battlefield, even being dropped from the stretcher at one point, it was thought by the doctor that his chest pain was related to the rough escort to the field hospital. He died of complications due to pneumonia on May 10th.

His final words, spoken in a delirious state were:

“Let us cross over the river and rest in the shade of the trees.”

He may have been dreaming of his childhood home at Jackson’s Mill. Upon learning of Jackson’s death Robert E. Lee told his cook William:

“William, I have lost my right arm,” and “I’m bleeding at the heart.”

The plantation office building, site where Stonewall Jackson died (Guinea Station, Virginia)

“Death removed him from the scene at the apogee of a military fame enjoyed by no other Civil War figure. His passing at a high point in Confederate success was the greatest personal loss suffered by the wartime South. Jackson became the first icon, the ultimate offering for the Southern cause. Death at the hour of his most spectacular victory [Chancellorsville] led to more poems of praise than did any other single event of the war. Jackson was the only dead man to be pictured on Confederate currency – and his likeness graced the most expensive note: a $500 bill.”

– [Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, 1997: ix].