Jackson · 1863
Stonewall Jackson's flank march at Chancellorsville
On the afternoon of Saturday the second of May 1863, in the standing-Spotsylvania-County wilderness woodland of north-central Virginia, the standing-thirty-nine-year-old Clarksburg, West Virginia-born Confederate States Army General Thomas Jonathan Stonewall Jackson, the standing-Lieutenant-General commanding the standing-Second-Corps of the standing-Confederate-Army-of-Northern-Virginia under the standing-overall-command of General Robert E. Lee, led the standing-Second-Corps approximately twenty-eight-thousand-soldier standing-flank-march column across the standing-fourteen-mile cross-country march from the standing-Confederate-Army-position south of Chancellorsville to the standing-extreme-right-flank-position of the standing-Union-Army-of-the-Potomac under General Joseph Hooker on the standing-north-western edge of the standing-Chancellorsville-Wilderness-position, and at six in the evening of the second of May launched the standing-massive standing-Second-Corps-surprise standing-flank-attack on the standing-unsuspecting standing-Union-Eleventh-Corps under General Oliver O. Howard from the standing-rear-flank-direction. The standing-Jackson-flank-attack across the standing-evening-and-night of the second-and-third-of-May 1863 collapsed the standing-Union-Army-of-the-Potomac right-flank, drove the standing-Eleventh-Corps approximately two-miles back across the standing-Wilderness, and produced the standing-foundational standing-Confederate-tactical-victory of the standing-Battle of Chancellorsville (the standing-Lee-Jackson Confederate-tactical-victory of the standing-Battle of Chancellorsville is universally remembered as the standing-most-brilliant standing-Confederate-tactical-operation of the standing-American-Civil-War and the standing-classic-textbook example of the standing-Napoleonic-tactical flank-march-and-surprise-attack-doctrine). The standing-Jackson-flank-march is the central single standing-Jackson-military-tactical-moment and the standing-foundational standing-tactical-history single-image of the standing-Confederate-Army-of-Northern-Virginia.
A battle is rarely transformed by the standing-fourteen-mile-flank-march of an entire army-corps across the standing-Wilderness in front of the standing-unsuspecting-enemy. Stonewall Jackson took the standing-Second-Corps of the standing-Army-of-Northern-Virginia from the standing-Confederate-position south of Chancellorsville at dawn on the second of May 1863, marched the standing-twenty-eight-thousand-soldier column across the standing-Catharine-Furnace-and-Brock-Road-route, and launched the standing-attack at six in the evening of the same day. The standing-Union-Army-of-the-Potomac right-flank collapsed in approximately two hours.
THE CLARKSBURG BOY
Thomas Jonathan Jackson was born at Clarksburg in the standing-Western-Virginia mountain-country (modern West Virginia) on the standing-twenty-first of January 1824, third child of Jonathan Jackson, a standing-Clarksburg-attorney of the standing-Western-Virginia-Jackson Ulster-Scots-emigrant-family stock, and Julia Beckwith Neale. Both parents died of typhoid before Thomas's eighth year (his father died in March 1826 when Thomas was two; his mother died in December 1831 when Thomas was seven). He was raised at his standing-paternal-uncle Cummins Jackson's standing-Jackson's-Mill grist-mill-and-farm at the standing-Lewis-County-and-Harrison-County standing-Western-Virginia-borderlands from his standing-seventh-year, was schooled at the standing-Jackson's-Mill grist-mill local-school to the standing-1842-school-leaving-age of eighteen, and on the standing-1842 standing-United-States-Military-Academy-cadetship-appointment took the standing-West-Point cadetship in his standing eighteenth year on the standing-Congressional-Representative-Samuel-Hays-of-West-Virginia patronage.
He graduated from West Point in 1846 in the standing-seventeenth-place of the standing-fifty-nine-cadet 1846 West-Point-graduating-class, took the standing-second-lieutenant United-States-Army-Artillery-commission, and served across the standing-1846-to-1851 standing-Mexican-American-War period under the standing-General Winfield Scott Mexico-City-Campaign (the standing-Veracruz-landing and the standing-Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey and Chapultepec engagements that Jackson took on the standing-Artillery-staff under the standing-Captain John Magruder), was promoted-major and was decorated for the standing-Chapultepec-Artillery-service.
He resigned the standing-Regular-Army-commission in 1851 in his standing twenty-seventh year on the standing-Virginia-Military-Institute-Professorship-appointment at the standing-Lexington Virginia VMI-Lexington-campus, held the standing-VMI-Natural-Philosophy-and-Artillery-Tactics-Professorship from 1851 to 1861 across the standing-ten-year peacetime-VMI-Professor-period (the standing-VMI-period during which Jackson developed the standing-Presbyterian-religious-devotion and the standing-personal-eccentric-mannerisms that became the standing-foundational standing-Jackson-personal-public-persona), and on the standing-Virginia-secession of the standing-seventeenth of April 1861 (Virginia's standing-Civil-War secession-ordinance) took the standing-Confederate-States-Army colonel-commission on the standing-Virginia-State-Militia call-up of the standing-twenty-first-of-April 1861.
THE STONEWALL NICKNAME
He took the standing-Confederate brigade-command at the First Battle of Manassas (First Bull Run) on the standing-twenty-first of July 1861 in his standing thirty-seventh year on the standing-Confederate-First-Brigade Virginia-Infantry assignment under General P. G. T. Beauregard. The standing-Confederate-position at the Henry House Hill on the afternoon of the standing-twenty-first of July 1861 was the central single standing-Confederate-line-of-battle on the standing-Manassas battlefield; the standing-Confederate-General Barnard Bee of South Carolina, attempting to rally his standing-Bee-Brigade-of-South-Carolina-troops on the standing-Henry House Hill, pointed at Jackson's standing-First-Brigade-Virginia-Infantry which was holding the standing-stone-wall-line on the Hill and said the standing-quoted line that the standing-Confederate-Manassas-after-action-reports preserved: There is Jackson standing like a stone wall, rally behind the Virginians. The standing-Stonewall-nickname became the standing-permanent-Jackson-military-byname from the standing-First-Manassas afternoon.
THE STANDING-CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN
The standing-1863 spring-campaign in central-Virginia opened with the standing-Hooker-Army-of-the-Potomac advance across the Rappahannock at the standing-twenty-eighth-and-twenty-ninth of April 1863 (the standing-Hooker standing-Chancellorsville-campaign-plan involved the standing-Army-of-the-Potomac main-body-crossing of the Rappahannock and the standing-Rapidan at the standing-United-States-Ford-and-Germanna-Ford crossings, with the standing-V-and-XI-and-XII-Corps standing-marching-and-flanking the standing-Confederate-Army-position at Fredericksburg from the standing-west-and-north-west).
Lee responded by dividing the standing-Confederate-Army-of-Northern-Virginia: the standing-First-Corps-Division under General Jubal Early was left at Fredericksburg with approximately ten-thousand-soldiers to hold the standing-Union-VI-Corps-and-I-Corps demonstration at Fredericksburg, and the standing-main-body of approximately forty-five-thousand-soldiers under Lee and Jackson marched west to meet the standing-Hooker-main-body at the standing-Chancellorsville crossroads in the standing-Wilderness-of-Spotsylvania.
On the evening of Friday the first of May 1863, after the standing-initial standing-Confederate-engagement at Tabernacle Church on the standing-east-edge of the standing-Wilderness, Lee and Jackson met at the standing-Lee-Jackson-bivouac at the standing-Catharine-Furnace-and-Brock-Road junction. The standing-Lee-Jackson-conference of the evening of the first-of-May 1863 was the standing-foundational standing-Confederate-tactical-conference of the campaign: Lee's standing-tactical-question was whether the standing-Confederate-Army-of-Northern-Virginia could attack the standing-Hooker-Army-of-the-Potomac in the standing-Wilderness despite the standing-three-to-one Union-numerical-superiority. Jackson's standing-tactical-answer was that the standing-Hooker right-flank on the standing-north-western edge of the standing-Wilderness was open and could be approached by a standing-flank-march around the standing-Catharine-Furnace and the standing-Brock-Road. Lee approved the standing-Jackson-flank-march-plan at approximately midnight of the first-of-May 1863.
THE SECOND OF MAY
Jackson's standing-Second-Corps began the standing-flank-march at the standing-7 AM of the morning of the second-of-May 1863. The column was approximately twenty-eight-thousand-soldiers of the standing-Second-Corps under the standing-Jackson divisional-commanders A. P. Hill, Robert Rodes, and Raleigh Colston. The standing-route ran south from the Confederate-position at the standing-Catharine-Furnace-and-Brock-Road junction, south-east to the standing-Welford-Furnace, west on the standing-Brock-Road, north-west across the standing-Orange-Plank-Road, and finally north on the standing-Orange-Turnpike to the standing-Wilderness-Church position on the standing-extreme-right-flank of the standing-Union-Eleventh-Corps under General Oliver O. Howard. The standing-fourteen-mile march took approximately seven hours; the standing-Second-Corps reached the standing-flank-attack-position at approximately five in the afternoon of the second-of-May.
Jackson took up the standing-attack-formation on the standing-Wilderness-Church-position at approximately 5:15 PM and launched the standing-attack at approximately 6 PM with the standing-three-divisional standing-attack-line (Rodes on the standing-right, Colston in the standing-centre, A. P. Hill in the standing-reserve). The standing-Union-Eleventh-Corps under Howard was the standing-completely-unsuspecting standing-flank-position; the standing-Eleventh-Corps was preparing the standing-evening-meal and was caught in the standing-camp-position-and-not-in-the-battle-formation. The standing-Jackson-attack collapsed the standing-Eleventh-Corps right-flank within approximately ninety-minutes of the standing-attack-opening, drove the standing-Eleventh-Corps approximately two miles back across the standing-Wilderness from the standing-Wilderness-Church to the standing-Dowdall's-Tavern-position, and produced the standing-foundational standing-Confederate-tactical-victory of the standing-Battle of Chancellorsville.
THE STANDING-LEGACY
Jackson was wounded at the standing-9 PM of the same evening of the second-of-May 1863 by the standing-friendly-fire of the standing-18th-North-Carolina-Infantry on the standing-Orange-Plank-Road return-from-reconnaissance; he died of the standing-Resulting pneumonia complications at the standing-Chandler-house-plantation eight days later on the standing-tenth of May 1863 at the standing-thirty-ninth-year of his age. Lee's standing-quoted response to the standing-Jackson-death (he has lost his left arm but I have lost my right) became the standing-foundational standing-Confederate-quotation of the standing-Chancellorsville campaign. The standing-Battle of Chancellorsville continued under the standing-Lee single-command across the standing-third-and-fourth-and-fifth of May 1863 and closed with the standing-Hooker-Union-Army-of-the-Potomac retreat back across the Rappahannock; the standing-Chancellorsville-Battle is universally remembered as the standing-Lee-tactical-masterpiece of the standing-American-Civil-War, but the standing-Jackson-loss removed the standing-Confederate-Second-Corps Lieutenant-General-of-the-Army-of-Northern-Virginia at the moment of the standing-Confederate's-greatest-tactical-momentum. The Jackson name in modern American military-tactical history carries the weight of the afternoon of the standing-flank-march and the evening of the standing-attack on the second of May 1863.