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• Stonewall Jackson
  Stonewall Jackson

  noun

  nickname of Thomas Jonathan Jackson.
• Jackson, “Stonewall”
  Jackson, “Stonewall”

  Thomas J. Jackson, a general in the Confederate army during the Civil War. He got his nickname at the First Battle of Bull Run, where he and his men “stood like a stone wall.” He and General Robert E. Lee led the South to victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville. In the evening after the battle was won, however, Jackson was fatally shot by Confederate troops who mistook him and his staff for Union officers.

Stonewall Jackson

American  

[stohn-wawl] / ˈstoʊnˌwɔl /

noun

1. nickname of Thomas Jonathan Jackson.

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Jackson, “Stonewall” Cultural  

1. Thomas J. Jackson, a general in the Confederate army during the Civil War. He got his nickname at the First Battle of Bull Run, where he and his men “stood like a stone wall.” He and General Robert E. Lee led the South to victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville. In the evening after the battle was won, however, Jackson was fatally shot by Confederate troops who mistook him and his staff for Union officers.

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Jackson's dying words, “Let us cross the river and rest in the shade of the trees,” are much remembered.

In the poem “Barbara Frietchie,” by John Greenleaf Whittier, Stonewall Jackson orders his men not to harm Barbara Frietchie or the Union flags she is holding (see Shoot, if you must, this old gray head).

Example Sentences

Mr. Wins expanded the school’s diversity initiatives and removed a statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson from campus, but his tenure was marked by declining enrollment.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026

A detail of the horse’s nostril on Kara Walker’s reimagined Stonewall Jackson sculpture.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 21, 2025

My little joke about the press interviewing Stonewall Jackson during the Civil War could very well have appeared in The Onion at some point.

From Salon • Jul. 5, 2025

“I really don’t identify with any of the ideals nor really any of what Stonewall Jackson stood for.”

From BBC • Aug. 13, 2024

The Confederate generals were Lee and Stonewall Jackson, together with James Longstreet, who brought up reinforcements that saved the day for the Confederates.

From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt