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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

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Stonewall Jackson Jackson, “Stonewall”

In fact, Lincoln himself did so at least twice more, once with a surprising tribute to Gen. Stonewall Jackson, after the Confederate’s death in 1863, and later to defend the federal recruitment of black troops.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

Walker used a plasma cutter to slice apart a statue of prominent Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson, which she welded back together in an entirely new form.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2025

The centrepiece of the show is "Unmanned Drone" – a completely reconstructed sculpture of Stonewall Jackson by artist Kara Walker, who transformed the horse and its rider heading into battle into a headless, zombie-like creature.

From BBC ● Oct. 19, 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

Since the death of Stonewall Jackson he has been Lee’s right hand.

From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara

In all these battles Lee’s most effective helper was General Thomas J. Jackson, “Stonewall” Jackson, as he was called.

From Stories of Later American History by Gordy, Wilbur Fisk