Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson – 1824-1863
When his bold stand at the First Battle of Bull Run turned the tide toward a Confederate victory, this Virginia general earned the sobriquet “Stonewall” and emerged in successive actions as the most innovative and skilled tactician of the Civil War. In the Shenandoah Valley, he was able to use a minimal number of men to pin down huge Union forces, and at Chancellorsville he was instrumental in achieving a crushing Union defeat. Wounded by friendly fire on May 2, 1863, he died eight days later. Robert E. Lee declared: “I have lost my right arm.”