Memorializing Stonewall Jackson

Here are what the waysides at Chancellorsville say about the memorializing the great Stonewall Jackson. I find the whole character of Stonewall Jackson very intriguing. So when I head down to Chancellorsville, I tend to find myself heading for the Stonewall Jackson spots....positions, or whatever. Here are the waysides:

Memorializing Jackson's Death

Of his soldiers he was the idol;
Of his country he was the hope;
Of war he was the master.

Senator John Warwick Daniel

When General "Stonewall" Jackson dies eight days after being wounded in these woods, shock waves rippled through the South. Confederates immediately memorialized him in words. "A greater sense of loss and deeper grief never followed the death of mortal man," wrote one artilleryman. Few felt Jackson's loss more keenly than Robert E. Lee, who confessed, "I know not how to replace him."
After the war local residents erected a small boulder about 60 yards from the site, to commemorate the generals wounding. That rock still stands amid the bushes to your left front. In 1888, 5000 people attended the dedication of the more formal monument in front of you.


Jackson Monuments
The effort to erect a monument at the site of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's mortal wounding began in February, 1887, when Fredericksburg newspaper editor Rufus Merchant founded the Stonewall Jackson Monument Association. On June 13, 1888, a crowd of more than 5000 spectators attended dedication ceremonies at the monument. Guests included the former Confederate cavalry general. Governor Fitzhugh Lee, whose vigilant scouting activities during the Battle of Chancellorsville contributed to Jackson's success. Prior to construction of the monument, Jackson's former staff officer's, Beverly Tucker Lacy and James Powers Smith, assisted by Lacy's brother, J. Horace, of nearby Ellwood Plantation, transported the large quartz boulder to the wounding site.