Strange history of Stonewall Jackson's left arm burial

Scott: 00:00:00

You ever seen the boot of Benedict Arnold?

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Well, what about the leg of Santa Ana?

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Did you know that you can also visit the leg of Civil War General Dan Sickles.

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And even the heart of King Richard, the first, AKA Richard the Lionheart.

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Well, you may not have heard of visiting some of those famous

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appendages or body parts.

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Perhaps you have heard of the separate burial site of Stonewall Jackson's arm.

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Yes.

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That famous Confederate General who stood there like a Stonewall

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at the Battle of Bull Run, was not buried with his left arm.

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In fact, he outlived it by just over a week.

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So join us this evening as we talk about the strange story of Joan

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Stonewall Jackson's left arm, and how he lost it at Chancellor's.

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Welcome to Talk With History.

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I am your host Scott, here with my wife and historian Jen.

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Hello.

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really do appreciate you guys' support.

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So what are we talking about tonight?

Scott: 00:02:12

So we're

Jenn: 00:02:12

talking about Stonewall Jackson's arm, right?

Jenn: 00:02:15

Specifically that he's buried without it.

Jenn: 00:02:19

And it's buried in a separate location.

Jenn: 00:02:21

Can

Scott: 00:02:22

you again set the scene for.

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Chancellor's Ville, kind of what's going on just before Yes.

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And then up into that and how this, how this all happens.

Jenn: 00:02:30

So Chancellor's Ville is a, is a couple day long battle.

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It's not, uh, so it's, it's not like a one day battle.

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It's a couple day long battle and it's a Confederate win.

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And Stonewall Jackson is leading that battle.

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It's in the Virginia area.

Jenn: 00:02:47

Mm-hmm.

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And there will have a couple battles in that general area.

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Further on down in the Civil War, but that first day is

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successful for the Confederacy.

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And in the evening, Stonewall Jackson is riding along the line at night

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and it's a dark night and he's riding along and he comes across the North

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Carolina, the 18th, North Carolina, and they yell out and he's with.

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His aids.

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You can imagine it's not just him by himself.

Jenn: 00:03:21

He's with his aids.

Scott: 00:03:22

Yeah.

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He's got a whole haunt, like a, like four or five people with him.

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Yes.

Jenn: 00:03:24

I mean, four or five people die, so he probably has like 10 people with him.

Jenn: 00:03:27

Yeah.

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And the 18th Kara line yell, halt, who's there?

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But before they can answer, they just start shooting.

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And so then they say, stop.

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You're firing on your own.

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Men.

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Stop.

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We ain't, we're not Yankees.

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And they don't believe 'em.

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They think they're lying.

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And so they, they fire some more.

Jenn: 00:03:48

Oh, okay.

Jenn: 00:03:48

And so they end up killing several men, Stonewall Jackson's men.

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And I tried to look up the names of those men.

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So if anyone knows.

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The names of those men, I would be interested in that because you would

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think that would be folklore saying, I died, or our family member died the night

Jenn: 00:04:06

that Stonewall Jackson lost his arm.

Jenn: 00:04:07

Sure.

Jenn: 00:04:07

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:04:08

But Stonewall Jackson has hit three times, uh, in his, twice in his left arm,

Jenn: 00:04:13

uh, halfway between his elbow and his shoulder, and then in his left wrist.

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And then he's lift, he's hit in the right palm of his hand as well.

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And if you remember from the first Battle of Bul, and he's also shot in his.

Jenn: 00:04:27

He's, uh, he's shot in his right hand and through his finger, and that's when he

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wraps up and kind of holds on his, um, side when he side when he's posing there.

Jenn: 00:04:37

Interesting.

Jenn: 00:04:37

So, um, so I, it seems like he gets hit in his arms kind of often, but

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anyway, he gets hit three times, uh, and it basically shatters his left arm.

Jenn: 00:04:46

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:04:47

Yeah.

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And so this is the night of May 2nd, and more than likely they've shot

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his horse and, uh, I don't think they actually kill his horse, but they more.

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He doesn't have a horse now because they carry him on a stretcher.

Jenn: 00:05:00

Oh, okay.

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And the, this is another thing that's gonna cause his demise.

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He's carried on a stretcher and he's dropped twice from stretcher height and

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he's dropped so hard on his side that he has very bad bruising on his side.

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And this is what they think contributes to his pneumonia.

Jenn: 00:05:21

Oh,

Scott: 00:05:21

cuz that's what

Jenn: 00:05:21

gets him later.

Jenn: 00:05:22

Yes.

Jenn: 00:05:22

Cuz he's so injured in his side and it's starting to, you

Jenn: 00:05:25

know, Liquid and, and blood.

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And so interesting.

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So they, they get into a hospital tent and if you watch our video, we

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not only go to where the gunshots happened that shattered his arm, we go

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to the hospital tent where his arm is amputated and his arm is amputated by Dr.

Jenn: 00:05:41

Hunter McGuire and we've gone to Hunter McGuire's grave.

Jenn: 00:05:45

Yep.

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Hunter McGuire is a.

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Very well known doctor in the Civil War, and not just Confederate doctor.

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He is the one who's gonna write to President Abraham Lincoln

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when doctors are captured.

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And he's going to have this program called the Winchester Accord, which is very, the

Jenn: 00:06:03

very first, um, non-combatant article.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Where he, he makes a case to President Lincoln.

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We should release doctors on both sides when they're captured.

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So kind of just like that, that.

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That, um, what do you call it, like kind of rule of engagement?

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Yes.

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Where, hey, if they're on there with

Jenn: 00:06:20

the, with the Yes.

Jenn: 00:06:22

And then they can.

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Either side.

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Like they, they, you don't have to release them right away, just release, they're

Jenn: 00:06:27

not prisoners and they'll just help.

Jenn: 00:06:29

Oh, interesting.

Jenn: 00:06:29

And they say that because he did that and because Lincoln was like, yes.

Jenn: 00:06:33

He right away released the Confederate doctors and the

Jenn: 00:06:36

Confederacy released union doctors.

Jenn: 00:06:39

They say that they saved so many more lives and would've

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been lost because of that.

Jenn: 00:06:42

Oh, interesting.

Jenn: 00:06:43

So Hunter McGuire did that.

Jenn: 00:06:44

Huh?

Jenn: 00:06:44

And so is that the statue that we saw in Richmond?

Jenn: 00:06:46

That's the statue we saw in Richmond.

Jenn: 00:06:47

Okay.

Jenn: 00:06:47

That's the grave we went to in Richmond.

Jenn: 00:06:49

And he amputate.

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Jackson's arm.

Jenn: 00:06:52

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:06:53

And he's also Jackson's personal doctor.

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He's gonna be with him when he gets Jackson's last words.

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He's also at the surrender at the battle.

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And, and, and one

Scott: 00:07:01

thing to remember too is at this point in the war, right,

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it's been about almost two years.

Scott: 00:07:07

Yes.

Scott: 00:07:07

And.

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And he is Stonewall Jackson.

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I mean, he has the name, he has the reputation, he is this legend.

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Mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:07:14

For the Confederate, he's on both sides, right?

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Mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:07:16

It's not just for the Confederacy.

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Yeah.

Scott: 00:07:18

You know, on the other sides, they're like, oh my gosh, like we're

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going up, up against the Stonewall.

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I'm sure there were soldiers that were like, they would, were dread that they're

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like, they, they would hear, they're going up against, you know, Stonewall Jackson,

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and, and that carries so much weight and so that's why this was kind of such

Jenn: 00:07:35

a big.

Jenn: 00:07:35

Yeah, so Stonewall Jackson, he's the class of 1846 at uh, west Point.

Jenn: 00:07:41

Okay.

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And he's teaching at V M I from 1851 to 1861.

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So 10 years.

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He's taught at V M I.

Jenn: 00:07:47

Yeah.

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And then when the South Secedes in May of 1861, he joins.

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And it's in July of 1861 that he gets the reputation Stonewall Jackson.

Jenn: 00:07:58

So it's not even two months.

Jenn: 00:07:59

Yeah.

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After the war.

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Cuz it's that first battle of Bullen that he gets that reputation.

Jenn: 00:08:03

Can you

Scott: 00:08:04

imagine?

Scott: 00:08:04

I mean that just, that thought just pops into my head.

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Like imagine being one of his students.

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Right.

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And all of a sudden you hears your teacher and like you hear this

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like massive reputation, right?

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How like I am sure there's plenty of young southern men soldiers that

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were ins truly inspired by that.

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Um, you just thinking about putting yourself in their shoes and not,

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not calling one side or the other, but that's one of the things we

Scott: 00:08:28

try to look at is what was it like?

Scott: 00:08:30

Yes.

Scott: 00:08:30

You know?

Scott: 00:08:31

And just, it's interesting thinking

Jenn: 00:08:33

about that.

Jenn: 00:08:34

Well, you, the other things I found interesting.

Jenn: 00:08:37

It, it's general B.

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Who makes that statement?

Jenn: 00:08:39

Look, look at him standing there like a stonewall.

Jenn: 00:08:42

Right.

Jenn: 00:08:42

Rally up behind the Virginians.

Jenn: 00:08:45

They don't know if that was meant to be a compliment or if he was like mad at him.

Jenn: 00:08:50

Oh, interesting.

Jenn: 00:08:51

Uh, because B gets killed.

Jenn: 00:08:53

Right.

Jenn: 00:08:53

And they never get a chance for him to clarify his statement.

Jenn: 00:08:56

Huh.

Jenn: 00:08:56

So some people say he's mad, like, look at him.

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Just stand there while we're trying to defend everything.

Jenn: 00:09:02

Or it could be, look at him standing there.

Jenn: 00:09:04

Get behind him.

Jenn: 00:09:05

He, he's given us a lot of, uh, morale right now.

Jenn: 00:09:08

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:09:08

So, and another thing I found interesting is that, All this time, Jackson

Jenn: 00:09:14

is wearing his blue Union uniform.

Jenn: 00:09:17

He doesn't get the gray uniform until 1862.

Jenn: 00:09:19

Oh really?

Jenn: 00:09:20

So even when he gets the gravitation, Stonewall Jackson, he's wearing a blue.

Jenn: 00:09:23

He's

Scott: 00:09:23

wearing the blue.

Scott: 00:09:23

Because you talked about in our other video that they hadn't really

Scott: 00:09:26

settled on the blue versus gray.

Jenn: 00:09:28

Yes.

Jenn: 00:09:28

They had, and this is like two months after they seceded.

Jenn: 00:09:31

Right.

Jenn: 00:09:32

So they haven't had time to like switch out uniforms and everything.

Jenn: 00:09:34

So yeah.

Jenn: 00:09:35

So moving

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back to Chancellorville.

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He got shot, he got dropped a couple times because it's probably the middle

Jenn: 00:09:40

of the night.

Jenn: 00:09:40

Middle of the night trying to get him to a medical tent.

Jenn: 00:09:43

Right?

Jenn: 00:09:43

And so it the, he gets shot late on May 2nd.

Jenn: 00:09:48

Yep.

Jenn: 00:09:49

Gets to the medical tent as you can see, pretty far away by foot.

Jenn: 00:09:53

Yep.

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Early, early morning, May 3rd.

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So it's about 2:00 AM His arm is amputated.

Scott: 00:09:59

Yeah.

Scott: 00:09:59

We're showing if, if you're listening, we're showing on the live stream a

Scott: 00:10:02

kind of a, a picture of where Jackson was injured and where they actually

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amputated his arm and even driving.

Scott: 00:10:09

It's a couple miles.

Scott: 00:10:10

Yes.

Scott: 00:10:10

Right.

Scott: 00:10:10

So think about these guys carrying him in the middle of the night.

Scott: 00:10:12

I can understand why they, they probably dropped him.

Scott: 00:10:15

Yes.

Scott: 00:10:15

Um, because they're, you're hitting a random ditch and all of a sudden someone

Scott: 00:10:18

falls over and they accidentally drop.

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Drop that.

Scott: 00:10:20

Yes.

Scott: 00:10:20

Um,

Jenn: 00:10:21

so when he gets to the medical tent, hunter McGuire.

Jenn: 00:10:24

Amputating limbs, like it's not, Jackson's arm is not the only

Jenn: 00:10:29

limb he's amputating that night.

Jenn: 00:10:31

It's not like a pile outside.

Jenn: 00:10:31

They have a pile outside.

Jenn: 00:10:32

So that's what happens.

Jenn: 00:10:34

That's crazy.

Jenn: 00:10:34

And you get Reverend James Power Smith who comes in in the morning

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and sees that General Jackson's arm has been amputated and he asks where?

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Arm and they say, you know, McGuire says it's outside in the pile now.

Jenn: 00:10:51

I think probably to distinguish his arm, maybe he put it off to the side, or maybe

Jenn: 00:10:56

he still has the general clothing on it.

Jenn: 00:10:58

I'm not really sure.

Jenn: 00:10:59

Off the clothing?

Jenn: 00:11:00

Yeah, I don't know.

Jenn: 00:11:01

I don't know how he was able to distinguish, but somehow

Jenn: 00:11:02

was able to distinguish it.

Jenn: 00:11:03

That was general Stonewall Jackson's arm and his brother-in-law lives in

Jenn: 00:11:08

a plantation as you, you can see on the map, like right across the field.

Jenn: 00:11:13

Yeah, so it's not even Ellwood house is the levy plant.

Jenn: 00:11:16

Brother

Scott: 00:11:17

again, if you're listening, if you're listening, um, I encourage

Scott: 00:11:20

you one to, to kind of look this up.

Scott: 00:11:22

I'll put in the podcast a notes description, a link to the video.

Scott: 00:11:26

Um, but it's, you know, Jackson was injured much further away.

Scott: 00:11:30

His arm was actually amputated at the hospital tent, and like

Scott: 00:11:32

you said, essentially across what we drove across the, the way.

Scott: 00:11:37

But probably it was probably like less than a mile.

Scott: 00:11:40

Less than a mile.

Scott: 00:11:40

Yeah.

Scott: 00:11:40

Less, less than a mile.

Scott: 00:11:41

Yeah.

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You know, over to this, over to this farmhouse.

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Um, to the, to the Ellwood house.

Scott: 00:11:46

To the Elwood house where they would ultimately, uh, take

Jenn: 00:11:48

his arm and they take his arm and they bury it that day.

Jenn: 00:11:51

And it's not marked, but they give it a Christian funeral.

Jenn: 00:11:54

They read from the scripture as they bury it, and they bury it in their fam

Jenn: 00:11:57

family cemetery, their family plot there.

Jenn: 00:12:01

And then Jackson is moved away from the battle, uh, to, to keep.

Jenn: 00:12:07

And he's moved to Guinea station.

Jenn: 00:12:09

He's moved down to, uh, the chancellor home, and he's

Jenn: 00:12:13

not even moved into the home.

Jenn: 00:12:15

He's moved into their back like office shed.

Jenn: 00:12:18

Mm-hmm.

Jenn: 00:12:19

And he, that's where he will eventually die eight days later,

Jenn: 00:12:21

but they wanna move him away.

Jenn: 00:12:24

Now, the Battle of Chancellorville will be a Confederate win, but Lee

Jenn: 00:12:29

sends a message when he hears of the, of Jackson having his, um, his arm am.

Jenn: 00:12:37

And he knows that he, um, could be dying.

Jenn: 00:12:42

He says, give General Jackson my affectionate regards and say

Jenn: 00:12:45

to him he lost his left arm.

Jenn: 00:12:48

But I, my right.

Jenn: 00:12:51

And that is the kind of the saying that goes with this whole demise because

Jenn: 00:12:58

as most people know, this is a real turning point for the Confederacy because

Jenn: 00:13:02

of what Jackson brought from morale.

Jenn: 00:13:05

But it wasn't just morale, it's.

Jenn: 00:13:07

Lee and Jackson had together.

Scott: 00:13:09

Yeah.

Scott: 00:13:10

And they, they were both, and, and I think pretty much all

Scott: 00:13:13

historians agree and mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:13:15

Um, even anecdotally, they'll say like, both of them are great

Scott: 00:13:18

military minds, great strategists.

Scott: 00:13:19

Yep.

Scott: 00:13:20

Right.

Scott: 00:13:20

And so that combined with.

Scott: 00:13:22

How long they'd been in and their stature, um, and then their

Scott: 00:13:26

reputation at the same time, and some of the successes that they had.

Scott: 00:13:30

Again, if we go back to the Battle Bull run, nobody expected the

Scott: 00:13:33

Confederacy to win that battle.

Scott: 00:13:34

No.

Scott: 00:13:35

Um, I mean, especially on the union side.

Scott: 00:13:37

So it just, it, it caught everybody flatfooted.

Scott: 00:13:39

So it was a drastic shift in momentum at the paddle bull run.

Scott: 00:13:43

And so the first couple years of, of the Civil War, I mean

Scott: 00:13:46

the, the South really had.

Scott: 00:13:48

Really serious momentum.

Jenn: 00:13:49

And that was Jackson and the thing that Lee and Jackson have together.

Jenn: 00:13:53

And I think the thing that Lee loves about Jackson is Lee can

Jenn: 00:13:56

basically tell Jackson his end game.

Jenn: 00:13:59

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:13:59

He's like, this is what I want.

Jenn: 00:14:01

Yep.

Jenn: 00:14:01

And Jackson will get it done.

Jenn: 00:14:03

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:14:03

I'll, I'll go figure it out.

Jenn: 00:14:04

And he figures it out.

Jenn: 00:14:05

And that's, and people said Jackson was very quiet.

Jenn: 00:14:08

He didn't really tell people his tactical plans, but he knew what Lee

Jenn: 00:14:13

wanted from whatever battle he was in.

Jenn: 00:14:15

He knew what, what Lee's outcome.

Jenn: 00:14:18

Was, and so he would make that happen.

Jenn: 00:14:20

And that made Lee, he trusted him.

Jenn: 00:14:22

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:14:23

So he felt like, I don't have to give him the step by step.

Jenn: 00:14:25

I tell him what I want.

Jenn: 00:14:26

He goes and executes.

Scott: 00:14:28

Yeah.

Scott: 00:14:28

And what's interesting now is too it, you know, we'll talk about actually

Scott: 00:14:31

being there and filming the video.

Scott: 00:14:32

So there's two markers.

Scott: 00:14:34

There's two markers.

Scott: 00:14:35

We, we found the, we found the two markers.

Scott: 00:14:36

We kind of had to like, TRAs through the, you know, we had to be really careful.

Scott: 00:14:40

Tell the kids to stay in the car.

Scott: 00:14:41

We're like walking along the freeway to get to the one where he was wounded.

Scott: 00:14:45

The other one where his arm was actually amputated was a little bit easier.

Scott: 00:14:48

It's by like a winery now.

Scott: 00:14:49

Yeah, it's by, by a winery and actually it's on the battlefield.

Scott: 00:14:52

In the video description, I believe I put a Google Maps link

Scott: 00:14:56

if you ever want to go visit.

Scott: 00:14:57

I'm pretty sure I marked all the spots where we were.

Scott: 00:15:00

Yes.

Scott: 00:15:00

And in the Ellwood Manor.

Scott: 00:15:01

So it was actually, normally you can drive up to it, I think more in like the tourist

Jenn: 00:15:05

season.

Jenn: 00:15:07

It was gated off.

Jenn: 00:15:08

You could still walk to it.

Jenn: 00:15:09

Right.

Jenn: 00:15:10

Um, and

Scott: 00:15:10

that's what we did.

Scott: 00:15:11

That's what we did.

Scott: 00:15:11

But we walked to, it was like maybe a quarter mile.

Scott: 00:15:13

Mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:15:13

But it was like 45 degrees.

Scott: 00:15:16

It was really, it was really cold.

Scott: 00:15:18

Kids were troopers.

Scott: 00:15:19

But Elwood house, I mean, it's a decent sized house.

Scott: 00:15:21

And one of the things about Elwood House was there, um, like a year later.

Scott: 00:15:26

A bunch of the union use it as headquarters for a while.

Jenn: 00:15:28

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:15:28

So another, you know, these, these areas are kind of used over and

Jenn: 00:15:31

over again when you think of Bull Run and the Battle of Manasas.

Jenn: 00:15:34

Right.

Jenn: 00:15:34

I tell you like there's two battles there and people will call it the First Battle

Jenn: 00:15:38

of Manassas, or the first Battle of Bull Run and the second battle of Manassas.

Jenn: 00:15:41

Like you don't know.

Jenn: 00:15:42

And so Chancellorville, another battle that happens in that general

Jenn: 00:15:45

area is the battle of wilderness.

Jenn: 00:15:47

Yep.

Jenn: 00:15:47

And during the Battle of Wilderness, you.

Jenn: 00:15:51

The union setting up headquarters at Ellwood house.

Scott: 00:15:55

Yeah.

Scott: 00:15:55

And the, the marker for Jackson's arm didn't come till the early 19 hundreds.

Scott: 00:15:59

Yeah.

Scott: 00:16:00

1903.

Scott: 00:16:00

And so they, they may not have even realized that, hey, Stonewall

Scott: 00:16:04

Jackson's arm was buried like

Jenn: 00:16:05

20 yards from here.

Jenn: 00:16:06

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:16:06

Like if you go to the Ellwood house, the, the cemetery is just right.

Jenn: 00:16:10

Outside, it might be 50 yards away.

Jenn: 00:16:12

Right.

Jenn: 00:16:12

And right by a big oak tree.

Jenn: 00:16:14

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:16:14

And it's a family plot.

Jenn: 00:16:15

They say now that the markers for the family are no longer there, but

Jenn: 00:16:18

I'm sure at that time they were sure.

Jenn: 00:16:20

And the arm isn't marked where today just the arm is marked.

Jenn: 00:16:24

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:16:24

And there's no family marker Is um, now there's folklore

Jenn: 00:16:28

that the arm has been dug up.

Jenn: 00:16:30

Mm-hmm.

Jenn: 00:16:30

More than.

Jenn: 00:16:31

But even in this, like the seventies, yes.

Jenn: 00:16:34

But everybody, but from what I read, they still think the arm

Jenn: 00:16:37

is there in that cemetery, just not where the marker is today.

Jenn: 00:16:42

Right.

Jenn: 00:16:42

And the, uh, national Park Service is not gonna dig

Scott: 00:16:44

and look for it.

Scott: 00:16:45

Yeah.

Scott: 00:16:45

And then last, last, but not least, we went to the place where

Scott: 00:16:48

he actually died, where he died.

Scott: 00:16:49

And so that, um, on the map, they actually call it like a Stonewall Jackson Shrine.

Scott: 00:16:53

I didn't really see it as a shrine.

Scott: 00:16:55

It was basically just like a house.

Jenn: 00:16:56

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:16:56

It's like the, it, it's a little.

Jenn: 00:16:59

Farmhouse.

Jenn: 00:16:59

It, it was, like I said, the, the office store room for the Chancellor Plantation.

Jenn: 00:17:04

It was a plantation.

Jenn: 00:17:05

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:17:05

And so Jackson doesn't wanna go in the house and bother the people.

Jenn: 00:17:09

They put him in this, that.

Jenn: 00:17:12

They make him as comfortable as they can in that and,

Scott: 00:17:14

and I think at that point he's like hallucinating.

Jenn: 00:17:16

He's like, so the first couple days he doesn't, and then

Jenn: 00:17:18

when the pneumonia sets in Yeah.

Jenn: 00:17:20

He really starts to

Scott: 00:17:21

hallucinating.

Scott: 00:17:21

Yeah.

Scott: 00:17:22

He starts like giving orders to people, acting like he's on the battlefield.

Jenn: 00:17:26

Yes.

Jenn: 00:17:26

And he's with Hunter McGuire.

Jenn: 00:17:27

His doctor is with him.

Jenn: 00:17:29

His wife will make it to his bedside before he dies.

Jenn: 00:17:31

And their young daughter.

Jenn: 00:17:32

That's right.

Jenn: 00:17:33

She's there with him.

Jenn: 00:17:34

And his final words are to Hunter McGuire.

Jenn: 00:17:36

He says, let us cross over the river and rest beneath the shade of the.

Scott: 00:17:41

Which, which is interesting, like to, for that to be your last words.

Scott: 00:17:45

It's a very kind of, I

Jenn: 00:17:46

think it's biblical.

Jenn: 00:17:47

It's very poignant.

Jenn: 00:17:48

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:17:48

Hen McGuire said he got like a, a, a smile on his face cuz he was very like, agitated

Jenn: 00:17:54

before that because he, like you said, he was like given battle orders, right.

Jenn: 00:17:57

Going up, uh, going up the hill and do this and do, and then Hunter said, he got

Jenn: 00:18:01

like a smile on his face and then said, you know, let's cross over the river and

Jenn: 00:18:06

rest beneath the shade of the trees and.

Jenn: 00:18:08

Line has inspired, even Ernest Hemingway uses that line.

Jenn: 00:18:12

Oh, really?

Jenn: 00:18:13

In the opening of one of his books.

Jenn: 00:18:14

So it's like that, that lives in American history too.

Jenn: 00:18:17

The Stonewall Jackson's last words were this kind of, you

Jenn: 00:18:23

know, uh, I'm gonna go rest.

Jenn: 00:18:25

Pleasant.

Jenn: 00:18:25

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:18:26

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:18:26

Rest.

Jenn: 00:18:27

My time is done.

Jenn: 00:18:28

I'm gonna rest beneath the shade of the trees like that.

Jenn: 00:18:30

It's, it's a very, Historic thing to say.

Scott: 00:18:33

Yeah, that's, it was very interesting and, and being out there,

Scott: 00:18:36

we were, it was like February for us.

Scott: 00:18:39

Yeah.

Scott: 00:18:39

So a lot of times it kinda wasn't open.

Scott: 00:18:41

Nothing, nothing was open, you know, but we show you everything,

Scott: 00:18:43

but we get to show you everything.

Scott: 00:18:44

We kind of peeked, peeked inside the windows a little bit.

Scott: 00:18:47

And again, just being around in that area where there was union troops going

Scott: 00:18:53

all throughout and Confederate troops going all throughout, I mean, all

Scott: 00:18:56

this area, we were just driving around circles trying to find things, you know.

Scott: 00:19:00

That's where the war was

Jenn: 00:19:01

happening.

Jenn: 00:19:01

And it's interesting when he dies at Guinea station, he dies May 10th, 1863.

Jenn: 00:19:07

It's right on a railroad line.

Jenn: 00:19:08

Yep.

Jenn: 00:19:08

Because the railroad came by right when we were there.

Jenn: 00:19:11

So after he dies, you know, they can put his body on the the train car and he

Jenn: 00:19:16

goes back to Richmond and his body lays in state at the governor's mansion at.

Jenn: 00:19:21

Um, Jefferson Davis's house.

Jenn: 00:19:22

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:19:23

Which we have a video on which we've been there.

Jenn: 00:19:24

So you can imagine Stonewall Jackson's body laid, laid address there.

Jenn: 00:19:28

And then he was buried in, uh, Oak Grove Cemetery in Lexington, and his

Jenn: 00:19:32

wife was given the option to dig up the arm and bury him with his arm.

Jenn: 00:19:38

And when she heard that the arm had a Christian funeral, She said

Jenn: 00:19:45

Better better to leave it at rest.

Jenn: 00:19:46

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:19:47

So that's why he's not buried with his arm is she decided And she

Jenn: 00:19:51

never remarries, she's considered the widow of the Confederacy.

Jenn: 00:19:55

Oh, that's,

Scott: 00:19:56

she gets a, does she kind of have that title?

Scott: 00:19:57

She

Jenn: 00:19:58

has that title.

Jenn: 00:19:58

She writes two books about Jackson.

Jenn: 00:20:00

Oh, interesting.

Jenn: 00:20:00

Um, and that's, uh, that's how she's kind of a martyr for the rest of her life.

Jenn: 00:20:05

But, uh, it was just a very interest.

Jenn: 00:20:07

The quick demise of Jackson.

Jenn: 00:20:10

Like it's a, it's fast and it's happens by his own men.

Jenn: 00:20:14

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:20:14

Which I find interesting because so much of what Jackson did to, to boost

Jenn: 00:20:19

morale and put the air into, you know, the, the sails of his fellow

Jenn: 00:20:24

men, they, they completely suck the air out of the sails with his death

Jenn: 00:20:29

because he was killed by his own men.

Jenn: 00:20:32

His arms amputated.

Jenn: 00:20:33

He dies eight days later and that's it.

Jenn: 00:20:37

There have been historians who conjure, like if he was a Gettysburg, would it have

Jenn: 00:20:42

made a difference Because that first day the Confederacy waivers and doesn't take

Jenn: 00:20:47

Cemetery Ridge when they actually could have, because the union were regrouping.

Jenn: 00:20:52

And Lee has said like, he would've known if he would've

Jenn: 00:20:55

told Jackson, I want that ridge.

Jenn: 00:20:58

He would've made it happen instead of the Confederate General all

Jenn: 00:21:01

the time was like, oh no, we, we kind of himmed and hot a bit.

Jenn: 00:21:04

Yeah, we probably shouldn't do that.

Jenn: 00:21:06

And I think that, you know, losing Jackson is really what starts to

Jenn: 00:21:10

undo the south and leave us, right?

Jenn: 00:21:13

He lost his right hand man.

Jenn: 00:21:15

And Jackson still lives on an infamy, just like we went into, uh, bull run,

Jenn: 00:21:20

but, Even when we went to Richmond, Virginia, his statue was there.

Jenn: 00:21:24

Oh yeah.

Jenn: 00:21:24

Beside, uh, hunter McGuire.

Jenn: 00:21:27

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:21:28

Right in the capitol of Richmond, Virginia.

Scott: 00:21:30

Yeah.

Scott: 00:21:30

Right, right there.

Scott: 00:21:31

Right there.

Scott: 00:21:31

Smack in the middle of everything.

Scott: 00:21:33

Mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:21:33

Um, it was, it was kind of a neat one to do because where the, where the

Scott: 00:21:37

arm is buried, where the Ellwood Manor house, it's, it's not close to too much.

Scott: 00:21:42

Um, no.

Scott: 00:21:43

It, it, we, I mean, we had to.

Scott: 00:21:45

Very intentionally go out there.

Scott: 00:21:46

It's not like it's a quick trip away.

Scott: 00:21:48

I mean, I guess if you lived in Richmond, it was probably maybe

Scott: 00:21:50

30, 40 minutes from Richmond.

Scott: 00:21:52

Um, yes.

Scott: 00:21:53

But we had to like very specifically go out there.

Scott: 00:21:55

It's kind of in the middle of nowhere.

Scott: 00:21:57

There's not much around there.

Scott: 00:21:58

There's some wineries.

Scott: 00:21:59

Yeah.

Scott: 00:21:59

You know?

Scott: 00:22:00

Yeah.

Scott: 00:22:00

That's pretty

Jenn: 00:22:01

much it.

Jenn: 00:22:01

That's pretty much it.

Jenn: 00:22:02

If you're going to like, maybe the battlefield of

Jenn: 00:22:04

wilderness, you would see it.

Jenn: 00:22:05

Sure.

Jenn: 00:22:06

Uh, I would say more people.

Jenn: 00:22:09

We, we saw nobody at El, at El Woodhouse.

Jenn: 00:22:12

More people were stopping at the, the death site of, of Jeff, of

Scott: 00:22:16

easier to Jackson, a

Jenn: 00:22:18

little easier to get to.

Jenn: 00:22:18

And they have a big sign on this, on the interstate, the main interstate that

Jenn: 00:22:22

says Stone Stonewall Jackson death site.

Jenn: 00:22:24

Yep.

Jenn: 00:22:24

So I think more people saw that and pulled off and, and

Jenn: 00:22:28

wanted to go see the death site.

Jenn: 00:22:30

And like I said, it's a house.

Jenn: 00:22:31

It has, it has a stone there, it has some little information

Scott: 00:22:36

panels.

Scott: 00:22:37

Typical kind of, you know, national park.

Scott: 00:22:39

Mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:22:39

Kind of

Jenn: 00:22:39

informational things, but that's about it.

Jenn: 00:22:40

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:22:41

It's not.

Jenn: 00:22:42

It's not like too exciting.

Jenn: 00:22:43

And then I, if it's open, you can see like a bed frame in there and other things.

Jenn: 00:22:48

But yeah, it's pretty basic.

Jenn: 00:22:50

But it was neat to tell that entire story and that demise, especially since

Jenn: 00:22:54

we've been to bull run, especially since we've been able to kind of follow

Jenn: 00:22:59

his legacy from where he made his name to where he ba ended up losing it.

Scott: 00:23:04

Right, right.

Scott: 00:23:05

Where he lost his name and, and kinda an interesting kind of sub.

Scott: 00:23:08

Niche of history of these like famous appendages mm-hmm.

Scott: 00:23:12

That were forever separate, forever separated from the famous person that they

Jenn: 00:23:16

used to be attached to.

Jenn: 00:23:17

And it's funny how these appendages.

Jenn: 00:23:20

Get their own story.

Jenn: 00:23:23

Right, right.

Jenn: 00:23:23

Like they, these appendages actually live on, on their own.

Jenn: 00:23:27

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:23:27

Without who They're connected to, uh, Jefferson Davis for a very long time.

Jenn: 00:23:31

I mean, Jefferson Davis, I'm sorry, Stonewall Jackson for a very long

Jenn: 00:23:33

time will be celebrated in Virginia.

Jenn: 00:23:36

His birthday is a holiday for a very long time until they

Jenn: 00:23:40

switch, uh, into election day.

Jenn: 00:23:42

Oh, interesting.

Jenn: 00:23:44

So he's very much like, Still seen as, as the hero of the south.

Jenn: 00:23:49

And if you go into vmi, you go into area, his home is still preserved.

Jenn: 00:23:54

You can go visit his home.

Jenn: 00:23:55

His horse is buried at vmi, uh, close to where the statue is at a vmi.

Jenn: 00:24:02

What's his horse's name?

Jenn: 00:24:03

Is it that like it say Old Sorl or something?

Jenn: 00:24:05

Something, something like that.

Jenn: 00:24:05

Okay.

Jenn: 00:24:06

So when you go, if you ever go to, um, Stone Mountain in Virginia and

Jenn: 00:24:11

they have the carving of Lee and Davis and Jackson on their horses.

Jenn: 00:24:16

Oh really?

Jenn: 00:24:16

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:24:18

Don't want Jackson's on his horse.

Jenn: 00:24:19

Yeah.

Scott: 00:24:20

Well, again, th this was just a, another one of those

Scott: 00:24:22

neat ones because it's such an interesting story all by itself.

Scott: 00:24:26

Like you said, it, that story of his le of his left arm really kind of

Scott: 00:24:30

just is a story in and of itself.

Scott: 00:24:31

It lives by itself attached to, you know, not.

Scott: 00:24:34

Physically, but you know, attached to this famous, this larger than life

Scott: 00:24:38

character and, and this interesting story and all these interesting little

Scott: 00:24:42

kind of folklore, and people said this in the seventies, some Marines were out

Scott: 00:24:46

there and maybe dug it up and gave a 21 gun salute and then reburied it and

Scott: 00:24:49

all this crazy stuff like start Google.

Scott: 00:24:52

Google some of the stories around Jackson's.

Scott: 00:24:53

Left arm sometime, and, uh, I, I think you'll have a good evening at home.

Scott: 00:24:58

Kind of just smiling.

Scott: 00:24:59

So, legends of the past are often seen as larger than life succeeding at every

Scott: 00:25:05

turn, overcoming insurmountable odds and almost invulnerable to injury or death.

Scott: 00:25:11

In the early part of the Civil War, no one fit that description

Scott: 00:25:14

better than Stonewall Jackson.

Scott: 00:25:16

But if you've been paying attention, Jackson was only that larger than

Scott: 00:25:21

life character for barely half.

Scott: 00:25:23

A civil war.

Scott: 00:25:25

His loss was so significant that even General Lee wrote, Jackson has lost

Scott: 00:25:30

his left arm, but I have lost my right.

Scott: 00:25:33

So thank you for listening to the Talk with History podcast,

Scott: 00:25:36

and please reach out to us at our website, talk with history.com.

Scott: 00:25:39

But more importantly, if you know someone else that might enjoy this, please share

Scott: 00:25:42

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Scott: 00:25:46

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Scott: 00:25:49

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Scott: 00:25:51

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