Stonewall Jackson
Stonewall Jackson – the South loved him; the North admired him… “Look!” cried General Bee. “There are Jackson and his men standing like a stone wall. Rally behind them!”
In the battle that followed, Jackson lifted his left hand high and moved back and forth shouting encouragement to his men. At a critical moment, he spurred his horse, Little Sorrel, into the center of his regiment. There he shouted, “Reserve your fire until they come within fifty yards. Then fire and give them the bayonet. And when you charge, yell like the furies.”
Weeks before, the men had practiced the bloodcurdling yell of woh-who-ey. This combination of Apache war whoop, wolf howl and panther scream had a terrifying effect. The Federals broke rank, threw down their weapons and fled.
Stonewall’s fearlessness had begun years earlier when he climbed the highest tree in pursuit of a coon, and when he was determined to learn, in spite of being called the school dummy and school charity case. Even at West Point his grades nearly scraped the bottom in his first year. But he worked hard and raised his level each year until he graduated in the upper third of his class.
An official later remarked, “If the course at West Point had been a year longer, Jackson would have graduated at the head of his class.” A Northern newspaper mourned his death: “Stonewall Jackson was a great general, a noble Christian and a pure man.”
