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Strange history of Stonewall Jackson's left arm burial
Episode 61 • 24th April 2023 • Talk With History • Scott and Jenn of Walk with History - The History Inspired World Travelers
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Yes...Stonewall Jackson's left arm is buried in a different spot than his body. Join us as we visit this historic and quirky site.

Video from the Virginia burial site

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Transcripts

Scott:

You ever seen the boot of Benedict Arnold?

Scott:

Well, what about the leg of Santa Ana?

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

appendages or body parts.

Scott:

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

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

That famous Confederate General who stood there like a Stonewall

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

Welcome to Talk With History.

Scott:

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

Scott:

Hello.

Scott:

On this podcast, we give you insights into our history inspired world travels

Scott:

YouTube channel journey, and examined history through deeper conversations

Scott:

with the curious, the explorers and the history lovers out there.

Scott:

Now, before we get into our main topic, I've got a couple things I wanna cover.

Scott:

There's our, our newsletter over@historynewsletter.com has doubled and

Scott:

almost tripled in size in the past month.

Scott:

It's pretty incredible.

Scott:

So if you guys are curious, We're excited to share more interesting history

Scott:

articles and other recommendations there that we may not be able to

Scott:

share on this podcast or in our video.

Scott:

I really do encourage you guys to go check it out.

Scott:

Um, history newsletter.com.

Scott:

You can sign up for free.

Scott:

It's once a month.

Scott:

We don't.

Scott:

Spam folks history newsletter.com.

Scott:

And last but not least, I want to give a shout out to YouTube,

Scott:

uh, subscriber and viewer.

Scott:

Um, Leo G he gave us a recent super thanks on our Arlington two video.

Scott:

That video has been picking up some steam, so he gave us a super thanks.

Scott:

We really do appreciate that.

Scott:

And this is the video, the one with Gunny I on the thumbnail.

Scott:

So Leo, your contribution has helped the show keep running and growing, and we

Scott:

really do appreciate you guys' support.

Scott:

So what are we talking about tonight?

Scott:

So we're

Jenn:

talking about Stonewall Jackson's arm, right?

Jenn:

Specifically that he's buried without it.

Jenn:

And it's buried in a separate location.

Jenn:

Can

Scott:

you again set the scene for.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

And Stonewall Jackson is leading that battle.

Jenn:

It's in the Virginia area.

Jenn:

Mm-hmm.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

successful for the Confederacy.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

His aids.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

He's with his aids.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

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

Scott:

Yes.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

But before they can answer, they just start shooting.

Jenn:

And so then they say, stop.

Jenn:

You're firing on your own.

Jenn:

Men.

Jenn:

Stop.

Jenn:

We ain't, we're not Yankees.

Jenn:

And they don't believe 'em.

Jenn:

They think they're lying.

Jenn:

And so they, they fire some more.

Jenn:

Oh, okay.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

So if anyone knows.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

that Stonewall Jackson lost his arm.

Jenn:

Sure.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Interesting.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Oh, okay.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

And this is what they think contributes to his pneumonia.

Jenn:

Oh,

Scott:

cuz that's what

Jenn:

gets him later.

Jenn:

Yes.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

know, Liquid and, and blood.

Jenn:

And so interesting.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Yep.

Jenn:

Hunter McGuire is a.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

when doctors are captured.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

very first, um, non-combatant article.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

Okay.

Jenn:

Where he, he makes a case to President Lincoln.

Jenn:

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

Scott:

So kind of just like that, that.

Scott:

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

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

Where, hey, if they're on there with

Jenn:

the, with the Yes.

Jenn:

And then they can.

Jenn:

Either side.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

not prisoners and they'll just help.

Jenn:

Oh, interesting.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

He right away released the Confederate doctors and the

Jenn:

Confederacy released union doctors.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

been lost because of that.

Jenn:

Oh, interesting.

Jenn:

So Hunter McGuire did that.

Jenn:

Huh?

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

That's the statue we saw in Richmond.

Jenn:

Okay.

Jenn:

That's the grave we went to in Richmond.

Jenn:

And he amputate.

Jenn:

Jackson's arm.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

And he's also Jackson's personal doctor.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

He's also at the surrender at the battle.

Jenn:

And, and, and one

Scott:

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

Scott:

it's been about almost two years.

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

And.

Scott:

And he is Stonewall Jackson.

Scott:

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

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

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

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

It's not just for the Confederacy.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

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

Scott:

going up, up against the Stonewall.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Jenn:

a big.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Okay.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

So 10 years.

Jenn:

He's taught at V M I.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

So it's not even two months.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

After the war.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Can you

Scott:

imagine?

Scott:

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

Scott:

Like imagine being one of his students.

Scott:

Right.

Scott:

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

Scott:

like massive reputation, right?

Scott:

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

Scott:

were ins truly inspired by that.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

try to look at is what was it like?

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

You know?

Scott:

And just, it's interesting thinking

Jenn:

about that.

Jenn:

Well, you, the other things I found interesting.

Jenn:

It, it's general B.

Jenn:

Who makes that statement?

Jenn:

Look, look at him standing there like a stonewall.

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

Rally up behind the Virginians.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Oh, interesting.

Jenn:

Uh, because B gets killed.

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Huh.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Or it could be, look at him standing there.

Jenn:

Get behind him.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

is wearing his blue Union uniform.

Jenn:

He doesn't get the gray uniform until 1862.

Jenn:

Oh really?

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

He's

Scott:

wearing the blue.

Scott:

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

Scott:

settled on the blue versus gray.

Jenn:

Yes.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

So yeah.

Jenn:

So moving

Scott:

back to Chancellorville.

Scott:

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

Jenn:

of the night.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Right?

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Yep.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Yep.

Jenn:

Early, early morning, May 3rd.

Jenn:

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

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

amputated his arm and even driving.

Scott:

It's a couple miles.

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

Right.

Scott:

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

Scott:

I can understand why they, they probably dropped him.

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

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

Scott:

falls over and they accidentally drop.

Scott:

Drop that.

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

Um,

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

limb he's amputating that night.

Jenn:

It's not like a pile outside.

Jenn:

They have a pile outside.

Jenn:

So that's what happens.

Jenn:

That's crazy.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

he still has the general clothing on it.

Jenn:

I'm not really sure.

Jenn:

Off the clothing?

Jenn:

Yeah, I don't know.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

was able to distinguish it.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Brother

Scott:

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

Scott:

you one to, to kind of look this up.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

But probably it was probably like less than a mile.

Scott:

Less than a mile.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

Less, less than a mile.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

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

Scott:

Um, to the, to the Ellwood house.

Scott:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

family cemetery, their family plot there.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

And he's moved to Guinea station.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

not even moved into the home.

Jenn:

He's moved into their back like office shed.

Jenn:

Mm-hmm.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

but they wanna move him away.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

He says, give General Jackson my affectionate regards and say

Jenn:

to him he lost his left arm.

Jenn:

But I, my right.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

of what Jackson brought from morale.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Lee and Jackson had together.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

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

Scott:

historians agree and mm-hmm.

Scott:

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

Scott:

military minds, great strategists.

Scott:

Yep.

Scott:

Right.

Scott:

And so that combined with.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

Confederacy to win that battle.

Scott:

No.

Scott:

Um, I mean, especially on the union side.

Scott:

So it just, it, it caught everybody flatfooted.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

the, the South really had.

Scott:

Really serious momentum.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

basically tell Jackson his end game.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

He's like, this is what I want.

Jenn:

Yep.

Jenn:

And Jackson will get it done.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

And he figures it out.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

wanted from whatever battle he was in.

Jenn:

He knew what, what Lee's outcome.

Jenn:

Was, and so he would make that happen.

Jenn:

And that made Lee, he trusted him.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

I tell him what I want.

Jenn:

He goes and executes.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

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

Scott:

being there and filming the video.

Scott:

So there's two markers.

Scott:

There's two markers.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

Tell the kids to stay in the car.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

It's by like a winery now.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

if you ever want to go visit.

Scott:

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

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

And in the Ellwood Manor.

Scott:

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

Jenn:

season.

Jenn:

It was gated off.

Jenn:

You could still walk to it.

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

Um, and

Scott:

that's what we did.

Scott:

That's what we did.

Scott:

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

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

But it was like 45 degrees.

Scott:

It was really, it was really cold.

Scott:

Kids were troopers.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Like you don't know.

Jenn:

And so Chancellorville, another battle that happens in that general

Jenn:

area is the battle of wilderness.

Jenn:

Yep.

Jenn:

And during the Battle of Wilderness, you.

Jenn:

The union setting up headquarters at Ellwood house.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

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

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

1903.

Scott:

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

Scott:

Jackson's arm was buried like

Jenn:

20 yards from here.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Outside, it might be 50 yards away.

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

And right by a big oak tree.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

And it's a family plot.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

I'm sure at that time they were sure.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

that the arm has been dug up.

Jenn:

Mm-hmm.

Jenn:

More than.

Jenn:

But even in this, like the seventies, yes.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Right.

Jenn:

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

Scott:

and look for it.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

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

Scott:

he actually died, where he died.

Scott:

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

Scott:

I didn't really see it as a shrine.

Scott:

It was basically just like a house.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Farmhouse.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

It was a plantation.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

They put him in this, that.

Jenn:

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

Scott:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

when the pneumonia sets in Yeah.

Jenn:

He really starts to

Scott:

hallucinating.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

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

Jenn:

Yes.

Jenn:

And he's with Hunter McGuire.

Jenn:

His doctor is with him.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

And their young daughter.

Jenn:

That's right.

Jenn:

She's there with him.

Jenn:

And his final words are to Hunter McGuire.

Jenn:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

It's a very kind of, I

Jenn:

think it's biblical.

Jenn:

It's very poignant.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

rest beneath the shade of the trees and.

Jenn:

Line has inspired, even Ernest Hemingway uses that line.

Jenn:

Oh, really?

Jenn:

In the opening of one of his books.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

know, uh, I'm gonna go rest.

Jenn:

Pleasant.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

Rest.

Jenn:

My time is done.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

we were, it was like February for us.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

but we get to show you everything.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

That's where the war was

Jenn:

happening.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

It's right on a railroad line.

Jenn:

Yep.

Jenn:

Because the railroad came by right when we were there.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Um, Jefferson Davis's house.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Better better to leave it at rest.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Oh, that's,

Scott:

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

Scott:

She

Jenn:

has that title.

Jenn:

She writes two books about Jackson.

Jenn:

Oh, interesting.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

But, uh, it was just a very interest.

Jenn:

The quick demise of Jackson.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

because he was killed by his own men.

Jenn:

His arms amputated.

Jenn:

He dies eight days later and that's it.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

told Jackson, I want that ridge.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Yeah, we probably shouldn't do that.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

undo the south and leave us, right?

Jenn:

He lost his right hand man.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Oh yeah.

Jenn:

Beside, uh, hunter McGuire.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

Right in the capitol of Richmond, Virginia.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

Right, right there.

Scott:

Right there.

Scott:

Smack in the middle of everything.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

Um, no.

Scott:

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

Scott:

Very intentionally go out there.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

30, 40 minutes from Richmond.

Scott:

Um, yes.

Scott:

But we had to like very specifically go out there.

Scott:

It's kind of in the middle of nowhere.

Scott:

There's not much around there.

Scott:

There's some wineries.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

You know?

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

That's pretty

Jenn:

much it.

Jenn:

That's pretty much it.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

wilderness, you would see it.

Jenn:

Sure.

Jenn:

Uh, I would say more people.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Scott:

easier to Jackson, a

Jenn:

little easier to get to.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

says Stone Stonewall Jackson death site.

Jenn:

Yep.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

wanted to go see the death site.

Jenn:

And like I said, it's a house.

Jenn:

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

Scott:

panels.

Scott:

Typical kind of, you know, national park.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

Kind of

Jenn:

informational things, but that's about it.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

It's not.

Jenn:

It's not like too exciting.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

But yeah, it's pretty basic.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Scott:

Right, right.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Jenn:

used to be attached to.

Jenn:

And it's funny how these appendages.

Jenn:

Get their own story.

Jenn:

Right, right.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

time will be celebrated in Virginia.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

switch, uh, into election day.

Jenn:

Oh, interesting.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

You can go visit his home.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

What's his horse's name?

Jenn:

Is it that like it say Old Sorl or something?

Jenn:

Something, something like that.

Jenn:

Okay.

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

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

Jenn:

Oh really?

Jenn:

Yeah.

Jenn:

Don't want Jackson's on his horse.

Jenn:

Yeah.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

just is a story in and of itself.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

all this crazy stuff like start Google.

Scott:

Google some of the stories around Jackson's.

Scott:

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

Scott:

Kind of just smiling.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

better than Stonewall Jackson.

Scott:

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

Scott:

life character for barely half.

Scott:

A civil war.

Scott:

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

Scott:

his left arm, but I have lost my right.

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

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

Scott:

it with them, especially if you think today's topic would interest a friend.

Scott:

Shoot a text and tell 'em to look up the talk with hi History podcast, or send

Scott:

them a link to this livestream video.

Scott:

We rely on you, our community to grow, and we appreciate y'all every day.

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