A Staggering Blow

Stonewall Jackson's death stunned the South and brought intense grief to those who had placed boundless confidence in him, while Union soldiers reacted with both satisfaction at the advantage to their cause and sorrow at the loss of a soldier many regarded as the best of the war. The blow fell heaviest on Robert E. Lee, who had relied on Jackson to carry out his plans and had praised him as an unsurpassed executive officer who could be trusted to accomplish any design that could be done. With Jackson gone, Lee would never again achieve the success he had gained at Chancellorsville. Jackson was buried in Lexington, Virginia, and his wife, Mary Anna, never remarried, wore mourning clothes for the rest of her life, and became one of the South's most revered Civil War widows.

Virginia · United States