“Stonewall” Jackson’s Arm

The remains of “Stonewall” Jackson’s left arm lie in the Jones family cemetery. The Confederate general lost the limb during the Battle of Chancellorsville after he was mistakenly shot by his own troops. Surgeons removed the arm at the Wilderness Tavern field hospital early May 3, 1863. Later that morning, Jackson’s chaplain, Rev. B. Tucker Lacy, saw the amputated arm outside Jackson’s tent, carried it across the fields to his brother’s estate, Ellwood, and buried it in the family cemetery. Jackson stayed near the Wilderness Tavern for just a day, then on May 4, 1863, an ambulance carried him 25 miles to Guinea Station, a Confederate supply hub, where he died six days later. In 1903, Rev. James Power Smith, who had served on Jackson’s staff during the Civil War and later married Agnes Lacy, erected a small granite marker in the cemetery. Robert E. Lee said of Jackson, “He has lost his left arm; but I have lost my right arm.”

Virginia · United States