Jackson’s Headquarters

Confederate Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, commanding the Shenandoah Valley military district, lived in Alta Vista in Winchester from mid-November 1861 through early March 1862. Built in 1854 for William M. Fuller, this Gothic Revival-style cottage stood on a south-facing entrance overlooking a broad, open hillside with a commanding view of Winchester. In 1861, its owner, Lt. Col. Lewis T. Moore of the 4th Virginia Infantry, offered the house to Jackson for his headquarters. From here Jackson planned a winter campaign against Union forces at Romney and Bath, present-day Berkeley Springs, and prepared to defend the Shenandoah Valley. Jackson’s wife, Mary Anna, joined him in December 1861, and during his time in Winchester he became fond of the community and hoped to settle there after the war. In a letter to his wife on November 16, 1861, he praised the beauty of the setting and described his lower room as an office with matting on the floor, a large fine table, six chairs, a piano, elegant gilt paper on the walls, and five paintings, while his upper room was heated by a flue from the office below. One hundred years later, the house was purchased for a museum, and its collection includes many artifacts associated with Stonewall Jackson.

Winchester, Virginia · United States