Up close and personal - not my favorite representation of Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, but certainly one of the best known, at Manassas National Battlefield, Virginia.
Although often criticized for the exaggerated physique of both man and beast, the statue is very much in the "heroic" Art Deco style that dominated public statuary in the 1930's and 1940's when the park was created in the aftermath of WWII.
Below, Jackson gazes out over the scene of his first major battlefield success in the First Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861.
That statue of Jackson overlooking Bull Run. It kind brings back memories. General Bernard Bee gave him the nickname of "Stonewall" there. I live in Bee County ,and its named for Bee's dad, Bernard Sr.
Didn't Jackson get a part of a finger shot off there?
That statue of Jackson overlooking Bull Run. It kind brings back memories. General Bernard Bee gave him the nickname of "Stonewall" there. I live in Bee County ,and its named for Bee's dad, Bernard Sr. Didn't Jackson get a part of a finger shot off there?
Not "shot off" but broken - supposedly when he finally went to have it seen about, the surgeon was all-too-ready to amputate it, but Stonewall slipped out of the tent before any further mischief could be done! In a letter to his wife he mentioned the wound but evidently it didn't especially trouble him because I don't think there were any further references to it. Typically for him, at the time he was wounded his arm was extended above his head where it was hit by a high shot. His soldiers claimed he was invoking the Almighty when he did this, but it seems he was instead indulging in one of his hypochondrial beliefs, that he suffered from an imbalance of blood on one side of his body and that raising his "afflicted" limb would cause the blood to drain back into his torso.