Stonewall Jackson

American

[stohn-wawl] / ˈstoʊnˌwɔl /

noun

nickname of Thomas Jonathan Jackson.

Jackson, “Stonewall” Cultural

Thomas J. Jackson, a general in the Confederate army during the Civil War. He got his nickname at the First Battle of Bull Run, where he and his men “stood like a stone wall.” He and General Robert E. Lee led the South to victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville. In the evening after the battle was won, however, Jackson was fatally shot by Confederate troops who mistook him and his staff for Union officers.

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Jackson's dying words, “Let us cross the river and rest in the shade of the trees,” are much remembered.

In the poem “Barbara Frietchie,” by John Greenleaf Whittier, Stonewall Jackson orders his men not to harm Barbara Frietchie or the Union flags she is holding (see Shoot, if you must, this old gray head).

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Mr. Wins expanded the school’s diversity initiatives and removed a statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson from campus, but his tenure was marked by declining enrollment.

From The Wall Street Journal

“They were getting rid of the Lee and the Stonewall Jackson statues, and they said, ‘We don’t want them put back up for further veneration,’” Hamza Walker said.

From Los Angeles Times

A detail of the horse’s nostril on Kara Walker’s reimagined Stonewall Jackson sculpture.

From Los Angeles Times

The centrepiece of the show is "Unmanned Drone" – a completely reconstructed sculpture of Stonewall Jackson by artist Kara Walker, who transformed the horse and its rider heading into battle into a headless, zombie-like creature.

From BBC

My little joke about the press interviewing Stonewall Jackson during the Civil War could very well have appeared in The Onion at some point.

From Salon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023