Thomas J Jackson

Washington and Lee Receives Gift of Alumnus' Civil War Diaries

At the July 22 presentation of the Paxton collection to W&L’s Special Collections. Front, l. to r.: William G. Bean Jr., whose father, William Gleason Bean, a W&L history professor, wrote the 1964 book The Liberty Hall Volunteers; and Vaughan Stanley, Special Collections librarian at W&L. Back row, l. to r.: Ted DeLaney, associate professor of history and head of the W&L Department of History; C.J. Roberts, president and CEO of the Tampa Bay History Center and a member of the Fourth Virginia Infantry Association; Tom Williams, also of the association; and David Klinestiver, another member of the association. (W&L photo by Patrick Hinely) Archivists and researchers would be delighted enough over this newly discovered set of diaries. What lifts this collection into a special category for Washington and Lee, however, is the identity of the diaries’ author: Alexander Sterrett Paxton, an alumnus who belonged to the famed Liberty Hall Volunteers, a company of Confederate infantry made up of Washington and Lee students. When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, Alexander Paxton and other students at Washington College (as it was then called) enlisted in the Liberty Hall Volunteers. Their captain was James Jones White, a professor of Greek and Latin at the school, and their name referred to Liberty Hall Academy, a predecessor to Washington College, and to a military unit with the same name that had fought in the Revolutionary War. The students became Co. I of the 4th Virginia Infantry, part of the Stonewall Brigade commanded by General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, a professor at neighboring Virginia Military Institute. From 1861 to 1865, Paxton penciled his emotions and observations into six notebooks. He described the feeling when “the cannon balls from the enemy’s guns would whiz just a few feet above our bodies”; his admiration for Jackson’s “bravery & coolness”; and his surprise at “how strange that the better & kinder feelings of our natures should be thus changed” when shooting at the enemy. His diaries remained unknown to Washington and Lee and to the wider historical community until June 23 of this year, when some of his descendants put them up for auction. The collection appeared on W&L’s radar only one week before the sale. Seth McCormick-Goodhart, a Lexington historian who works at W&L’s Special Collections and has researched the Liberty Hall Volunteers, spotted the diaries on the website of Cowan’s Auctions.

How was Jackson Standing like a Stone wall? in General Discussion ...

In light of the 15oth Manassas, I thought I would canvas our members with a simple poll.

We are all well versed on Confederate General Bee's remark which from then thence forward caused Gen Thomas J. Jackson  to be imortalized as 'Stonewall Jackson. I then canvas you all for your thoughts on Bee's famous Quote "There Stands Jackson like a Stone Wall. " Since we don't even know for sure what the EXACT quotation from General Barnard Elliott Bee was, I don't see how one can actually in good conscience answer your question, much less vote on what the context was.


General Bee was killed almost instantaneously after uttering his famous words, and I don't believe that any of Bee's subordinate officers wrote any report of the battle which has survived to this day.

One version of what was said was:

“Look, men! There is Jackson standing like a stone wall! Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer!” This is the version that was printed in the July 25 1861 edition of the Charleston Mercury, and which was subsequently reprinted in the Richmond Daily Dispatch and Lexington Gazette.

From this version one could suppose that Bee was recognizing that his attempt {Bee's} to charge the enemy was doomed and he was merely pointing out that Jackson was holding his troops at the ready to repulse versus charge, and that this {Jackson's} "choice" was the better option for success.


Post War, several adherents of the "Lost Cause" stated the famous words from Bee were:

“Look at Jackson’s brigade standing like a stone wall! Rally on the Virginians!”

I believe the earliest version of this appearing in print was almost 25 years after the War's end.


In 1891, Hunter McGuire, chimed in by saying the actual quotation was:

“There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!”


The genesis for the School of Thought that General Bee did not mean his words about Jackson to be complimentary comes exclusively from a report by Major Burnett Rhett, chief of staff to General Joseph E. Johnston, who subsequent to the battle claimed that General Bee was angry at Jackson's failure to come immediately to the relief of Bee's and Bartow's brigades while they were under heavy pressure.

Mock Draft 2.0 QB Vick Kolb RB Hillis, Moreno, F Jackson, Bush, P Thomas WR M. Wallace, Welker, M. Williams, J. Jones TE Finley, Winslow

Today in 1862, Confederate general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson plans an attack at Cedar Mountain near Culpeper.

In FFPC draft last night. Team: Romo, Cutler, McCoy, D Thomas, J Stewart, Sproles, B Jackson, Tate, Bowe, Collie, Dez, Gaffney, Avery ...

Life and Campaigns of Lieut. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, Stonewall Jackson:

from VMI: LEXINGTON, Va. -- Visitors to the only home that Confederate Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson ever...

Life of Thomas J. Jackson

JACKSON MONUMENT, RICHMOND, VA. [8] WARREN AND THOMAS JACKSON ON THE OHIO RIVER «- - - \ THOMAS J. JACKSON. S r. -T > V.

Thomas J. Jackson, a god-fearing soldier of the CSA.

Stonewall, A Biography of General Thomas J. Jackson

Provides an in-depth look at the Civil War general which dispells many of the rumors surrounding him

Thomas J. Jackson, Hearing before a subcommittee of the Committee on Military Affairs, United States Senate, Seventy-sixth Congress, first session, on S. 1682, a bill for the relief of Thomas J. Jackson. July 17, 1939

Life and letters of General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson)

LIFE AND LETTERS or GENERAL THOMAS J. JACKSON CHAPTER I. THE OLD ENGLISH AND SCOTCH- IRISH STOCK. IN the year 1748 a ship sailed from the coast of England, ...