DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Stonewall County and the man it was named for. Now, there are names that echo through history, and then there are names that were forged in fire, in the middle of a battle, by a man who may not have lived to see what he'd done. General Barnard E.
Bee — a Texan — gave Thomas Jackson the sobriquet that would outlast them both. The place was the first Battle of Manassas. Other units were retreating.
Jackson was rallying his men for a charge. Bee looked out across that chaos, saw Jackson holding firm, and called to his own men — and you can hear the desperation and the iron in equal measure — "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer." That is how a man becomes a legend.
Born in 1824, dead by 1863, and somewhere in between, he became Stonewall. Now, Texas has its own thread running through the Jackson story. Hood's famous Texas Brigade fought under his command at the Battles of Gaines Mill and Malvern Hill.
And here is the detail that stops you cold, because the marker takes care to tell you: after Gaines Mill, Jackson looked out at the strong Union fortified position that the Texans had overrun. This was a man not known to give praise. Not known for it.
And yet he said, "The men that took this position were soldiers indeed." From a man not known to give praise — that lands. But the marker doesn't stop with Jackson. It turns the lens on Texas itself, and what Texas poured into the Confederate cause.
After a three-to-one popular vote for secession, this state made what the marker calls an all-out effort. Ninety thousand troops — famed for mobility and daring — fought on every battlefront. A two-thousand-mile frontier and coast were defended against Union troop invasion and what the marker describes as savage Indians.
And behind those troops, Texas was working. Wagon trains loaded with cotton — the life blood of the South, the marker says — crossed the state all the way to Mexico to trade for medical supplies, clothing, military supplies. State and private industry produced guns, ammunition, wagons, pots, kettles, leather goods, salt, hospital supplies.
And out on the farms and homesteads, wives, sons, daughters, and slaves provided corn, cotton, cattle, hogs, and cured meats to the Army — giving much, keeping little for themselves. The State of Texas erected this marker in 1963, a hundred years on. The county had already carried the name.
A Texan coined the nickname in the heat of battle, and when it came time to name a piece of this land, they brought it home.
What the marker says
Gen. Barnard E. Bee, a Texan, gave him the famous sobriquet in first Battle of Manassas. Jackson was rallying his men for a charge as other units retreated. Bee, seeing him cried to his men, "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer." In Battles of Gaines Mill and Malvern Hill, Hood's famous Texas Brigade fought under his command. After Gaines Mill when Jackson saw the strong Union fortified position which the Texans had overrun, he - not known to give praise-said, "The men that took this position were soldiers indeed." Texas in the Civil War Texas made an all-out effort for the Confederacy after a 3 to 1 popular vote for secession. 90,000 troops, famed for mobility and daring, fought on every battlefront. A 2,000-mile frontier and coast were successfully defended from Union troop invasion and savage Indians. Texas was the storehouse of Western Confederacy. Wagon trains laden with cotton - life blood of the South - crossed the state to Mexico to trade for medical supplies, clothing, military supplies. State and private industry produced guns, ammunition, wagons, pots, kettles, leather goods, salt, hospital supplies. Wives, sons, daughters, slaves provided corn, cotton, cattle, hogs, cured meats to the Army, giving much, keeping little for themselves. Erected by The State of Texas 1963.