“Let us cross the river and rest in the shade of the trees” (McGuire, pp. 162-63). These peaceful words were the last of the most charismatic Confederate general of the American Civil War, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Stonewall's work ethic, morality, and military prowess earned him the great recognition he received during the Civil War, and a brief overview of his life sheds light on how Stonewall rose to prominence. above many other outstanding Civil War generals to become "the man, the soldier, the legend" that he is today. Born in 1824 to a child from Virginia, death and grief followed Stonewall throughout his childhood. When Stonewall was two years old, his older sister and father died of typhoid, leaving his mother a widow at twenty-eight with three young children. After refusing family support and working long hours to support her family for four years, her mother remarried. Her new husband did not get along with her stepchildren, and the family continued to experience financial difficulties. When Stonewall was seven years old, his mother died from complications during childbirth, leaving his three eldest children orphans (Robertson, p. 10). Stonewall spent the next seven years separated from his siblings and bounced between different family homes, eventually walking eighteen miles through the wilderness to return to his original home (Robertson, pp. 9-16). Stonewall spent most of his time working on the farm, tending sheep and harvesting wheat and corn. Formal education was not easy to come by and much of Stonewall's education was self-taught. He made deals with his uncles to provide them with agricultural services if they taught him to read, then he would stay up late at night reading a borrowed book...... middle of paper ..... .s is attributed to his command presence. Stonewall was incredibly secretive about its plans and very strict about the military discipline of its troops. This nature of command did not bode well for his subordinates, who resented being left out of the decision-making process, but General Lee fully trusted Stonewall with all of his war goals and plans. Many of General Lee's corps commanders lacked Stonewall's talent – ​​the ability to understand Lee's unspoken goals and employ strategies to achieve end-state goals (Robertson, p. 499 ). Stonewall's artillery training manuals are still used in VMI education, while statues, parks, monuments, and U.S. Navy ships are named in his honor (Robertson, pp. 108-10). Despite his untimely death at the age of thirty-nine, the legacy of Stonewall, one of the Civil War's most defining figures, endures..