The Confederate unit that earned its name at Bull Run under Stonewall Jackson — marching 400 miles in four weeks, fighting from First Manassas to Appomattox, until only 219 men remained.
The Stonewall Brigade was formed at Harpers Ferry on April 27, 1861, trained from scratch by VMI professor Thomas Jackson, who drilled his raw recruits into one of the most formidable infantry units of the entire war.
At First Bull Run on July 21, 1861, General Barnard Bee rallied his retreating men by pointing at Jackson's brigade: 'There stands Jackson like a stone wall!' Both the general and his brigade earned the 'Stonewall' nickname that day — one of the most famous moments in Civil War history.
In the 1862 Valley Campaign, the brigade marched over 400 miles in four weeks, won six major battles, and kept tens of thousands of Union troops tied up in Virginia while McClellan threatened Richmond. Their grueling pace earned them the nickname 'Jackson's Foot Cavalry.'
The brigade suffered a parade of commanders killed in action — Winder at Cedar Mountain, Baylor at Second Bull Run, Paxton at Chancellorsville. Each death reflected just how heavily the unit was thrown into the fiercest fighting wherever it appeared.
At Chancellorsville in May 1863, the brigade participated in Jackson's legendary flanking march — and then that same night, Jackson was accidentally shot by his own men and mortally wounded. The brigade's founder and greatest commander died eight days later.
The end came at Spotsylvania's 'Bloody Angle' in May 1864, where the brigade was nearly annihilated in twenty hours of hand-to-hand fighting. Of approximately 6,000 men who served in the brigade across the entire war, only 219 survivors remained at Appomattox — none ranked higher than captain.