The Demise Of Stonewall Jackson: A Civil War Medical Case Study

Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, commander of the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville, during the American Civil War. He died eight days later. The purpose of this paper is to describe the details of Jackson’s wounding and death, while attempting to identify inconsistencies in published reports of this pivotal event in the War Between the States. The care and management provided to Jackson by his surgeon, Hunter Holmes McGuire, will be reviewed and placed in context with standards of medical care of that era.