On Sunday May 10, 1863, in the bed pictured above, Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas Jonathan Jackson passed from this earth. A devoutly religious man, when notified that he had not long to live, Jackson replied, "It is the Lord's Day. My wish is fulfilled. I have always desired to die on Sunday."

His personal physician, Dr. Hunter McGuire, noted his final words.

"A few moments before he died he cried out in his delirium, 'Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks' -- then stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face, and he said quietly, and with an expression, as if of relief, 'Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees." [18]

Captain James Power Smith who "all night long" kept his General "warmly wrapped and undisturbed in his sleep" would also later write:

"And here, against our hopes, notwithstanding the skill and care of wise and watchful surgeons, attended day and night by wife and friends, amid the prayers and tears of all the Southern land, thinking not of himself, but of the cause he loved, and for the troops who had followed him so well and given him so great a name, our chief sank, day by day, with symptoms of pneumonia and some pains of pleurisy, until, 3:15 P.M. on the quiet of the Sabbath afternoon, May 10th, 1863, he raised himself from his bed, saying, " No, no, let us pass over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees"; and, falling again to his pillow, he passed away, over the river, where, in a land where warfare is not known or feared, he rests forever 'under the trees.'" [D]

The clock on the mantle in the picture above, which was also present when Jackson died, is the same used by Dr. McGuire to note the time of his death. For years until the National Park service restored it to working order, it was set to 3:15 which was when Jackson succumbed to the pneumonia likely resulting from the amputation of his arm seven days earlier.

Jackson's widow, Mary Anna Jackson, later recounted, "Tears were shed over that dying bed by strong men who were unused to weep, and it was touching to see the genuine grief of his servant, Jim, who nursed him faithfully to the end." [19]

Prior to his passing, General Robert E. Lee said, "I wrestled in prayer for him last night, as I never prayed, I believe, for myself." [8] 

With a heavy heart, he sadly wrote to the  men of his army:

General Orders
Hdqrs. Army of Northern Virginia,

No. 61.
May 11, 1863.

With deep grief, the commanding general announces to the army the death of Lieutenant General T. J. Jackson, who expired on the 10th instant, at 3.15 p.m. The daring, skill, and energy of this great and good soldier, by the decree of an all-wise Providence, are now lost to us. But while we mourn his death, we feel that his spirit still lives, and will inspire the whole army with his indomitable courage and unshaken confidence in God as our hope and our strength. Let his name be a watchword to his corps, who have followed him to victory on so many fields. Let officers and soldiers emulate his invincible determination to do everything in the defense of our beloved country.

R. E. LEE,

General.

Pictured here is the final resting place of General Jackson in what had been the Cemetery of the Lexington Presbyterian Church in Lexington Virginia. Jackson lived in Lexington and was a member of the Presbyterian Church at the outbreak of sectional hostilities. The ground within which he now lays along with his wife Mary Anna has since been rededicated as the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery.