Pen Portrait of Stonewall Jackson

“Stonewall Jackson had dark gray eyes full of strength and depth of expression. They seemed to look through a man and discern his thoughts at a glance.” ~ Colonel William C. Oates, 15th Alabama

          William C. Oates is best remembered today by Civil War buffs for his role in the fighting at Little Round Top at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. Oates served several years in the Army of Northern Virginia and had the opportunity to interact with General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson on numerous occasions. He related these events and his memories of the redoubtable Stonewall in a letter to a fellow Alabamian, General Alpheus Baker, in 1890.

          “I first saw him in the fall of 1861 soon after he was sent with his division to the valley of Virginia,” Oates wrote. “He looked awkward on horseback because he rode with short stirrups, but on foot he was full six feet high, square-shouldered, slightly round, and would have weighed about 170 pounds. He had a full brown beard, straight nose, high forehead with black hair, which was thin, nearly to baldness on the top with dark gray eyes, full of strength and depth of expression. They seemed to look through a man and discern his thoughts at a glance. On foot he was really a handsome man.”

Jackson sat for this portrait only about a week before he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville. "His voice was effeminate and cracked like an old woman's," Colonel William C. Oates wrote but Jackson's cold gray eyes "seemed to look through a man and discern his thoughts at a glance." 

          “His voice was effeminate and cracked like an old woman’s,” Oates continued. “For instance, he would say, ‘I can’t excuse you, sir, I can’t excuse you.’ He always spoke politely but firmly and to the point. At the close of the valley campaign of 1862, he assembled a general court martial and appointed me judge advocate of it. This brought me in personal contact with him and I had the advantage of personal interviews with him on two occasions. He decided very quickly on every question and the reasons for it but did not seem impatient. He was a good listener and as soon as the point was fully presented, he would decide the matter calmly, but with such determination and repetition as at once struck the petitioner with the idea of its finality, and from which there was no appeal.

          “He refused a request, if at all, politely and very quickly and with such impressiveness that no man had the temerity to ask him to overrule his decision,” Oates said. “A look came from his penetrating eyes which showed you unmistakably that the answer came from his very soul and was irreversible. During the sitting of this court martial, I walked out in the woods one day and not dreaming he was near, I heard a man and turned to look and about 40 steps distant was General Jackson on his knees, alone, and praying aloud.”

          During the second day of the Second Battle of Manassas, Colonel Oates spoke with General Jackson again. “When Co. A of the 15th Alabama killed a Federal major who, leading his regiment, tried to charge his horse through the ranks, General Jackson came up to the spot,” Oates wrote. “He heard the captain rebuking his men saying, “You should have captured him, he was too brave to have been killed.” Jackson promptly replied, “No captain, your men are right. Kill the brave ones, they lead on the others.”

          “One day when we were on the march going into Maryland, he was riding from the rear forward and passed a regiment from which the men were straggling and depredating the orchards. He rode alongside the major in command and addressing him very politely inquired, “Major, are you in command of this regiment?” The major replied with a low bow, “yes, General.” Jackson asked, “Well Major, do you know the position of an officer in arrest?” The major replied, “I think I do, General.” Jackson said, “Well, you just take that position, Major,” stuck the spurs to his horse, and went through the woods in a swift gallop. The men along the line whooped and yelled, which they invariably did whenever he appeared in memory of the glory of his achievements.”

 Source:

“Stonewall Jackson: Personal Traits of the General Recalled by Congressman Oates,” Western Veteran (Kansas), July 16, 1890, pg. 2


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