Sculpted by Gary Casteel
 
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
 
The Battle of Chancellorsville is often credited as Robert E. Lee's greatest military achievement.  During that battle, one of Lee's most capable officers, Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, was mortally wounded.  On May 2, 1863, Jackson ordered a flank assault that concluded at sundown.  That night, Jackson and members of his staff rode in front of their lines to reconnoiter for a night attack without informing the troops in the area.  As they travelled the Mountain Road, near the Orange Turnpike (modern-day Route 3), they were mistaken for Union cavalrymen and fired on by the men of a North Carolina regiment.
 
Private David Kyle served as Jackson's guide through the tangled woods. He described the path taken by their party, as follows:
 
"We went down that old Mountain road some four hundred yards when we came in hearing of the Federals....We stayed there I should judge from two to four minutes when the Gen Jackson Turned his horse around and started back up the road we had come down....When we were about halfway back...he turned his horse head toward the south and facing the front of our own line of Battle he started to leave the old Mountain road and just as his horses front feet had cleared the edge of the road while his hind feet was still on the edge of the bank there was a single shot fired...in an instant it was taken up and...a volley as if from a regiment was fired."
 
The party scattered as several men were killed or wounded – including Jackson.  One bullet lodged in Jackson's right palm and two struck his left arm.  As a result of the wounds, Jackson’s left arm was amputated.  He died one week later on May 10, 1863.
 
After the war, former Jackson staff officers placed an unmarked quartz boulder on the site to commemorate Jackson's wounding.  In June 1888, the Stonewall Jackson Monument Association, founded by newspaper editor Rufus Merchant, built and erected a formal monument near the boulder to mark the place where Jackson was taken off his horse after being wounded. The monument was placed along the Orange Turnpike where it could easily be seen, not on the Mountain Road where Jackson was wounded which could not have been seen by travelers on the Turnpike.  Its dedication was attended by 5000 guests, including Governor Fitzhugh Lee.
 
Recent research has also revealed the precise location where Jackson was wounded-just west of the monument.
 
This monument was dedicated on June 13, 1888 and is located behind the Visitor Center on the Chancellorsville battlefield.