Sculpted by Gary Casteel
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
Lieutenant General Thomas J. Jackson – the legendary “Stonewall” – was brought to Guinea Station, Virginia, after he was wounded by friendly fire during the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863.
Jackson’s shattered arm was amputated on May 3 in a battlefield hospital by Jackson’s Chief Surgeon, Dr. Hunter McGuire. On May 4, General Lee ordered that Jackson be evacuated to Guinea Station, next to the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad. The railroad to Richmond had been torn up by raiding Federal cavalry, but Guinea Station was considered a safe place for Jackson to recover until the tracks could be reopened. Jackson rode 12 hours in an ambulance over 27 miles of rough road to the railhead.
Earlier in the year Jackson’s men had bivouacked here and he had met and been kindly treated by Thomas Coleman Chandler, the owner of Fairfield Plantation. A patient with a contagious disease was already in the main house, so Jackson was moved into the plantation office building, which had room for Jackson and his doctors, staff and servant to be undisturbed. Jackson would linger there for six days until he died of pneumonia on May 10, 1863.
After the war, the Chandlers moved from the plantation and the buildings fell into disrepair. The Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad bought the property in 1909 and tore down all the buildings except for the farm office where Jackson had died, which they called the Stonewall Jackson Shrine. The shrine became a part of the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park in 1937.
The Stonewall Jackson Died monument is situated next to the three wayside markers along the north edge of the parking area edge at the Stonewall Jackson Shrine, which is located about twelve miles south of Fredericksburg. The monument is one of ten placed on battlefields around Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County by the Reverend James Powers Smith, who had been a lieutenant on Jackson’s staff.
The monument was originally placed close to the railroad tracks in order to be visible to passengers using the station. When automobiles became the dominant mode of vacation travel, the monument was moved by the National Park Service to its present location in the 1960s. The last two lines about Jackson’s burial in Lexington were added in response to the many questions from visitors asking if Jackson was buried nearby.
The monument was dedicated in 1903 and is located near Guinea, Virginia, in Caroline County, on Stonewall Jackson Road (County Route 606).
Stonewall Jackson Died Marker (Guinea Station)
Size: 2” x 1 ½” x 3 ¼”
Weight: .4lbs