May 10, 1863 - Stonewall Jackson dies

May 10, 1863

Stonewall Jackson Died

Guinea, Virginia, in Caroline County

What a pleasant surprise! I'm out here doing "VA 1862" and look what I ran into. You love to see it! [Summer 2026]

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Stonewall Jackson

Died

May 10, 1863

Buried

Lexington, Va.

Erected 1903 by Mr. Thomas Fortune Ryan & Capt. James Power Smith.

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Fairfield Plantation

The farm office across the lawn is all that remains of the once-sprawling plantation called “Fairfield.” Thomas Coleman Chandler purchased Fairfield Plantation in 1845. For the next 17 years it prospered and evolved – largely at the hands of the dozens of slaves who worked the fields and toiled in the Big House. The plantation was profitable enough that in 1854 Chandler tore down the main house and constructed a more substantial two-story brick house in its place. That house stood until 1909.

While Chandler raised his family and managed his affairs, slaves made Fairfield one of the more prosperous plantations in Caroline County. The place resembled more a village than a simple home, with barns, smokehouse, kitchen, and slave quarters. For a time before the war, Thomas Chandler’s son practiced medicine from the farm office later made famous by “Stonewall” Jackson. For the Chandlers, the Civil War abruptly ended the halcyon days; for the Chandler slaves, war brought the prospect of freedom.

The main house, farm office, and other outbuildings lay at the heart of Fairfield’s original 740 acres. After the war, all fell into disrepair. When the R.F.&P. Railroad acquired the property in 1909, it pulled down the main house and restored the farm office, calling it the “Jackson Shrine.” The railroad donated the site to the National Park Service in 1937.

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War Comes to Fairfield
The Battle of Chancellorsville
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park
—National Park Service, 

U.S. Department of the Interior—

War brought profound changes to the Chandler family, Fairfield, and the slaves who toiled on the plantation. Three of Thomas Chandler’s sons enlisted in the Confederate army. When the Union army occupied Fredericksburg in 1862 many of Chandler’s slaves seized freedom, leaving the family without its customary workforce.

In December 1862 the Confederates established a major supply depot at Guinea Station, just a few hundred yards from Fairfield’s back door. Camps sprawled across the plantation. Stonewall Jackson himself camped here for a week, declining the Chandler’s offer to stay in the house. Instead he pitched a tent nearby.

By 1863 Chandler had had enough: he sold Fairfield. But before the Chandlers could move away, Fairfield’s most famous visitor would return yet again – this time not to camp but to die. Jackson’s death here propelled the plantation to a fame it had never known.

[Caption:]

Jackson arrived at Fairfield for the last time on May 4, 1863. By then the plantation was a vast camp, crowded with thousands of Union prisoners and Confederate wounded.

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A Staggering Blow

We had confidence in him that knew no bounds...his loss was irreparable. - Wills Lee, Richmond Howitzers

News of Stonewall Jackson's death stunned the South. "A greater sense of loss and deeper grief never followed the death of mortal man," recorded one of Jackson's men. Union soldiers felt both joy and lament. "I rejoice at Stonewall Jackson's death as a gain to our cause," wrote Union Den. Gouverneur Warren, "yet in my soldier's heart I cannot but see him the best soldier of all this war, and grieve his untimely end."

Jackson's death fell heaviest on Gen. Robert E. Lee. He had come to rely on Jackson to carry out his plans, and Jackson had seldom failed him. "Such an executive officer the sun never shone on," Lee once said of his subordinate. "I have but to show him my design, and I know that if it can be done it will be done." With Stonewall gone, Lee would never again achieve the success he had gained at Chancellorsville.

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Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park

Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania—this is the bloodiest landscape in North America. No place more vividly reflects the Civil War's cost in all its forms. A city bombarded, bloodied, and looted. Farms large and small ruined. Refugees by the thousands forced into the countryside. More than 85,000 men wounded; 15,000 killed—most now in graves unknown.

The fading scars of battle, the home places of bygone families, and the granite tributes to those who fought still mark these lands. These places reveal the trials of a community and nation at war—a virtuous tragedy that freed four million Americans and reunited a nation. To visit the battlefields, begin your tour at either the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center or the Chancellorsville Battlefield Visitor Center.

[Captions:]

Drive five miles west on Rt. 606 to Interstate 95. From there, go north 12 miles to Exit 130. Brown road signs there will direct you to the Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville battlefield visitor centers.

Wilderness Battlefield

For two days Union and Confederate soldiers grappled with one another in the woods 15 miles west of Fredericksburg. James Horace Lacy's house, "Ellwood," was headquarters during the battle.

Chancellorsville Battlefield

Robert E. Lee forged victory against great odds hear but suffered the irreparable loss of his brilliant subordinate "Stonewall" Jackson.

Spotsylvania Battlefield

Two weeks of gruesome combat culmination in hand-to-hand fighting at this turn in the Confederate line, known as the Bloody Angle.

Chatham

This colonial plantation is the only private home in America to have played host to both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, it served as a Union headquarters and hospital.

Fredericksburg Battlefield

Protected by a stone wall, Confederate defenders turned back wave after wave of brave but futile Union assaults at the Sunken Road.