Stonewall Jackson's Way

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"Stonewall Jackson's Way" is a poem penned during the American Civil War that later became a well-known patriotic song of the Confederate States of America and the Southern United States. It was found in the coat of a dead soldier of the "Stonewall Brigade" after one of Jackson's battles in the Shenandoah Valley, and was said to have been written within hearing of the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. It became very popular, but its authorship was unknown until almost twenty-five years later.

The poem honors the famed Confederate officer Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, and was written by John Williamson Palmer (1825–1906). It was soon put into song, sometime in 1863, after Jackson's mortal wounding at the Battle of Chancellorsville and subsequent death at Guinea Station, Virginia.

The title Stonewall Jackson's Way was used for a 20th Century board wargame published by Avalon Hill.

[edit] Poem

Come, stack arms, men! Pile on the rails,
Stir up the camp-fire bright;
No matter if the canteen fails,
We'll make a roaring night.
Here Shenandoah brawls along,
There burly Blue Ridge echoes strong,
To swell the brigade's rousing song
Of "Stonewall Jackson's way."

We see him now, -- the old slouched hat
Cocked o'er his eye askew;
The shrewd, dry smile, the speech so pat,
So calm, so blunt, so true.
The "Blue-Light Elder" knows 'em well;
Says he, "That's Banks, -- he's fond of shell;
Lord save his soul! we'll give him hell,
That's "Stonewall Jackson's way."

Silence! ground arms! kneel all! caps off!
Old "Blue Light's" going to pray.
Strangle the fool that dares to scoff!
Attention! it's his way.
Appealing from his native sod,
"Hear us, hear us Almighty God,
Lay bare Thine arm; stretch forth Thy rod!"
That's "Stonewall Jackson's way."

He's in the saddle now. Fall in!
Steady! the whole brigade!
Hill's at the ford cut off; we'll win
His way out, ball and blade!
What matter if our shoes are worn?
What matter if our feet are torn?
"Quick-step! we're with him before morn!"
That's "Stonewall Jackson's way."

The sun's bright lances rout the mists
Of morning, and, by George!
Here's Longstreet struggling in the lists,
Hemmed in an ugly gorge.
Pope and his Yankees, whipped before,
"Bayonets and grape!" hear Stonewall roar;
"Charge, Stuart! Pay off Ashby's score!"
In "Stonewall Jackson's way."

Ah! Maiden, wait and watch and yearn
For news of Stonewall's band!
Ah! Widow, read, with eyes that burn,
That ring upon thy hand.
Ah! Wife, sew on, pray on, hope on;
Thy life shall not be all forlorn;
The foe had better ne'er been born
That gets in "Stonewall's way."

[edit] References

• Historic Poems and Ballads. Ed. Rupert S. Holland. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1912.