In the place that he knew best, doing the thing at which he was most accomplished. A native of the mountains of Virginia, Jackson had a field day with the Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley, out-marching, out-thinking, and out-guessing them. Those who study the campaigns of “Old Jack,” as the men called him, marvel at the speed with which Jackson marched, but they do not realize the weariness it brought to his soldiers. No section of the armies—Confederate or Union—marched as many miles, or made do with such poor rations, as the Stonewall Jackson Brigade.

By mid-August of 1862, Jackson’s reputation stood sky-high. Even some Yankees admitted a grudging admiration for his military style. But Jackson’s men were practically dead on their feet, when he called on them to make yet another heroic effort, to come around the right—or western—flank of General John Pope (1822–1892) and the Army of Virginia.