Going Home by Mort Kunstler ~ It was his final journey.

General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson – Robert E. Lee’s irreplaceable “right arm” – was seriously wounded at the battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863. Eight days later, he succumbed to a related case of pneumonia. After lying in state at the Virginia Capitol and following an official state funeral in Richmond, Jackson’s body was transported back home to Lexington, Virginia for burial.

On May 13, 1863, his funeral cortege arrived by rail in Lynchburg, Virginia. There, it proceeded through the city in a solemn procession, escorted by thousands of mourners. At the Kanawha Canal, the cortege was transferred to the packet boat Marshall. A familiar craft on the canal, the Marshall had the task of taking General Jackson up the James River on the final leg of his journey home to Lexington.

For a long and memorable pause, the Marshall waited at its mooring below Lynchburg’s Ninth Street Bridge – with Jackson’s flag-draped casket aboard and surrounded by a group of mourners. Finally, its lines were cast off, and the Marshall headed up the canal for Lexington – as a huge crowd lined the bridge to pay their respects to the fallen leader.

Stonewall Jackson was going home.