Stonewall Jackson

Thomas Jonathan 'Stonewall' Jackson was buried in a Lexington, Virginia, cemetery that now bears his name, but he was so famous at the time of his death that his amputated left arm was taken away to its own separate grave.

Just after dark on May 2, 1863, Jackson launched a devastating attack against Union forces at Chancellorsville. Returning to his own lines with several staff officers, Jackson decided to conduct more reconnaissance in the area. As he and his staff rode through the woods near Confederate lines, a North Carolina regiment opened fire. Jackson was struck by three bullets, two of them shattering his left arm. He was evacuated from the area and given medical treatment, but his arm could not be saved and was amputated. Pneumonia set in, and on May 10, 1863, he died. Jackson's body was sent to Lexington without the arm.

Thinking that the limb of so great a soldier was too precious to simply throw on the regular body part pile, Jackson's unofficial company chaplain wrapped the arm in a blanket and took it his family cemetery. The reverend gave the limb a standard Christian burial and placed a marker above the site.

Supposedly Stonewall Jackson's arm was dug up and reburied numerous times in the ensuing years and there is no evidence that it still resides in its original burial space. The simple gravestone remains to remember one of the oddest instances of hero worship in the history of battle.