Twice Told Tuesday - Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson

Twice Told Tuesday features a photography related article
reprinted from old photography books, magazines, and newspapers.

In doing research into General Sterling Price for my own family history, I found this amazing volume of books on photographing the Civil War. Below is a photograph of Stonewall Jackson, a man who did not like to be photographed, and the circumstances behind this portrait found in Volume 10 of The Photographic History of The Civil War.

Thomas J. Jackson
Stonewall Jackson

Jackson, a modest hero, nearly always shrank from being photographed. At the height of his fame he answered a publisher's letter with a refusal to write the desired magazine article or to send any picture of himself, though the offer was a very flattering one.

The photograph above was made in Winchester, in February, 1862, at the Rontzohn gallery, where Jackson had been persuaded to spend a few minutes by the earnest entreaties of General Bradley T. Johnson.

Some five months later Jackson was to send Banks whirling down the Shenandoah Valley, to the friendly shelter of the Potomac and Harper's Ferry, keep three armies busy in pursuit of him, and finally turn upon them and defeat two of them. This, with the profile portrait taken near Fredericksburg, represents the only two sittings of Jackson during the war.

Captain Frank P. Clark, who served three years in close association with the general, considered this the best likeness.

Sources:

Book and Photograph:

Miller, Frances Trevelyan, Editor. The Photographic History of The Civil War. 10 volumes. New York: The Review of Reviews Company, 1911.