Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 19.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

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Virginia's call to arms.

Upon the secession of Virginia Major Jackson (as he then ranked) was among the first to answer the call to arms of his State, and wrote to Governor Letcher, offering to serve in any position to which he might be assigned. The Governor immediately commissioned him a colonel of Virginia volunteers. He was placed in command of the troops at Harper's Ferry, and upon the formation of the Army of the Shenandoah, which was commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston, he was placed in charge of the brigade with which his name was thenceforth identified. At First Manassas, where he gained the name of Stonewall, and where, as Dr. McGuire narrates above, he was wounded in the hand just before his brigade made its onset, he rode up and down the line and cried out three times, ‘All's well; the First brigade will have those guns! We will drive them across the Potomac to-night!’ In less than thirty minutes the prediction was literally fulfilled. The brigade had the enemy in full retreat upon Washington.