Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, 24 March 1855

On the death of his wife
Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, 24 March 1855
JACKSON, Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" (1824-1863). Autograph letter signed to William Edmondson "Grumble" Jones, Lexington, Virginia, 24 March 1855.

Four pages, 202 x 160mm, bifolium (partial separations along mailing folds mended, portion of embossed paper mark neatly excised). With original black-bordered mourning envelope addressed in Jackson’s hand.

Jackson mourns the death of his wife Elinor. Jackson reveals in this touching letter his sympathy for Jones as they encountered the same stroke of ill luck—the loss of their wives: "Sad were the tidings brought by your letter after she whom you had above all others selected, to journey through life with you, to be the object of your affection, and the earthly source of your joys had passed from this Earth of cares and sorrows." Jackson laments their blissful marital union and cites his utmost confidence in God's saving works even in the time of adversity: "She whose heart rejoiced when mine rejoiced, and bled when mine bled, no more stands by my side to cheer and to soothe. Her race is run. She has gone to mingle in the justified host made perfect. Deep has been the wound. God has inflicted it. God can cure it. All things are possible with Him." He details the brutal moments of Elinor passing in childbirth and concludes, "I desire no more days on the Earth. Of all the moments of this life, none are looked forward to by me with so much pleasure as the one which will emancipate me from this body." Jackson remarried in 1857 and had two daughters with Mary Anna Morrison.