THE CIVIL WAR: THE TRUE STORY BOOK 1

Who shot 'Stonewall' Jackson?

MOST RESIDENTS of the Fredericksburg area have at least a general idea of what happened to Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson at Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863. The question raised here is: Who shot Jackson and what effect did that shooting have?

First, who shot mighty Stonewall? We do know that Jackson was mistakenly shot by his own men, members of the 18th North Carolina Regiment. We know for sure that three bullets hit Jackson, one in the palm of the right arm, one in the lower left arm and the third, most dangerously, in the upper left arm, shattering a bone. We know, since the weapons took a half-minute to load and the bullets hit Stonewall at virtually the same time, that he was shot by three different soldiers. We do not know which three men fired those shots, among the several hundred members of the 18th North Carolina who fired simultaneously. Several North Carolinians wrote confessions that they were the guilty ones. Although the men seem to have had guilty consciences, their stories don't match known facts.

Then there is the soldier who gave the order to shoot. His name was Maj. John Decatur Barry. You might wonder why it matters who shot Jackson, since the important thing is that Jackson was shot and died eight days later of pneumonia.

The shooting of Jackson and his subsequent death had a huge impact on the course the Civil War would take, and hence a tremendous impact on later American and, in fact, world history. Yet, as we shall see in this article and next month's, the shooting of Jackson went beyond its effects on him and on the big picture of world history. It affected several men in various ways, good and bad.

This month we shall look at Maj. Barry and the consequences he possibly faced for ordering men to fire. John Barry was born on June 21, 1839, in Wilmington, N.C. He graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina in 1859, served in the prewar militia and became a banker. With the outbreak of the war in 1861, Barry enlisted as a private in what became the 18th North Carolina. When the regiment was reorganized in May 1862, Barry was elected captain. The unit then transferred to Virginia and soon became involved in major action. At the Battle of Glendale, near Richmond, on June 30, 1862, Barry received special mention "for his coolness and gallantry and devotion to duty." He also paid for his citation with a severe wound.

Barry returned and on Nov. 11, 1862, was promoted to major. He fought at Fredericksburg before meeting his destiny at Chancellorsville on the night of May 2, 1863. As it got dark, Jackson halted his famous attack so he could realign his troops, who were scattered in the dense thickets of the Wilderness, and bring fresh troops to the front. Most important of those troops in relation to what was about to happen was the brigade of Brig. Gen. James Lane, which included the 18th North Carolina. As Lane's Brigade advanced up the Orange Turnpike, it passed dozens of dead Yankee cavalrymen and their horses. This may have strongly affected the thinking of Maj. Barry.

According to one member of the regiment, Stonewall himself placed the 18th along the Bullock Road. Another member wrote that as Jackson placed them he mentioned that they were now on the front line, and they were to shoot at anything they saw or heard in front of them. This is not true, since the 33rd North Carolina was sent in front of Lane's Brigade to act as forward skirmishers. Whether it is true or not is actually less important than the question asked by Sen. Howard Baker during the Watergate hearings: "What did he [in this case Barry] know and when did he know it?" There is no evidence that Barry was aware that Jackson had ridden in front of him; he was known as a courageous and cool officer.

Around 9 p.m., just as Jackson was completing his reconnaissance, shots rang out in the dark woods to the right of the 18th North Carolina. In what amounts to panic firing, the shooting spread to the 18th, which fired a volley toward Jackson's men. Jackson's brother-in-law, Dr. Morrison, called out for the Carolinians to halt firing. That voice would not have been recognized by Barry.

Barry would not have had much time to think about his response. It is logical that Barry, hearing the hooves of horses nearby and knowing that Union cavalrymen had earlier attacked Jackson's men, quickly assumed that this was an enemy cavalry charge and that hesitation could be disastrous. Whatever Barry was thinking, he gave the order for his men to fire, and the deed was done.

The 18th North Carolina would for the rest of history carry the tag that they shot Stonewall Jackson, and Maj. Barry was the one who gave the fateful order. One of their members wrote that no unit loved Jackson more than they did. It has become the most famous case in history of what is now called "friendly fire." But what happened to Barry?

After Chancellorsville, Barry was promoted to colonel--but through regular promotion, of course, not because he gave the fateful order. Barry did what any officer should have done under the same circumstances, and his records are full of praise. Almost exactly one year later, Barry was back in the Wilderness. Gen. Lane described Barry as being worthy of "great praise for the manner in which he handled his regiment [at Wilderness]. He has shown himself fully competent to fill a more responsible place." That would come a month later, when Lane was thought to be mortally wounded at Cold Harbor. Barry was promoted to brigadier general to replace Lane, but before it took effect Barry was severely wounded at First Deep Bottom on June 28, 1864, and Lane, surprisingly, recovered. Although considered to be the eighth-youngest general in the Confederacy, Barry never served as general. After a long recovery, he served briefly the next spring in his home state before receiving his parole on May 12, 1865.

After the war, Barry was editor of The Wilmington Dispatch. He died on March 24, 1867, at the tender age of 27. Robert K. Krick, the Fredericksburg historian who has written the definitive essay on Jackson's shooting, thinks Barry might have died of a broken heart from the shooting of Jackson.

In 1975, a Virginia congressman's aide who had family connections to Barry told Krick that was the family story. Even though Barry did nothing wrong, imagine people coming up to you on the street and saying, "So you are the man who shot Jackson."

However, another possible scenario is told by Keith Alexander, a Fredericksburg historian, expert on Lane's Brigade and retired Marine. Alexander has researched Barry's First Deep Bottom wound and believes he was hit in the stomach. Based on his first-hand knowledge of seeing buddies shot in the gut and dying later as a result, he thinks Barry died of his wound. Perhaps it was a combination of both: an emotional and a physical collapse.