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Jackson turned the battle around at Bull Run (Manassas). The day was going against the Rebel Army. An officer road by Jackson saying this. Jackson said, "If you think so, Sir, don't say anything more about it". From that moment on, Jackson found the best available ground to take a stand. The Union Army was then routed and sent panic stricken back to Washington. Why the Rebel Army did not take Washington (The Capital) following that route on that opening battle of the Civil War is a mystery.

American Civil War, Confederate, Southern, Rebel, General Thomas J. "Stone wall" Jackson has been labeled by historians as a hypochondriac who rode into battle with one hand raised, Jackson said, "to keep the blood balanced".

Just because he said he raised his hand above his head as he rode into battle to keep the blood balanced, does not mean he is a hypochondriac. Perhaps he said that because he didn't want people to know the truth of why he was doing it (i.e he did not want to cast his pearls before swine). He probably got asked that question over and over and was being facetious.

 

I can guess with a pretty good degree of probability that because Jackson was a student of theology that the reason he raised his hand going into battle was no different than Moses raising his staff in the air as the Children of Israel fled for their lives from the approaching Armies of Egypt as they were crossing the parted Red Sea. As long as they could see Moses' staff raised, they took courage and pushed forward.

Jackson surely did it to let his men know that God was with them and not to fear. Or perhaps Jackson did it for his own benefit, to keep up his own courage before God - for his men's sake. Jackson had his hand shot in doing so, but simply wrapped his hand and immediately held it back up.

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13y ago

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