Before the outbreak of the Civil War, Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson had already accomplished a successful military career. But it wasn’t until the Battle of Bull Run until he got his infamous nickname.

From an early age, Jackson knew he wanted to be a soldier. He graduated from the prestigious US Military Academy at West Point in 1846. He was seventeenth in his class. After graduation, Jackson entered the cavalry and served in various duties in Mexico, Florida and New York. By 1851, Jackson landed a job teaching military tactics at Virginia Military Institute. He retired from the Army in 1852 to concentrate on teaching about the Army.

But in 1862, he was pressed to serve for the Confederacy. His horse was a small yet sturdy crossbreed named Little Sorrel. During the Battle of Bull Run, Union Brigadier-General Bernard E. Bee shouting, “There’s Jackson standing like a stone wall.”

Little Sorrel would survive the Civil War but Lee did not. After soundly defeating the Union at Chancellorsville, Jackson was accidentally shot by Confederate troops. Lee fell out of Little Sorrel’s saddle after he was shot. 10 days later, Jackson died. Little Sorrel ran on but was recaptured and treated like a star for the next 20 years. Jackson became a martyr in the eyes of the American South, which has never surrendered in spirit to the North.