Pneumonia killed 'Stonewall' Jackson and not a gunshot wound, it is revealed on 150th anniversary of his deathBy Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 11:31 EST, 10 May 2013 | UPDATED: 11:32 EST, 10 May 2013
Historians have debated for decades what medical complications caused the death of legendary Confederate fighter Thomas J 'Stonewall' Jackson, who was felled by friendly fire from his troops during the Civil War.
But after 150 years of mystery, a trauma surgeon has revealed that pneumonia was most likely responsible for delivering the death blow to the injured soldier.
Shot three times while returning from scouting enemy lines in the Virginia wilderness, Jackson was left badly wounded in the left arm by one of the large bullets the night of May 2, 1863. It took at least two hours to get him to a field hospital as blood gushed from a severed artery and Jackson was dropped twice in a stretcher before his arm was amputated. He died days later, aged just 39.
But scholars have long questioned whether it was an infection or pneumonia that killed Jackson, who gained the nickname 'Stonewall' early in the war and went on to be lionized in the South and feared in the North because of his military exploits.
Today, on the 150th anniversary of Jackson's death, a trauma surgeon with experience on the battlefield in Iraq and Afghanistan has revealed his diagnosis of Jackson's death after re-investigating the medical record. After reviewing the 1860s files and subsequent reports, University of Maryland surgeon and professor Joseph DuBose told The Associated Press that Jackson most likely died of pneumonia. DuBose is confirming the original diagnosis given by Jackson's personal physician, the famed Confederate doctor Hunter H. McGuire.
'You would be hard-pressed to find someone more qualified than him for the treatment of this injury and taking care of Stonewall Jackson,' DuBose said.
'I do defer to him in some regard. I kind of have to. He's not only the treating physician; he's also the only source of information.'
McGuire's original medical notes were lost when he was captured by Union soldiers. He recreated them from memory three years later for the Richmond Medical Journal.
Pneumonia was common in the Civil War, becoming the third most fatal disease for soldiers.
Jackson is the subject of an annual conference Friday at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore that reviews medical diagnoses of historical figures. In the past, researchers have reviewed the deaths of Alexander the Great, Edgar Allan Poe and Abraham Lincoln, among others.
DuBose is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, where Jackson was a professor before the Civil War. A large statue of Jackson stands near the campus barracks. So, his legacy and death were ingrained in DuBose's experience as a cadet.
Jackson was shot by soldiers from the 18th North Carolina regiment in a moment of confusion. He had led a surprise attack in the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia, and the Confederates drove Union forces back about three miles. Civil War historian James I. Robertson Jr. recounts that Jackson wasn't satisfied and rode out at night to review the enemy's position. When he rode back, he was shot by his own soldiers.
Then, being dropped during a frantic nighttime rescue may well have contributed to Jackson's death, DuBose found.
'If he had been dropped and had a pulmonary contusion, or bruise of the lung, it creates an area of the lung that doesn't clear secretions real well, and it can be a focus that pneumonia can start in,' DuBose said. 'That's probably what happened in this particular instance.'
DuBose, a U.S. Air Force veteran, said pulmonary embolism - a blockage of the major blood vessel in the lung - still occurs in nearly 6 percent of combat casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is even more common among those who have amputations, as Jackson did.
Still, the debate will continue over Jackson's death. ...
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