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The A Staggering Blow wayside marker is one of three wayside markers along the north edge of the parking area at the Stonewall Jackson Shrine, part of the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park about twelve miles south of Fredericksburg, Virginia. (38° 8.89′ N, 77° 26.419′ W; map) It is next to the Fairfield Plantation and the War Comes to Fairfield markers.

From the marker:

A Staggering Blow

We had confidence in him that knew no bounds…his loss was irreparable.
Wills Lee, Richmond Howitzers

News of Stonewall Jackson’s death stunned the South. “A greater sense of loss and deeper grief never followed the death of mortal man,” recorded one of Jackson’s men. Union soldiers felt both joy and lament. “I rejoice at Stonewall Jackson’s death as a gain to our cause,” wrote Union Den. Gouverneur Warren, “yet in my soldier’s heart I cannot but see him the best soldier of all this war, and grieve his untimely end.”

Jackson’s death fell heaviest on Gen. Robert E. Lee. He had come to rely on Jackson to carry out his plans, and Jackson had seldom failed him. “Such an executive officer the sun never shone on,” Lee once said of his subordinate. “I have but to show him my design, and I know that if it can be done it will be done.” With Stonewall gone, Lee would never again achieve the success he had gained at Chancellorsville.

(caption of large picture, upper left): Mourners at Jackson’s grave in Lexington, Virginia.

(caption of picture, upper right): Jackson’s wife, Mary Anna and her daughter Julia Jackson. Mary Anna never remarried, wore mourning clothes the remainder of her life, and became the most revered Civil War widow in the South.

(caption of Jackson’s portrait): The last photo of Stonewall Jackson, taken two weeks before his death. Mrs. Jackson felt the image made her husband look too stern.