`STONEWALL' CAPTURED IN MANASSAS EXHIBIT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 14, 1993                   TAG: 9302140078
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MANASSAS                                LENGTH: Medium
`STONEWALL' CAPTURED IN MANASSAS EXHIBIT
Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson died before the Civil War ground into bloody hopelessness, and became the martyred symbol of the great lost Confederate cause.
But had he survived the war, Jackson's place in history might have been very different, suggests an exhibit on Jackson's legacy at the Manassas Museum.
"Had he lived, certainly he would have been considered a great general, but he also would have been another general who fought in the losing battle," said Scott Harris, a historian who assembled artifacts from Jackson's life and death for the exhibit.
Admired as a brilliant tactician in life, Jackson in death became a symbol of the Old South second only to his commander, Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Any missteps on the battlefield were discounted, and Confederate supporters, including Jackson's wife, became zealous custodians of Jackson's memory, historians said.
"Jackson died when the Confederacy was at its zenith," Harris said. "Everything that came after led to the decline and failure of the Confederacy."
It was easy for Southerners to romanticize Jackson's memory, even to believe that his presence at later battles might have won the war, historians said.
"That's where history becomes distorted. Because he became such a legend after death, people went out of their way to protect his image," said Frank O'Reilly, a National Park Service historian at the restored farm house where Jackson died.
"There was this myth of the lost cause where they gilded the heroes. That's where we see people starting to say Jackson never made a mistake, that he was perfect. To me that's very uncharitable to the officer. It tells me that he never grew or learned anything as a general," O'Reilly said.
Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own troops at the Battle of Chancellorsville near Fredericksburg in May 1863 and died a few days after the battle.
"I think you can argue that at his death Jackson was the most famous person in North America," O'Reilly said. "People said `General Lee' or `President Lincoln,' but they referred to Jackson with one word. Even today everybody knows who you mean by `Stonewall.' '

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB