Informed of Winder’s death, Jackson raised his right hand and bowed his head in silent prayer. After the battle, Jackson delivered an uncharacteristically heartfelt bit of praise: “Richly endowed with those qualities of mind and person which fit an officer for command and which attract the admiration and excite the enthusiasm of the troops, he was rapidly raising to the front rank of his profession….His loss has been sorely felt.”

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Jackson added a personal note to his wife a few days later. “I can hardly think of the fall of Winder without tearful eyes,” he wrote. It was not an emotion in which Jackson frequently indulged. Perhaps Kyd Douglas was right, and Jackson saw something of himself in his doomed young protégé. As for the rest of the Stonewall Brigade, Winder’s death evoked little mourning. He may have succeeded Richard Garnett, but in the men’s minds, at least, he had never replaced him.

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