Jackson became increasingly exhausted, and at 11 a.m. his wife knelt beside his bed and told him that before the sun went down he would be with his savior. Jackson replied, "Oh, no; you are frightened, my child; death is not so near; I may yet get well." Mrs. Jackson collapsed weeping on the bed, telling him that the doctors had said there was no hope. After a moment's pause, he asked to see McGuire.

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"Doctor, Anna informs me that you have told her that I am to die today; is it so?" he asked. McGuire admitted the hopelessness of the situation. Jackson turned his eyes toward the ceiling and gazed for a moment or two in deep thought, then replied, "Very good, very good, it is all right."

When Pendleton came into the sickroom at 1 o'clock that afternoon, Jackson asked who had preached at headquarters that day. Pendleton told him the entire army was praying for his recovery. Jackson replied, "Thank God, they are very kind." He added: "It is the Lord's Day; my wish is fulfilled. I have always desired to die on Sunday."

Jackson's mind began to wander, McGuire observed, and he frequently gave orders as though still on the battlefield. "Then the scene shifted and he was at the mess-table, in conversation with members of his staff; now with his wife and child; now at prayers with his military family." McGuire offered him some brandy and water, but Jackson declined, saying, "It will only delay my departure, and do no good; I want to preserve my mind, if possible, to the last." Told that he had at most two hours to live, he answered, feebly but firmly, "Very good, it is all right."

A few moments before he died, Jackson cried out in delirium: "Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks–" The sentence was left unfinished. "Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face," McGuire noted, "and he cried quietly and with an expression as if of relief, 'Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees'; and then, without pain or the least struggle, his spirit passed from earth to the God who gave it."

Editor's note: The author, himself a physician, believes that Jackson died of a pulmonary embolism, or blood clot to the lung, not pneumonia as McGuire had diagnosed.

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