Thomas Jonathan Jackson was born in 1824 in Clarksburg, in present-day West Virginia, lost his sister and father to typhoid as a toddler, and was orphaned by age seven. Raised by bachelor uncles at Jackson’s Mill, he traded reading lessons to an enslaved man in exchange for pine knots to read by, and that man later escaped to Canada. Jackson entered West Point at the bottom of his class in 1842 and graduated 17th of 59. This episode examines the rigid personal code he formed, from refusing an order to withdraw at Chapultepec to obeying an order to fire on civilians in Mexico City.

At the Virginia Military Institute from 1851, Jackson was a failure in the classroom, repeating memorized lectures louder when cadets were confused, and earned the nickname Tom Fool. He ran a Sunday school for Black residents of Lexington in defiance of state law while enslaving six people. The episode then covers First Bull Run and the disputed meaning of Barnard Bee’s stone wall remark, the 1862 Valley Campaign, his habit of keeping plans from his own generals, and the night at Chancellorsville in May 1863 when the 18th North Carolina fired on his party. He died of pneumonia on May 10, 1863.

• Primary accounts from his staff and wife do not support the legend that he constantly sucked lemons.
• He often rode with one arm raised, believing his blood did not circulate properly.
• In the Valley his men marched 50 minutes and rested 10, covering 646 miles in 48 days.
• His amputated left arm was buried in its own marked grave.
• His sister Laura, a staunch Unionist, said she would rather know he was dead than see him lead a rebel army.