General Barnard E. Bee of South Carolina is said to have made his immortal remark as he rallied his brigade for the final phase of the battle.
"[3] This is considered the turning point of the first major battle of the American Civil War, and the Union troops were repulsed and sent reeling back toward Washington D.C. in defeat.
In the fall of 1861, Jackson was promoted to division command and reassigned to the Shenandoah Valley and Potomac River area, where they overwintered.
During this time, a trickle of better weapons reached the Stonewall Brigade as Confederate agents began purchasing rifles from Europe.
However, the brigade still had a large number of smoothbore muskets until the Gettysburg Campaign, by which time the majority of its men had .58 caliber rifles.
At the end of the Valley Campaign, the brigade moved to reinforce General Robert E. Lee in the Seven Days Battles on the Virginia Peninsula.
In the Northern Virginia Campaign, the brigade suffered high casualties at the Battle of Cedar Mountain and General Winder was killed on August 9, 1862.
At Chancellorsville, the brigade was part of Isaac R. Trimble's division and participated in Stonewall Jackson's audacious flanking movement of May 2, 1863.
As Jackson and his staff were returning to camp on May 2, they were mistaken for a Union cavalry force by a Confederate North Carolina regiment who shouted, "Halt, who goes there?," but fired before evaluating the reply.
The men of the brigade were devastated to learn that their commander had been struck down by friendly fire and they renewed their attacks on May 3 with extra determination.
Early on July 2, the Stonewall Brigade was assigned to screen the Confederate left flank, sparring with Union skirmishers on Wolf's Hill.
[4] Later, they fought Brigadier General David M. Gregg's division of Union cavalry for control of Brinkerhoff's Ridge, east of Gettysburg along the Hanover Pike.
[5] Repositioned to the base of Culp's Hill before dawn on July 3, the 4th, 5th, 27th, and 33rd Virginia regiments participated in multiple unsuccessful assaults on Union entrenchments.
At Spotsylvania Court House, the brigade was on the left flank of the "Mule Shoe" salient, in the part of the line known as the "Bloody Angle", where Winfield S. Hancock's II Corps launched a massive assault.
Of the 6,000 men who served in the Stonewall brigade during the war, by the time of the surrender at Appomattox Court House, only 219 soldiers were left, none above the rank of captain.