Before we get all sentimental about this, its worth noting that he was delirious with fever, and utterly unaware of his surroundings at the time.

Actually he said "If I told then once I told them twice fire THAT WAY!"

Jackson always was a devoutly religious man. Any battle reports or letters he wrote always began "Through God's blessing...". This quote ("Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.") was his last, and in the incarnation of our memories, should be remembered as relgious divinity and forgiveness within the horror we call war. With this quote said, as he always had done, he led the way (to heaven).

So Jackson and some of his men were chasing the Union into the woods trying to find their camp and it got late, deciding it would be better to return in daylight verses being caught out in the woods by themselves without "back up" they went to return back to the confederate army, Jackson was riding in front, when he should have been in back of at least two of his men, the North Carolina regiment had just arrived and opened fire when the men came within sight. Jackson was taken to a surgeon and his arm was amputated, after which he caught pnemonia and was bed ridden. His last words after delierium about his first battle in the Civil War,("move those lines up"), He stated "Let us cross over the river and rest beneath the shade of the trees" and the died. He left behind his wife and daughter.

Personally, I think this is one of the best quotes I have ever heard, and the most beautiful.

that's what i imagined when i heard this:
The river= the death, the shade of the trees=the heaven

first of all Jackson did not die right after he was shot. while it was getting late during the battle, jackson and a few of his officers rode out to try to find a strategic area to make an attack. when he came back, he did not realize that a regiment from north carolina had just arrived, and since this regiment was not present during the majority of the battle, they did not know jackson and his officers were not there. That day, jackson was wearing a blue coat, which at night, gave him the appearance of union cavalry. the regiment then responded by shooting at him. after being rushed to a surgeon, jacksons arm had to be amputated. like many of the amputated victims of the civil war, jackson appeared to be getting better, however one day he was delirious and was muttering battle orders such as "move up that column". after he was finished, he said these words and then died.

Today is May 2. On this date in history, in 1863, during the Battle of Chancellorsville, in the American Civil War, Stonewall Jackson was misidentified and shot by his own troops. He died a few days later uttering these last words. The impact on the Confederacy was enormous. Two months later the Confederates fought at Gettysburg without the aid of Jackson who might have tipped the scales the other way.

His last words were probably referring to when he was a child and use to cross a river and rest by a tree at his uncles plantation. He used this tree as a sanctuary to escape from his terrible childhood.

Wikipedia tells us that: after the amputation of Thomas Jonathan Jackson's left arm at Guina Station, Va.: "...he died on May 10th of pneumonia. When his wife told the General that Dr. McGuire had informed her that he would die that day, he replied 'Good, Good. I always wanted to die on a Sunday.' " (?)

The droning romantic notions of the oh-so-noble-yet-tragic-southern-generals has got to go. Jackson was a military genius, but a goofy zealot who wasn't smart enough to fight for the side against slavery. . .and one of the main reasons that the war went on so long was because the northern generals were (in the main) drunks, incompetents, and cowards. . .although the south did have superior officers (Jackson being among them) poetic epitaphs before dying do not erase a career scarred by leading an army that deserved to lose- badly.

While he may have meant them literally, they're about the most poetic last words ever uttered.

This is so true in life and when we cross over, one can only hope to rest under the shade with the great ones...

Stonewall Jackson was always my favorite Confederate general. His arm is actually buried by itself in a different cemetery. Had he not been killed, by his own men, it might have been more difficult for the North to win.

Rather poetic, for a general. Of course, he was most likely instructing his men what to do up 'til the very end, but I'd rather like to think of it as a bit of beautiful poetry that came on his last breath.

This was a wonderful man. He was not only a good general, but an evangelist. It's appropriate that his last words came out of his Christian faith.