Stonewall: The one-armed hero

Hello everyone I want to start off by saying that I'm still new to this site so please forgive me for any n00bishness.

I want to try to create a timeline where The American Civil war continues longer than in OTL and the most interesting POD that I can think of to allow that is by having Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson recover from is bout of pneumonia after having his left arm amputated at Chancellersville.

One problem I have though is that I want most of the major events that occur later in the war to stay the same and for that to happen Jackson would have to remain inactive for over a year until late 1864. For this to work out the best thing that I can think of is to have Stonewall captured and held prisoner until then.

These are the PODs I have so far.
  • Jackson doesn't die from pneumonia as in OTL but remains sick and bedridden.
  • He does not become fit for work again until approx. 5-6 months later and due to the fact that the summer of 1863 was rather uneventful in Virginia this shouldn't change much.
  • Then some time during the fall of 1863 something goes wrong for whatever reason and Stonewall is captured by the Union and becomes a POW.
  • Then over a year later he is traded back and through some creative strategies wins that war for the south.
What I need help is figuring out what could happen to allow Jackson to be captured and what Jackson would then do in the later half of 1864 to turn a victory for the Confederacy.

The battles that I have in mind that could lead to his capture around my desired time include.
As well I would like to know if anyone could come up with some good ideas of what strategies Stonewall would use himself after being released and remaining in poor health.
 
These are the PODs I have so far.
  • Jackson doesn't die from pneumonia as in OTL but remains sick and bedridden.
  • He does not become fit for work again until approx. 5-6 months later and due to the fact that the summer of 1863 was rather uneventful in Virginia this shouldn't change much.
  • Then some time during the fall of 1863 something goes wrong for whatever reason and Stonewall is captured by the Union and becomes a POW.
  • Then over a year later he is traded back and through some creative strategies wins that war for the south.

The problem with Stonewall being captured so late in the war is that the POW Exchange Cartel was in the process of being shut down and if he is captured, he in all likelihood wouldn't have been exchanged.
 
The problem with Stonewall being captured so late in the war is that the POW Exchange Cartel was in the process of being shut down and if he is captured, he in all likelihood wouldn't have been exchanged.
I'm not so sure because after reading some more I found that Colonel Archibald Godwin was captured during the Second Battle of Rappahannock Station and was later exchanged some time later in 1864 and was then promoted to general. As well Brig. Gen. Harry T. Hays was captured too but managed to escape back to Confederate lines. So even with this in mind the exchange of higher ranking individuals like Jackson still seems possible. Could anyone think of a way to perhaps put Jackson in either of those twos positions during that fight so that he could be captured?
 
I'm not so sure because after reading some more I found that Colonel Archibald Godwin was captured during the Second Battle of Rappahannock Station and was later exchanged some time later in 1864 and was then promoted to general. As well Brig. Gen. Harry T. Hays was captured too but managed to escape back to Confederate lines. So even with this in mind the exchange of higher ranking individuals like Jackson still seems possible. Could anyone think of a way to perhaps put Jackson in either of those twos positions during that fight so that he could be captured?

Well, it is true that some generals and other high ranking officers were being exchanged during this period. But we're not talking about just any officer here. We're talking about STONEWALL JACKSON.

Jackson was arguably the best military commander the Confederacy produced. The Yankees certainly respected his skills on the battlefield, and would be highly averse to releasing him if he was captured for that reason. And even if one thinks Jackson was overrated as a commander, as some on this board do, the fact is that he was seen as a hero second only to Robert E. Lee by the people of the South. Just the fact that he's been taken prisoner is going to be a huge morale blow to the South. Taken together with his wartime reputation for military prowess, the Yankees are going to have ZERO motive for exchanging him. Once they've got him under lock and key, he's going to stay there.

You'd be better off abandoning the whole "Jackson gets captured and exchanged" idea and just going with an extended convalescence following his wounding at Chancellorsville. Following a severe wound like that, especially if he has one or more bouts of follow-on illness (perhaps he gets a case of hospital gangrene which nearly costs him his life, and then gets pneumonia later on as well, barely managing to survive both and then requiring months to regain his strength to allow his return to the field), he could easily have been laid up for a year. Joe Johnston was laid up for almost a year after being shot at Seven Pines in 1862, so its not like there's no precedent for such a thing. And if he survives, he's going to be convinced that God preserved him for a reason, which will make him even bolder on the battlefield.
 
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becoming bolder on the battlefield would cause him to maybe make some mistakes, and could cause him to get captured, but i have to agree with robertp here, there is no way that the Union are going to release him once they have him, they have no reason too. Releasing Jackson will prolong the length of the war, why the hell would the Union want to do that? The only way they would release him is if the confederates captured someone of equal value, equal rank and of equal significance to the Union that Stonewall is to the confederates,and that is if considering that Stonewall himself actually remains in virginia and isn't transferred west (which would be interesting, mind you).

And especially this late in the period, by the wilderness campaign, it was union policy to piratically forego prisoner exchange now because releasing men back to the enemy gave them more strength. It would be damn stupid to release jackson at all.
 
Well, it is true that some generals and other high ranking officers were being exchanged during this period. But we're not talking about just any officer here. We're talking about STONEWALL JACKSON.

Jackson was arguably the best military commander the Confederacy produced. The Yankees certainly respected his skills on the battlefield, and would be highly averse to releasing him if he was captured for that reason. And even if one thinks Jackson was overrated as a commander, as some on this board do, the fact is that he was seen as a hero second only to Robert E. Lee by the people of the South. Just the fact that he's been taken prisoner is going to be a huge morale blow to the South. Taken together with his wartime reputation for military prowess, the Yankees are going to have ZERO motive for exchanging him. Once they've got him under lock and key, he's going to stay there.

You'd be better off abandoning the whole "Jackson gets captured and exchanged" idea and just going with an extended convolescence following his wounding at Chancellorsville. Following a severe wound like that, especially if he has one or more bouts of follow-on illness (perhaps he gets a case of hospital gangrene which nearly costs him his life, and then gets pneumonia later on as well, barely managing to survive both and then requiring months to regain his strength to allow his return to the field), he could easily have been laid up for a year. Joe Johnston was laid up for almost a year after being shot at Seven Pines in 1862, so its not like there's no precedent for such a thing. And if he survives, he's going to be convinced that God preserved him for a reason, which will make him even bolder on the battlefield.
Thanks. Originally I had been adversive to keeping Jackson out of battle for no other than than illness because it just seemed too easy and I also thought that keeping a personality such as his away from fighting even if ill would be too hard. Yet givin an example such as the one that you have it could seem more plausible.

Yet just for the sake of conversation where there any Union prisons that were liberated or had any major escapes during 1864 that I could butterfly Jackson to if I can still find a plausible way to have him caught?

Add on
Sorry to Adunakhor I didn't mean to make it seem like I was ignoring you I simply just wrote the above post during the same time as yours and added it just a few seconds afterwards. But since you mentioned it does anybody hear know of someone who was of equal significance to the Union that was or could have been captured around that time who could be exchanged for Jackson?
 
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