Full moon gets partial blame for Civil War general's death

[Bob Hubbard]

A full moon hung just right in the night sky as the fierce Southern Army faced the encroaching Union troops in the spring of 1863. Though they were outmanned and outgunned, the momentum of the war seemed to be on the side of Generals Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson in Northern Virginia.
But the tide turned in the American Civil War not long after Jackson's own men inadvertently shot him that May night at the battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia.
And for that, say two researchers, Americans can thank that full moon.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/01/us/stonewall-jackson/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

Interesting read.

I've always thought that Jackson's death was one of the turning points in the war. That Lee lost a key adviser at a crucial time and Southern strategy never really recovered. Jackson I think would have backed Longstreets desire to flank the Union at Gettysburg instead of Lee's hammer thrust at a fortified enemy holding a dominant position (or a reverse Fredricksburg).

 

[Sukerkin]

Interesting indeed. Sometimes human history does seem to turn on singular, chance, events - tho' of course things are always more complex than that it is hard not to cleave to the thing that 'sticks out' from the nexus of a crucial change.