The Confederacy had one distinct advantage over the Union in the early going of the Civil War; the leadership of General Robert E. Lee and his "right arm" Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Jackson was inadvertently shot by his own troops at the Battle of Chancellorsville, a shooting that may have been caused by the angle of the full moon according to researchers.
In a study published in this month's issue of Sky and Telescope Magazine astronomer Don Olson and researcher Laurie E Jasinski propose that the reason Confederate troops didn't recognize their general and opened fire was that the soldiers were looking directly into a rising full moon.
"The 18th North Carolina was looking to the southeast, directly toward the rising moon," Olson and Jasinski said. "The bright moon would have silhouetted Jackson and his officers completely obscuring their identities.
Jackson was shot in his left arm and would die of his wounds a short time later. When Jackson fell many believe that any hopes the Confederacy had of winning the war died with him. Jackson had been integral in the Confederate victories at Bull Run, Antietam and Fredericksburg.
According to Worldscience.net scholars had always believed the night Jackson died was a dark one. Olson and Jasinski countered this by quoting the words of Confederate Capt. William Fitzhugh Randolph from an issue of The Confederate Veteran.
"The moon was shining very brightly, rendering all objects in our immediate vicinity distinct," Fitzhugh would write. "The moon poured a flood of white upon the wide, open turnpike."
The man who gave the order to fire upon Jackson, Maj. John D. Barry, never fully forgave himself for the incident. According to the Virginia Military Institute's website "Barry died two years after the war at the age of 27; his family believed his death was a result of the depression and guilt he suffered as a consequence of having given the order to fire."
It should come as some comfort, albeit 150 years too late, that Olson and Jasinski believe the shooting was not entirely his fault.
"Our astronomical analysis partially absolves the 18th North Carolina from blame for the wounding of Jackson," Olson said.
