Stonewall's Last Stand is a 2017 short story written by Jeremy Robinson, published by Titan Books as part of the anthology Predator: If It Bleeds. The story recounts the final hours of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, who encounters a lone Yautja while scouting Union positions during the Battle of Chancellorsville.
Plot[]
1863. On the eve of battle with the Union army, Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson addresses his men. He promises them he will execute any man he sees fleeing the field of battle, before reassuring them that they are to do the same to him should he attempt to desert himself. After dismissing the troops, he joins a group of five elite militiamen — Cotton, Cracker Jack, Johnny Boy, Gator and their leader Goose, all of them former criminals — and leads them out into the night to reconnoiter the Union camp.
The six men trade friendly insults as they move through the woods, but are altered when a mysterious voice repeats their words back to them. Investigating, the group encounters three Union soldiers camped amongst the trees. Stonewall and his men move in and quickly capture them; the three Unionists, sporting wounds from a recent fight, greet their capture with unusual relief, talking with fear of a mysterious enemy that recently slaughtered nine of their comrades. Stonewall interrogates the only officer among them, Captain Jason Ames, who reveals the enemy is a lone figure, a demon with glowing eyes who took the bodies of those it killed.
Stonewall and his men remain dubious, but ready their weapons when they hear a strange chirruping call from the trees overhead. They hear movement nearby and the militiamen fire in the direction of the sound. Stonewall dispatches Johnny Boy to investigate, but while the men are distracted awaiting his return, Cotton and one of the Union prisoners are killed when they are impaled on a spear. As the other watch in horror, the two corpses are hauled back up into the trees on a line. One of the Union prisoners flees into the night, only to be killed by the returning Johnny Boy.
Realising that the unknown enemy now hunts them all, Stonewall gives Ames a gun and offers to return him to his own lines unharmed if he helps them fight their mysterious attacker. The survivors move out through the woods, soon discovering the bodies of Cotton and the Union prisoner killed alongside him, now skinned and hung from the trees overhead. Almost immediately, Cracker Jack is killed when he is hit by and ensnared in a vicious tightening net, while Johnny Boy is beheaded by a flying disc.
The survivors flee towards Union lines, but Gator runs headlong into the creature hunting them, shorting out the invisibility cloak that was rendering it invisible. The hunter quickly breaks his neck before hitting Goose with its shoulder cannon. Ames flees in terror, while the mortally wounded Goose begs Stonewall to leave him his pistol and implores him to run as well.
Stonewall heads after Ames, but finds only his lantern, sitting on the ground in the middle of the field that is to be the site of the battle between the Union and Confederate armies the following morning. He is confronted again by the hunter; realising the futility of trying to shoot it, he drops his pistol and faces the creature with his sabre. However, he is no match and is quickly disarmed and overcome. Suddenly, he hears Ames call out to him, and the creature is hit by a hail of grapeshot fired from a Union canon, killing it.
Ames arrives on horseback and prepares to burn the creature's body to conceal its existence from the rest of his army, fearing the psychological effect it may have on them. Remembering Stonewall's promise to release him if he aided in killing the creature, he gives the General the horse and tells him to return to his own lines. After reminding each other that, regardless of their ordeal, they will show each other no mercy on the field of battle the next day, they part. Stonewall rides hard to his lines, but is accidentally shot by his own sentries as he approaches the Confederate camp.
A brief epilogue recounts the circumstances of Stonewall's death.
Trivia[]
- Stonewall's Last Stand is one of several stories in Predator: If It Bleeds to feature real historical individuals or events as a framework for its tale — Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was a real-life military commander for the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. As stated in the story's epilogue, he was shot by his own men whilst returning from a reconnaissance mission, the exact circumstances of which remain mysterious. He died of infection eight days after being shot, on May 10, 1863.
- The idea of a Predator hunting during the American Civil War was previously explored in the comic book Predator: Hell Come a Walkin'. Like Stonewall's Last Stand, the comic features a real-life individual as its main character — famed Wild West outlaw Jesse James.
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