Confederate General Stonewall Jackson died on May 10, 1843, but his arm had already received a Christian burial.

When Jackson was accidentally shot by his own troops on this day in 1863, his arm was amputated to save his life. His chaplain couldn’t bear to see the general’s arm thrown on a pile of amputed limbs from the Battle of Chancellorsville, so he gave the arm a Christian burial in a private cemetery nearby.

Gen. Jackson died of pneumonia the next week. His body was sent to his family in Lexington, Va. — minus one arm.

Mrs. Jackson decided not to exhume the arm because it received a Christian burial.

Unfortunately, Union soliders reportedly dug it up in 1864, possibly moving it to another location. In 1903, one of Jackson’s staff officers erected this granite marker in the cemetery to commemorate the arm. Ellwood Manor Cemetery is near the National Military Park at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania in Virginia.

Sources: The Surratt Courier, NPR.org