Stonewall Hunter: The Devil Of Chancellorsville
The Stonewall Hunter is the name used here for the unnamed Yautja in Jeremy Robinson's short story "Stonewall's Last Stand," published in the 2017 anthology Predator: If It Bleeds. The text never gives the hunter a name, and General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's men called it the Devil. On the night of 2 May 1863, it hunted Union and Confederate scouts in the woods around Chancellorsville, Virginia, on the eve of battle. It shed its shoulder cannon and helmet to duel Jackson in an open field, and it died when grapeshot shredded its head.
Biography
Arrival In The Wilderness
The Stonewall Hunter was already hunting in the woods around Chancellorsville, Virginia, on the night of 2 May 1863, the eve of the battle between Robert E. Lee's corps and Joseph Hooker's army. By then the hunter had killed nine Union men without a shot fired and had taken the bodies into the trees. Union survivors described a lone giant, bigger and faster than the soldiers, with glowing eyes. Some of them called it the Devil. Captain Jason Ames still insisted it had been a man, alone and large.
The Stonewall Hunter worked from the dark canopy, unseen except as a living shadow that looked back from the branches when Cotton's lantern flared. A woodpecker-like beat sounded from overhead, a noise Ames's men already feared, and Ames said the hunter saw just fine in the dark. The hunter also moved at ground level, close enough that a later noise in the brush drew fire from Goose. Goose still wanted a lamp, because a man cannot shoot what he cannot see. The earlier hunt had already left Captain Jason Ames and two survivors with bruises hours old.
Hunting The Recon Team
The Stonewall Hunter struck from hiding with a harpoon, driving the spear through Cotton's chest and through a kneeling Union soldier's head, then reeling both bodies up into the canopy. The hunter crashed away through the branches, still unseen. Trophy work waited in the trees, where two bodies hung upside down, stripped of skin, with heads and spines torn away. The hunter then watched the remaining scouts from the dark, visible to Johnny Boy only as glowing eyes. Jackson's five-man recon party was only more prey moving through a hunt already under way.
When Johnny Boy fired at those eyes, the Stonewall Hunter answered with an angry, barely human roar, and luminous green blood smeared the shooter's cheek. A spinning metal disc then took Johnny Boy's head. The hunter next bellowed as if prying a bullet from its own body, then came on again after the fleeing party rather than breaking off the hunt. Jackson armed Ames and ran for the nearer Union lines, but the hunter stayed on their trail. The wound slowed it only long enough to tend the injury, not long enough to end the chase.
Wounded In The Trees
Near the edge of a wide clearing, the Stonewall Hunter stood cloaked in Gator's path. Gator slammed into the invisible form, and tiny streaks like lightning crackled over the immense body and revealed it. The hunter took a knife slash across the midsection that drew more luminous blood, then caught Gator's face, twisted his head halfway around, and cracked his neck. Much of its reptilian-skinned body showed under strange armor and a sinister silver helmet. The midsection cut did not seem to stop the hunter, or even to draw much notice.
The Stonewall Hunter's helmet turned Goose's rifle and revolver fire, every shot a perfect hit that only dented the silver plate. A metal arm then snapped up from the hunter's shoulder, and a triangle of red lines put red spots on Goose's chest. The shoulder cannon burst in bright blue light and threw Goose against a tree, scorched, while Goose's last round cracked orange light across the hunter's wrist. The hunter still finished the wounded man, then screamed after Jackson as the general ran into the open field. Ames was already running for the forest's edge when that last fight ended.
Final Duel And Death
The Stonewall Hunter followed Jackson into the open field, still leaking luminous blood from the sliced stomach and from earlier wounds that did not slow it. Three red dots hummed from the helmet, and the shoulder weapon locked onto Jackson, then the lights flickered off. With a clucking growl the hunter unclipped its armor, shed the shoulder weapon, loosened the helmet, and peeled it away with a hiss. Two jagged blades extended from the right forearm, and the left hand drew the disc that killed Johnny Boy. The hunter flung the disc into the dark, parried Jackson's sabre, and sheared the sword into three pieces between its wristblades.
The Stonewall Hunter took a pistol shot as Jackson drew it into the firelight of Ames's torch, planted as a cannon mark like the hunter's red-dotted triangle. The returning disc missed Jackson's head, and then grapeshot shredded the hunter's head in two and wrecked the body. Ames burned the remains with kerosene so neither army would call the woods the Devil's home. After the hunter fell, a streak of light rose out of the forest and winked up into the stars. Jackson was shot by his own men on the ride back, and died on 10 May 1863 of infection from that wound.
Appearance And Weapons
The Stonewall Hunter stood bigger and faster than Jackson's men, with glowing eyes, a reptilian-skinned body, and strange armor. A silver helmet covered the head and could turn rifle fire with only slight dents. After the helmet came off, the hunter's mandibles twitched as it looked Jackson up and down. The hunter carried a harpoon on a line, a five-hole throwing disc, wristblades on the right forearm, a shoulder cannon, a wrist device, and a cloak that hid the body until struck. Luminous green blood ran from a rifle wound, a midsection slash, sabre cuts, and a pistol shot, yet those injuries did not slow it until grapeshot hit.
The Stonewall Hunter's cloak left it visible at first only as a shadow, as glowing eyes, or as a crackle of light on an invisible body. A woodpecker-like growl often carried from the canopy before the body could be seen. Goose's last bullet damaged the wrist device, after which the hunter still came on and later fought by hand. Jackson later said he had already put Cracker Jack out of his misery as he had Cotton, though the moment Cracker Jack was struck is not shown. The text never states the hunter's sex, clan, or hunt name.
Hunting Methods And Behaviour
The Stonewall Hunter worked the woods between two armies on the night before a major battle, taking Union scouts first and then the Confederate recon party that entered the same trees. The hunter moved cloaked from the canopy and from the ground, and it saw in the dark. Prey went up into the trees, hung upside down, and was taken as trophies by skinning and tearing away heads and spines. A harpoon on a line let it spear two men at once and reel them into the canopy. After Johnny Boy's shot drew blood, the hunter paused to tend the wound, then resumed the chase.
The Stonewall Hunter used the shoulder cannon on Goose, an armed man in a straight fight, then in the open field shut off the three red lights, shed the cannon, the armor, and the helmet, and closed on Jackson with wristblades and the disc. That change came when Jackson stood alone with a sabre. The cuts and the damaged wrist did not stop the close fight. Only grapeshot aimed at Ames's torch destroyed the hunter's head. The text does not explain the streak of light that later rose from the forest into the stars.
Behind The Scenes
Stonewall's Last Stand was written by Jeremy Robinson for the 2017 anthology Predator: If It Bleeds. The story never names the Yautja, and AvP Central uses Stonewall Hunter as a site designation, just as Jackson's men used the Devil. The night of 2 May 1863 and Jackson's death on 10 May, after being shot by his own pickets, follow the historical record, which also leaves the reason for that fire a mystery. Another Yautja hunted in the same war in September 1863 in Predator: Hell Come a Walkin', where the Ozarks Hunter crossed paths with teenage Jesse James. Both hunts appear on the Predator timeline under the American Civil War.
Conclusion
The Stonewall Hunter was the unnamed Yautja that turned the woods around Chancellorsville into a hunting ground on the night of 2 May 1863. It killed scouts from both armies, took trophies into the trees, and finally shed its cannon and helmet to meet Stonewall Jackson with blades and a disc. Grapeshot from a Union mark on Ames's torch killed it, and Ames burned the body so neither side would believe the Devil lived in those woods. A streak of light rose from the forest into the stars after the hunter fell, and Jackson died days later from a bullet fired by his own men.
Appearances
- Predator: If It Bleeds, "Stonewall's Last Stand" by Jeremy Robinson (2017)
Tag Categories: Individual Predators | Predators From The Novels | Historical Predator Hunts | Predator Lore
