“For the monuments depicting Civil War participants, the statues facing north represent those who died in battle (and thus never safely returned home); the statues facing south represent those who survived the war.”

I learned about it elsewhere a few years ago, but I forgot the source. The only differnce was the additional nugget about those that face North: since they died before the end of the Civil War they are still fighting it.

Unfortunately, the press would skewer Jackson for both issues. Being an awesome general (in a democracy these days) seems secondary, which is rather unfortunate.