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Stonewall Jackson
Stonewall Jackson
AUTHOR OF “THE BATTLE OF SPICHEREN, A TACTICAL STUDY” AND “THE CAMPAIGN OF FREDERICKSBURG” with an introduction by FIELD-MARSHAL THE LATE RIGHT HONOURABLE VISCOUNT WOLSELEY, K.P., G.C.B., G.C.M.G., &c. IN TWO VOLUMES—VOLUME I WITH PORTRAITS, MAPS, AND PLANS...
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TO MY FATHER
TO MY FATHER
—::— INTRODUCTION PREFACE Chapter I. WEST POINT Chapter II. MEXICO. 1846–47 Chapter III. LEXINGTON. 1851–61 Chapter IV. SECESSION. 1860–61 Chapter V. HARPER’S FERRY Chapter VI. THE FIRST BATTLE OF MANASSAS OR BULL RUN Chapter VII. ROMNEY Chapter VIII. KERNSTOWN Chapter IX. M’DOWELL Chapter X. WINCHESTER Chapter XI. CROSS KEYS AND PORT REPUBLIC Chapter XII. REVIEW OF THE VALLEY CAMPAIGN Chapter XIII. THE SEVEN DAYS. GAINES’ MILL Chapter XIV. THE SEVEN DAYS. FRAYSER’S FARM AND MALVERN HILL Chapter
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Before the great Republic of the West had completed a century of independent national existence, its political fabric was subjected to the strain of a terrible internecine war. That the true cause of conflict was the antagonism between the spirit of Federalism and the theory of “States’ Rights” is very clearly explained in the following pages, and the author exactly expresses the feeling with which most Englishmen regard the question of Secession, when he implies that had he been a New Englander
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PREFACE
PREFACE
To write the life of a great general, to analyse his methods of war and discipline, to appraise the weight of his responsibilities, and to measure the extent of his capacity, it would seem essential that the experience of the writer should have run on parallel lines. An ordinary soldier, therefore, who notwithstanding his lack of such experience attempts the task, may be justly accused of something worse than presumption. But if we were to wait for those who are really qualified to deal with the
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Chapter I WEST POINT[1]
Chapter I WEST POINT[1]
In the first quarter of the century, on the hills which stand above the Ohio River, but in different States of the Union, were born two children, destined, to all appearance, to lives of narrow interests and thankless toil. They were the sons of poor parents, without influence or expectations; their native villages, deep in the solitudes of the West, and remote from the promise and possibilities of great cities, offered no road to fortune. In the days before the railway, escape from the wilderne
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Chapter II MEXICO[1]
Chapter II MEXICO[1]
1846 On June 30, 1846, Jackson received the brevet rank of second lieutenant of artillery. He was fortunate from the very outset of his military career. The officers of the United States army, thanks to the thorough education and Spartan discipline of West Point, were fine soldiers; but their scope was limited. On the western frontier, far beyond the confines of civilisation, stood a long line of forts, often hundreds of miles apart, garrisoned by a few troops of cavalry or companies of infant
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Chapter III LEXINGTON. 1851–1861
Chapter III LEXINGTON. 1851–1861
1848 Of Jackson’s life at Fort Hamilton there is little to tell. His friend and mentor, Colonel Taylor, was in command. The chaplain, once an officer of dragoons, was a man of persuasive eloquence and earnest zeal; and surrounded by influences which had now become congenial, the young major of artillery pursued the religious studies he had begun in Mexico. There was some doubt whether he had been baptised as a child. He was anxious that no uncertainty should exist as to his adhesion to Christi
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Chapter IV SECESSION. 1860–61
Chapter IV SECESSION. 1860–61
1861 Jackson spent ten years at Lexington, and he was just five-and-thirty when he left it. For ten years he had seen no more of military service than the drills of the cadet battalion. He had lost all touch with the army. His name had been forgotten, except by his comrades of the Mexican campaign, and he had hardly seen a regular soldier since he resigned his commission. But, even from a military point of view, those ten years had not been wasted. His mind had a wider grasp, and his brain was
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Chapter V HARPER’S FERRY
Chapter V HARPER’S FERRY
1861 Immediately it became apparent that the North was bent upon re-conquest Jackson offered his sword to his native State. He was determined to take his share in defending her rights and liberties, even if it were only as a private soldier. Devotion to Virginia was his sole motive. He shrank from the horrors of civil strife. The thought that the land he loved so well was to be deluged with the blood of her own children, that the happy hearths of America were to be desecrated by the hideous im
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Chapter VI THE FIRST BATTLE OF MANASSAS OR BULL RUN
Chapter VI THE FIRST BATTLE OF MANASSAS OR BULL RUN
July 19 At the first streak of dawn, Jackson aroused his men and resumed the march. Before the column gained the plain, Stuart’s cavalry clattered past, leaving Patterson at Charlestown, in ignorance of his adversary’s escape, and congratulating himself on the success of his cautious strategy. At Piedmont, a station at the foot of the Blue Ridge, trains were waiting for the conveyance of the troops; and at four o’clock in the afternoon Jackson and his brigade had reached Manassas Junction. The
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Chapter VII ROMNEY
Chapter VII ROMNEY
While the Indian summer still held carnival in the forests of Virginia, Jackson found himself once more on the Shenandoah. Some regiments of militia, the greater part of which were armed with flint-lock muskets, and a few squadrons of irregular cavalry formed his sole command. The autumn of 1861 was a comparatively quiet season. The North, silent but determined, was preparing to put forth her stupendous strength. Scott had resigned; McDowell had been superseded; but the President had found a gen
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Chapter VIII KERNSTOWN
Chapter VIII KERNSTOWN
1862. Feb. 27 By the end of February a pontoon bridge had been thrown across the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry, and Banks had crossed to the Virginia shore. An army of 38,000 men, including 2,000 cavalry, and accompanied by 80 pieces of artillery, threatened Winchester. President Lincoln was anxious that the town should be occupied. Banks believed that the opportunity was favourable. “The roads to Winchester,” he wrote, “are turnpikes and in tolerable condition. The enemy is weak, demoralised, and
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Chapter IX M’DOWELL
Chapter IX M’DOWELL
The stars were still shining when the Confederates began their retreat from Kernstown. With the exception of seventy, all the wounded had been brought in, and the army followed the ambulances as far as Woodstock. March 25 There was little attempt on the part of the Federals to improve their victory. The hard fighting of the Virginians had left its impress on the generals. Jackson’s numbers were estimated at 15,000, and Banks, who arrived in time to take direction of the pursuit, preferred to w
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Chapter X WINCHESTER
Chapter X WINCHESTER
1862, May That week in May when the Army of the Valley marched back to the Shenandoah was almost the darkest in the Confederate annals. The Northern armies, improving daily in discipline and in efficiency, had attained an ascendency which it seemed impossible to withstand. In every quarter of the theatre of war success inclined to the Stars and Stripes. At the end of April New Orleans, the commercial metropolis of the South, had fallen to the Federal navy. Earlier in the month a great battle h
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Chapter XI CROSS KEYS AND PORT REPUBLIC
Chapter XI CROSS KEYS AND PORT REPUBLIC
By the ignorant and the envious success in war is easily explained away. The dead military lion, and, for that matter, even the living, is a fair mark for the heels of a baser animal. The greatest captains have not escaped the critics. The genius of Napoleon has been belittled on the ground that each one of his opponents, except Wellington, was only second-rate. French historians have attributed Wellington’s victories to the mutual jealousy of the French marshals; and it has been asserted that M
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Chapter XII REVIEW OF THE VALLEY CAMPAIGN
Chapter XII REVIEW OF THE VALLEY CAMPAIGN
In March, 1862, more than 200,000 Federals were prepared to invade Virginia. McClellan, before McDowell was withheld, reckoned on placing 150,000 men at West Point. Frémont, in West Virginia, commanded 30,000, including the force in the Kanawha Valley; and Banks had crossed the Potomac with over 30,000. Less than 60,000 Confederate soldiers were available to oppose this enormous host, and the numerical disproportion was increased by the vast material resources of the North. The only advantages w
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Chapter XIII THE SEVEN DAYS. GAINES’ MILL
Chapter XIII THE SEVEN DAYS. GAINES’ MILL
1862 The region whither the interest now shifts is very different from the Valley. From the terraced banks of the Rappahannock, sixty miles north of Richmond, to the shining reaches of the James, where the capital of the Confederacy stands high on her seven hills, the lowlands of Virginia are clad with luxuriant vegetation. The roads and railways run through endless avenues of stately trees; the shadows of the giant oaks lie far across the rivers, and ridge and ravine are mantled with the unbr
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Chapter XIV THE SEVEN DAYS. FRAYSER’S FARM AND MALVERN HILL
Chapter XIV THE SEVEN DAYS. FRAYSER’S FARM AND MALVERN HILL
June 28, 1862 The battle of Gaines’ Mill, although the assailants suffered heavier losses than they inflicted, was a long step towards accomplishing the deliverance of Richmond. One of McClellan’s five army corps had been disposed of, a heavy blow had been struck at the moral of his whole army, and his communications with the White House and the Pamunkey were at the mercy of his enemies. Still the Confederate outlook was not altogether clear. It is one thing to win a victory, but another to ma
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Chapter XV CEDAR RUN
Chapter XV CEDAR RUN
The victories in the Valley, the retreat of Banks, Shields, and Frémont, followed by the victory of Gaines’ Mill, had raised the hopes of the South to the highest pitch. When McClellan fell back to the James the capture or destruction of his army seemed a mere matter of time, and it was confidently expected that a disaster of such magnitude would assuredly bring the North to terms. But the slaughter of the Confederates at Malvern Hill, the unmolested retreat of the enemy to Harrison’s Landing, t
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Chapter XVI GROVETON AND THE SECOND MANASSAS
Chapter XVI GROVETON AND THE SECOND MANASSAS
During the summer of 1862 the stirring events in the Western hemisphere attracted universal attention. All eyes were fixed on Richmond. The fierce fighting on the Chickahominy, and the defeat of the invaders, excited Europe hardly less than it did the North. The weekly mails were eagerly awaited. The newspapers devoted many columns to narrative, criticism, and prediction. The strategy and tactics of the rival armies were everywhere discussed, and the fact that almost every single item of intelli
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Chapter XVII THE SECOND MANASSAS (continued)
Chapter XVII THE SECOND MANASSAS (continued)
During the night of August 30 the long line of camp-fires on the heights above Bull Run, and the frequent skirmishes along the picket line, told General Lee that his enemy had no intention of falling back behind the stream. And when morning broke the Federal troops were observed upon every ridge. August 30 The Confederate leader, eager as he had been to force the battle to an issue on the previous afternoon, had now abandoned all idea of attack. The respite which the enemy had gained might hav
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Chapter XVIII HARPER’S FERRY
Chapter XVIII HARPER’S FERRY
Sept. 1862 The Confederate operations in Virginia during the spring and summer of 1862 had been successful beyond expectation and almost beyond precedent. Within six months two great armies had been defeated; McClellan had been driven from the Peninsula, and Pope from the Rappahannock. The villages of Virginia no longer swarmed with foreign bayonets. The hostile camps had vanished from her inland counties. Richmond was free from menace; and in the Valley of the Shenandoah the harvest was gathe
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Chapter XIX SHARPSBURG
Chapter XIX SHARPSBURG
1862. Sept. 17 It is a curious coincidence that not only were the number, of the opposing armies at the battle of Sharpsburg almost identical with those of the French and Germans at the battle of Wörth, but that there is no small resemblance between the natural features and surrounding scenery of the two fields. Full in front of the Confederate position rises the Red Hill, a spur of the South Mountain, wooded, like the Vosges, to the very crest, and towering high above the fields of Maryland,
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Chapter XX FREDERICKSBURG
Chapter XX FREDERICKSBURG
1862. October While the Army of Northern Virginia was resting in the Valley, McClellan was preparing for a winter campaign. He was unable, however, to keep pace with the impatience of the Northern people. Not only was he determined to postpone all movement until his army was properly equipped, his ranks recruited, his cavalry remounted, and his administrative services reorganised, but the military authorities at Washington were very slow in meeting his demands. Notwithstanding, then, the order
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Chapter XXI THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA
Chapter XXI THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA
“In war men are nothing; it is the man who is everything. The general is the head, the whole of an army. It was not the Roman army that conquered Gaul, but Cæsar; it was not the Carthaginian army that made Rome tremble in her gates, but Hannibal; it was not the Macedonian army that reached the Indus, but Alexander; it was not the French army that carried the war to the Weser and the Inn, but Turenne; it was not the Prussian army which, for seven years, defended Prussia against the three greatest
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Chapter XXII WINTER QUARTERS
Chapter XXII WINTER QUARTERS
1863 During the long interval which intervened between the battle of Fredericksburg and the next campaign, Jackson employed himself in preparing the reports of his battles, which had been called for by the Commander-in-Chief. They were not compiled in their entirety by his own hand. He was no novice at literary composition, and his pen, as his letter-book shows, was not that of an unready writer. He had a good command of language, and that power of clear and concise expression which every offi
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Chapter XXIII CHANCELLORSVILLE
Chapter XXIII CHANCELLORSVILLE
It has already been said that while the Army of Northern Virginia lay in winter quarters the omens did not point to decisive success in the forthcoming campaign. During the same period that Lincoln and Stanton, taught by successive disasters, had ceased to interfere with their generals, Jefferson Davis and Mr. Seddon, his new Secretary of War, had taken into their own hands the complete control of military operations. The results appeared in the usual form: on the Northern side, unity of purpose
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Chapter XXIV CHANCELLORSVILLE (continued)
Chapter XXIV CHANCELLORSVILLE (continued)
At a council of war held during the night at Chancellorville House, the Federal generals were by no means unanimous as to the operations of the morrow. Some of the generals advised an early assault. Others favoured a strictly defensive attitude. Hooker himself wished to contract his lines so as to strengthen them; but as the officers commanding on the right were confident of the strength of their intrenchments, it was at length determined that the army should await attack in its present position
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Chapter XXV THE SOLDIER AND THE MAN[1]
Chapter XXV THE SOLDIER AND THE MAN[1]
To the mourning of a sore-stricken nation Stonewall Jackson was carried to his rest. As the hearse passed to the Capitol, and the guns which had so lately proclaimed the victory of Chancellorsville thundered forth their requiem to the hero of the fight, the streets of Richmond were thronged with a silent and weeping multitude. In the Hall of Representatives, surrounded by a guard of infantry, the body lay in state; and thither, in their thousands, from the President to the maimed soldier, from t
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