Jefferson Davis v. Stonewall Jackson

   Confederate historiography is rife with accounts of Jefferson Davis’s legendary support of certain commanders, like Braxton Bragg, Leonidas Polk, and Lucius B. Northrop, along with politician Judah P. Benjamin, and his equally legendary feuds with others, like Joseph E. Johnston. Even with Johnston, the fault was more his than that of Davis, as in his correspondence, the President, often exhibits a great deal of grace and aplomb.

   But Davis was not, at least early on, an enthusiast of Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. That might come as a shock, considering that many still celebrate Lee-Jackson Day across the South. Often, Lee is number one, with Jackson a close second in admiration of military skill.

   It appears that Davis and Jackson had never met prior to the spring of 1862. Davis was an 1828 United States Military Academy graduate. During his West Point years, he is described as frequently challenging the academy’s discipline, which includes being involved in the famous Eggnog Riot of Christmas 1826.[1] While serving in the regular army, Davis was court-martialed for insubordination in 1835.[2] Davis resigned from the U.S. Army shortly thereafter. He then became a cotton planter and politician, serving in the U.S. House from 1845-1846. During the Mexican-American War, Davis raised a regiment, for which he served as colonel, and fought at Monterrey and Buena Vista. He then served in the U.S. Senate from 1847 to 1851, as Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, and then again in the U.S. Senate from 1857 to 1861.

   Jackson was not a politician, nor a planter. He did gain entrance to the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1846, 17^th out of 59^th students. Jackson was also in the Mexican-American War, serving as a second lieutenant in Company K, 1^st United States Artillery. His unit saw action at the Siege of Veracruz, and the battles of Contreras, Chapultepec, and Mexico City. After Mexico, Jackson saw action in Florida battling the Seminoles. Jackson also resigned from the U.S. Army, taking a position of professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Instructor of Artillery at the Virginia Military institute.

   Davis, being so intimate with the going-ons of the War Department, would have seen Jackson’s name in the reports and telegraphs that arrived in Richmond after the start of the war. Colonel Thomas J. Jackson took command of the garrison at Harpers Ferry in late April 1861. Robert E. Lee was critical of Jackson for occupying Maryland Heights, undoubtedly relaying the fears of others. Jackson wanted Confederate forces to take the offensive at once. Jackson would next clash with Joseph E. Johnston. While Jackson commanded over 7,000 men at Harper’s Ferry, he had a commission only in Virginia. Johnston, after Virginia joined the Confederacy, was a brigadier general in the Confederate army. When Johnson arrived to assume command of the post at Harper’s Ferry, no one had notified Jackson, who refused to relinquish command. Eventually, Johnston found an endorsement with Lee’s signature on it, and Jackson acquiesced. Jackson then assumed command of all Virginia regiments at Harpers Ferry.[3] Promotion to brigadier general came on June 17, 1861. Jackson went on to become the first icon of the South, earning the sobriquet of Stonewall Jackson at the battle of First Manassas in July 1861. A promotion to major general came in November 1861.

   It was Jackson who came up with the plan for the Romney Campaign. Jackson asked for reinforcements for the campaign and received W.W. Loring’s division. Finding few Federals in Romney, Jackson withdrew his brigade back to Winchester, leaving Loring at Romney. Loring has been described as incompetent and not having the ability to control his already demoralized soldiers. Loring’s officers believed that Jackson’s men were living high (and warm) in Winchester while they suffered through one of the coldest winters on record at Romney. Loring signed and forwarded a petition from eleven of his officers to Richmond asking that Jackson’s orders be overridden and they be allowed to withdraw from Romney. Others wrote to their Congressmen, and with Loring’s approval, Brig. Gen. William B. Taliaferro went to Richmond to plead their case. All of this happened without using the proper chain of command, as Loring believed Jackson would not endorse and forward the letters. Davis sided with Loring and ordered the Secretary of War to telegraph Jackson, ordering him to move Loring’s men. Jackson complied with the orders, then telegraphed, “With such interference in my command I cannot expect to be of much service in the field.” He requested to be assigned back to his old teaching job or allowed to resign.[4]

   Davis considered the Romney Campaign, and Jackson, “utterly incompetent.” It was only through the work of Joseph E. Johnston that the ruffled feathers of Jackson were smoothed and his resignation returned to him.[5] Jackson preferred charges against Loring, charges that Johnston endorsed and forwarded, but the matter was dropped in Richmond. A few days later, Loring was promoted to major general at Davis’s request and sent to the Western Theater.

   A couple of months later, Jackson commanded all the troops in the Shenandoah Valley, with orders from Johnston to prevent Banks from reinforcing McClellan on the Peninsula. The next squabble came with Richard Ewell. Ewell was angry over Jackson’s secrecy, so angry, that Ewell sent one of his brigadier generals, Richard Taylor, to meet with Davis. Taylor just happened to be Davis’s brother-in-law (Davis’s first wife). It was Ewell and Taylor’s request that an officer be sent to the Valley, an officer who outranked Jackson and who could take command. Davis agreed and wanted to send either James Longstreet or Gustavus W. Smith. Davis agreed to send Longstreet as soon as possible and Taylor returned to Ewell with the news. Lee stepped in, and as one historian put it, prevented Davis from “making a truly colossal blunder.” Over the next few weeks, Jackson, with Lee’s encouragement “carried out one of the more brilliant campaigns of military history.”[6]

   The first meeting of Davis and Jackson is thought to have occurred on July 2, 1862, at Lee’s Headquarters near Malvern Hill. Lee was meeting with several of his generals when Davis arrived unannounced. Introductions were made. Dr. Hunter McGuire was an observer at the event, and it was McGuire who informed Jackson who Davis was, although he probably already knew. Woodward writes that Jackson’s “feelings toward Davis, however, were none too cordial, for he had not forgotten the Romney campaign and Davis’s intervention in Loring’s favor during the affair.” Hunter McGuire wrote that Jackson “stood as if a corporal on guard, his head erect, his little fingers touching the seams on his pants, and looked at Davis.” It was Lee who broke the awkward silence. “Why President, don’t you know General Jackson? This is our “Stonewall Jackson.” Davis bowed stiffly, and Jackson saluted. Lee and Davis soon adjourned into another room to talk. Davis and Jackson spoke later that day. Jackson was alone among Lee’s generals to continue to pursue McClellan.[7]

   Davis, Lee, Jackson, and others met in Richmond on July 13, devising the strategy of pursuing John Pope and his army in Northern Virginia. Jackson’s brilliant Second Manassas campaign still did not seem to inspire trust with Davis. When the army was reorganized after the Maryland Campaign, the rank of lieutenant general was created. Davis told Lee that “You have two officers now commanding several divisions and may require more. Please send to me as soon as possible the names of such as you prefer for Lt. General.” Lee could request promotions for Longstreet and Jackson, or Lee could recommend someone else, bypassing Jackson. Woodward believed that Davis was giving Lee “a convenient opportunity for reducing Jackson’s responsibilities.”[8] Lee responded with: “My opinion of the merits of General Jackson have been greatly enhanced during this expedition. He is true, honest, and brave; has a single eye to the good of the service, and spares no exertion to accomplish his object.”[9]

Did Davis, during the war, ever come around to being a supporter of Jackson? Perhaps. Davis was ill during the Chancellorsville campaign. However, like many others, he was concerned over Jackson’s wounding. Varinia Davis wrote that one of the Davis servants (slaves) was sent to the railroad depot where the latest news about Jackson’s health was reported on the arriving trains.[10] It was Davis who sent the first (new) national flag to rest on the casket of Jackson as it arrived in Richmond. In a letter to Lee on May 11, Davis described the event as “a great national calamity.”[11] In the funeral procession, Davis followed near the hearse in a carriage. Later that day, when someone came to the White House to discuss business with Davis, Davis “remained silent for a while and then said, ‘You must excuse me. I am still staggering from a dreadful blow. I cannot think.”[12]

   Is it possible to read more into the attitude of Jackson in meeting with Davis at Malvern Hill in July 1862? Maybe. Jackon was “stiff” around many people. Did Jackson know of Ewell and Taylor’s mission to get him replaced? Maybe. Did Jackson smart from the interference of Loring and his officers after the Romey campaign? Yes. Jackson did resign over the event. A larger question: why did David dislike Jackson so much? Was it disdain because Jackson was not of the social class of Davis and Lee? That is just something to consider.

[1] Cooper, Jefferson Daivs, 33.

[2] Davis, Jefferson Davis, 68-69.

[3] Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, 234-44.

[4] Woodworth, Davis & Lee, 87-88.

[5] Tanner, Stonewall in the Valley, 83, from the diary of Thomas Bragg.

[6] Woodworth, Davis & Lee, 121-22; Parrish, Richard Taylor, 153.

[7] Woodworth, Davis & Lee, 171.

[8] Woodworth, Davis & Lee, 202.

[9] OR, 19, pt.2:643-4.

[10] Davis, Jefferson Davis, 2:382-83.

[11] OR 25, pt. 1:791.

[12] Davis, Jefferson Davis, 2:382-83.

A.P. Hill and his Staff at Chancellorsville

   “You have shot my friends! You have destroyed my staff!” In the confusion of the night of May 2, 1863, Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill and members of his staff had followed Stonewall Jackson out in front of Confederate lines just west of the Chancellor House. Jackson was scouting the Federal lines in the darkness. Hill had followed him at a distance and was much closer to the main Confederate lines. It was not a position for either a corps or a division commander. Shots between the main Confederate line, main Federal line, and their respective skirmishers rolled from one side to another. As Jackon and his staff returned to the Confederate lines, someone thought they were being attacked by Federal cavalry – there were remnants of just such a charge earlier in the day scattered about. One officer in the 18^th North Carolina wrote that “the tramp of thirty horsemen advancing through a heavy forest at a rapid gait seemed to the average infantryman like a brigade of cavalry.”[1]

   “Cavalry!” someone cried out. With the intense small arms fire just across the Orange Plank Road to their right, the 18^th North Carolina sent a strong volley into the darkness. Jackson and several members of his staff were stuck. Hill jumped from his horse, prostrating himself on the ground, and escaped unharmed. The staff that rode with a general were paramount to operations. There were medical officers, commissary officers, quartermasters, inspectors, ordinance officers, and volunteer aides, all essential to operations, whether in camp or on campaign. During battle, these were typically the men who relayed orders to those commanders under the general.

   Captain Murray F. Taylor was one of those aides on Hill’s staff that evening. In 1904, his recollections of the events were published. Taylor writes that “eleven of our staff, including Capt. [James K.] Boswell, who were in front of this regiment, were either killed or wounded.” Boswell was a member of Jackson’s staff. Because of his familiarity with the area, he had been temporarily assigned to Hill to serve as a guide. According to Taylor, the only two not wounded among the staff were Taylor and Capt. Watkins Leigh. Taylor was pinned under his horse. He recalled hearing Hill’s voice in the darkness, wanting “to know if any of his staff were alive.” Hill was trying to help extricate Taylor when a courier arrived bearing news that Jackson was wounded. With that information, Hill left Taylor to manage the best that he could and went in search of Jackson.[2]

   Boswell was killed, and his death much lamented. Another of the killed was Capt. James F. Forbes, serving as a volunteer aide-de-camp. The horses of Major Howard and Sergeant Tucker were so unnerved that they carried their riders into Federal lines. Private Richard J. Muse, courier, was killed, and another courier, Eugune Saunders, was struck twice in the face. Possibly another courier, Kilpatrick, might have also been killed. There might have been others wounded. Compiled service records on each of the men who served on Hill’s staff are somewhat thin. Many times, those who were only slightly wounded were not reported as such.[3]

   Replacing Palmer as assistant adjutant general was William N. Starke. Prior to his assignment, Starke had served as Acting Assistant Adjutant General in his father’s brigade. Starke served in this role for the rest of the war. Palmer would return to Hill’s staff and follow Hill when the latter was promoted to command of the Third Corps. It does not appear that another volunteer aide-de-camp was assigned to Hill’s command after the death of Forbes.

   Not long after the volley that killed Boswell and Forbes and wounded Palmer, and after Hill oversaw the evacuation of Jackson from such an exposed position between the lines, Hill himself was wounded by an artillery fragment. While it was not a dangerous wound, Hill was unable to walk or ride and passed command over to JEB Stuart.

   Hill’s statement “You have shot my friends! You have destroyed my staff!” was remembered by Taylor long after the war. As Hill took a roll call of his staff in the darkness and confusion, he could have believed that the volley had been worse than it was. Maybe some of the wounded were members of the 39^th Battalion Virginia Cavalry, an organization that supplied couriers to division, corps, and general staff. Several members of the 39^th Battalion were reported wounded or killed at Chancellorsville, including John Hall, George Smith, and Thomas Williamson (he was wounded and captured). While these soldiers were not considered as belonging to the staff of a particular general, it is possible that Hill might have considered some of them friends or staff.[4]

   When historians write on the battle of Chancellorsville or the life of A.P. Hill, the volley that wounded Jackson and took out several of Hill staff is always mentioned. However, the focus is usually on Jackson. Sears, in his standard work on the battle, neglects details about the volley in relationship to Hill.  Likewise, Schenck neglects this part of the story. In his biography of Hill, Robertson only includes Taylor’s account. Only Lively, in Calamity at Chancellorsville, dives into who was with Hill as the volley wreaked havoc on Hill’s staff in the woods that fateful, dark night at Chancellorsville.[5]                                                                                                                                                                                       

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[1] Robertson, General A.P Hill, 187.

[2] Taylor, “Stonewall Jackson’s Death,” Confederate Veteran, 12:493.

[3] Krick, Staff Officers in Gray, 130; 236; Palmer, “Another Account of It,” Confederate Veteran, 13:233; Lively, Calamity at Chancellorsville, 52, 57. 
                          

[4] Hardy, General Lee’s Bodyguard, 49.

[5] Sears, Chancellorsville, 295; Schrenck, Up Came Hill, 250; Robertson, General A.P. Hill, 187; Lively, Calamity at Chancellorsville, 52, 57.

 

William F. Randolph and the wounding of Stonewall Jackson

   Born in Virginia in 1831, William F. Randolph had ties to some of the best families in Virginia.  It probably came as a surprise when the well-traveled Randolph enlisted as a private in the 6^th Virginia Cavalry in May 1862. He was soon appointed as a courier to the staff of Richard S. Ewell. It is not clear if the idea was Randolph’s or Ewell’s, but later that year, Randolph was leading a group known as Ewell’s Body Guard. This group would become the nucleus for the 39^th Battalion Virginia Cavalry. Unofficially, the 39^th Battalion was known as Lee’s Body Guard. The members of the four companies of this battalion were often distributed to various generals to serve as couriers and guides.

   Based upon a post-war account, Randolph was with Jackson’s command during the Chancellorsville campaign. It was Randolph who helped scout the Federal lines on May 1. (It is unclear if this is a different scout than the one undertaken by JEB Stuart.) After the flank march and primary Confederate attack had run out of steam, Jackson, desirous to continue the attack, started deploying the rest of the Light Division, still stacked on the Orange Plank Road. Lane’s brigade was first in line, and deployed on either side of the road, with one regiment moving forward as skirmishers.

   Jackson, Randolph, and a few others passed by Lane’s brigade heading toward the Federal lines. It was dark, and the party, according to Randolph, was walking their horses toward the front when firing broke out nearby.

   “Jackson turned to me and said: ‘Order those men to stop that fire, and tell the officers not to allow another shot fired without orders.’”

   “I rode up and down the line and gave the order to both men and officers, telling them also they were endangering the lives of General Jackson and his escort. But it was in vain; those immediately in front would cease as I gave the order, but the firing would break out above and below me, and instead of ceasing, the shots increasing in frequency. I rode back to Jackson and said: ‘General, it is impossible to stop these men; they seem to be in a kind of panic. I think we had best pass through their lines and get into the woods behind them.’ ‘Very well said,’ was the reply. So making a half wheel to the left . . . our little company commenced the movement to pass through the line, and thus put ourselves beyond the range of the fire. A few more seconds would have placed us in safety . . . but as we turned, looking up and down as far as my eye could reach, I saw that long line of bayonets rise and concentrate upon us. I felt what was coming, and driving spurs into my horse’s flanks . . . he rose high in the air and as we passed over the line the thunder crash from hundreds of rifles burst in full in our very faces. I looked back as my horse made the leap, and everything had gone down like leaves before the blast of a hurricane . . . My own horse was wounded in several places, my clothing and saddle were perforated with bullets, yet I escaped without a wound.”

   “As soon as I could control my horse, rendered frantic by his wounds, I rode among our men who were falling back into the woods and from behind the trees were still continuing that reckless and insane fire, and urged them to form their line and come back to the road, telling them that they had fired not upon the enemy, but upon General Jackson and his escort.”

   “Then sick at heart I dashed back to the road, and there was where the saddest tragedy of the war was revealed in its fullest horror.”

   “I saw the General’s horse . . . standing close to the edge of the road . . . Jumping from my horse I hastened to the spot and saw the General himself lying in the edge of the woods. He seemed to be dead and I wished all the bullets had passed through my own body rather than such a happening as this. I threw myself on the ground by his side and raised his head and shoulders on my arm. He groaned heavily.”

   “’Are you much hurt, General?’ I asked as soon as I could find a voice and utterance.”

   “’Wild fire, that sir, wild fire,’ he replied in his usual way.”

   “This was all he said. I found that the left arm was shattered by a bullet just below the elbow, and his right hand lacerated through the palm. Not a living soul was in sight then, but in a few moments A.P. Hill rode up, and then Lieutenant Smith, one of his aides. General Hill ordered me to mount my horse and bring an ambulance quickly.”[1]

   Randolph’s account, published decades later, contains some differing accounts of events. James I. Robertson, in his biography of Jackson, places Capt. Richard E. Wilbourne and Pvt. William T. Wynn with Jackson. They were the ones who removed Jackson from his horse, and Wynn went to find a surgeon. While Robertson mentioned Randolph as one of the party, only Wilbourne and Wynn are there to take Jackson off of his horse.[2] Likewise, Dabney in his biography of Jackson never mentioned Randolph’s role.[3]

   Randolph was captured at Gettysburg and spent the rest of the war at Johnson’s Island. Was he simply mis-remembering the events of the night of May 2, 1863? It is possible. But there is probably some truth in his story.

   If you would like more information on the 39^th Battalion Virginia Cavalry, check out my book, Lee’s Body Guards.

[1] Randolph, “With Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville.” Southern Churchman, April 11, 1931, 24-26.

[2] Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, 726, 729-30.

[3] Dabney, Life and Campaigns of Lieut. Gen. T.J. (Stonewall) Jackson, 686-687.

Did Robert E. Lee read Poe?

   January 19 is the birthday of both Robert E. Lee and Edgar Allan Poe. Lee was born in 1807 at Stratford Hall, Westmoreland County, Virginia. He grew up in Alexandria, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Lee attended Eastern View in Fauquier County, and Alexandria Academy before entering West Point in 1825. Poe was born in 1809, two years later, in Boston, Massachusetts. His father abandoned his family in 1810 and his mother died the next year. Poe went to live with the Allan family in Richmond, Virginia. He was educated locally, attended the University of Virginia, dropped out after a year, enlisted in the U.S. Army, then found a substitute and quit the army, but then was appointed to West Point. Poe was admitted in 1830 and was later dismissed for disobedience.

   Poe emerged as a fiction writer in the 1830s, publishing works in various literary magazines and newspapers. His first book was published in 1832, and he wrote numerous pieces and books over the next twenty-plus years. On October 3, 1849, Poe was found in Baltimore in a semiconscious state. He was taken to Washington Medical College, where he died on October 7. His actual cause of death remains a mystery.

   While at school, Lee read a common list for those pursuing a classical education: Homer, Longinus, Tacitus, and Cicero, along with “all the minor classics.”[1] His time at West Point would have been full of military texts, but other books as well. In 1828, between January 26 and May 24, he checked out fifty-two books from the library, including books on seamanship and the works of Alexander Hamilton, along with Rousseau’s Confessions.[2] While superintendent at West Point, Lee returned to checking out books from the library. Biographer Douglas Southall Freeman wrote that in those years, he read “six works on geography . . . one on forestry, eight on architecture, five on military law, two on non-military biography, one on French and Spanish grammar, and fifteen on military biography, history, and the science of war.”[3] Seven of those dealing with war were on Napoleon.

   Lee on campaign, during the war years, read constantly: letters, reports, enemy newspapers. Undoubtedly he kept up his reading in the book of Common Prayer. Lee did mention once in a letter to home that he was sending Mary a copy of Winfield Scott’s autobiography. It was unclear if he had read it.[4] Other details about what Lee might have read for leisure during the war are not clear.

   In 1865, Mrs. Jackson sent Lee Dabney’s Life and Campaigns of Lieut. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson. This was probably the only manuscript regarding the war that he read and about which he had comments. “I am misrepresented at the battle of Chancellorsville in proposing an attack in front, the first evening of our arrival,” Lee wrote. “On the contrary I decided against it, and stated to General Jackson, we must attack on our left as soon as practicable; and the necessary movement of the troops began immediately. In consequence of a report received about that time, from General Fitz Lee, describing the position of the Federal army, and the roads which he held with his cavalry leading to its rear, General Jackson, after some inquiry concerning the roads leading to the Furnace, undertook to throw his command entirely in Hooker’s rear, which he accomplished with equal skill and boldness…”[5]

   Regarding Lee’s post-war reading on the war, Doctor A.T. Bledsoe wrote Lee in 1867, asking for Lee’s opinion of an article in The Southern Review on the battle of Chancellorsville. Lee replied that he had not read the article, or any other books, “published on either side since the termination of hostilities . . . I have as yet felt no desire to revive my recollections of those events, and have been satisfied with the knowledge I possessed of what transpired.” [6]

   In the post-war years, Philip Stanhope sent Lee a new translation of Homer’s Iliad.[7] “That winter,” Robert E. Lee, Jr. wrote, “my father was accustomed to read aloud in the long evenings to my mother and sisters.” A couple of years later, Professor George Long sent Lee a second edition of one of Lee’s favorites, Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.[8]

   Of course, Lee did eventually start to collect material for his own history of the war, one he never finished.

   Concerning the Bible, one was sent to him by an admirer in 1867. Lee sent a reply, thanking him for the gift, and adding that the Bible was “a book which supplies the place of all others, and one that cannot be replaced by any other.”[9]

   Probably the most important piece regarding the original question, did Lee ever read the works of Edgar Allan Poe, comes from a letter Lee wrote his daughter Mildred in December 1866. Lee writes: “I hope you will find time to read and improve your mind. Read history, works of truth, not novels and romances. Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in its true light.”[10] In the end, we might conclude that Lee probably never read Poe.

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[1] Freeman, R.E. Lee, 1:36, 40.

[2] Freeman, R.E. Lee, 1:71.

[3] Freeman, R.E. Lee, 1:353.

[4] Freeman, R.E. Lee, 3:527.

[5] Freeman, R.E. Lee, 2:587.

[6] Freeman, R.E. Lee,  2:588.

[7] Lee, Recollections and Letters, 213.

[8] Lee, Recollections and Letters, 215.

[9] Jones, Personal Reminiscences, 114-15.

[10] Lee, Recollections and Letters, 247-48.

Did Grant visit the site of Jackson’s death?

    After Stonewall Jackson was wounded and his arm amputated, he was taken via wagon to the Chandler Farm (also known as Fairfield). The farm was very near the railroad and many Confederates were brought to this site, to later be transported to Richmond by train. (You can read a previous post about one of those soldiers here.) Jackson was placed in a room

Chandler Office (NPS)

in the office building on the farm, with plans to transport him to Richmond for better care. Of course, Jackson died in the Chandler office building on May 10, 1863.   A story emerged in the page of Confederate Veteran in 1897 of another famous visitor to the site. It was May 1864, and the visitor was U.S. Grant.

   “While our people were putting up the tents and making preparations for supper, Gen. Grant strolled over to a house near by, owned by a Mr. Chandler, and sat down on the porch. . . In a few minutes a lady came to the door, and was surprised to find that the visitor was the general-in-chief. He was always particularly civil to ladies, and he rose to his feet at once, took off his hat, and made a courteous bow. She was ladylike and polite in her behavior, and she and the General soon became engaged in a pleasant talk. Her conversation was exceedingly entertaining. She said, among other things: ‘This house has witnessed some sad scenes. One of our greatest generals died here just a year ago: Gen. Jackson, Stonewall Jackson, of blessed memory.’”

   “Indeed?” Remarked Gen. Grant. “He and I were at West Point together for a year, and we served in the same army in Mexico.”

   “Then you must have known how good and great he was,” said the lady.

    “O yes,” replied the General. “He was a sterling, manly cadet, and enjoyed the respect of everyone who knew him. He was always of a religious turn of mind and a plodding, hard-working, student. His standing was at first very low in his class, but by his indomitable energy he managed to graduate quite high. He was a gallant soldier and a Christian gentleman and I can understand fully the admiration your people have for him.”

   The soldier making the observation was Brig. Gen. Horace Porter, personal secretary to Grant, and the article originally appeared in an the article “Campaigning with Grant,” published in Century magazine, now what we call Battles and Leaders.

Refusing to serve under Stonewall Jackson

   In all honesty, he was not “Stonewall” Jackson yet. He was still the eccentric Thomas J. Jackson, professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Instructor of Artillery Tactics at the Virginia Military Institute. And the 12^th Virginia Infantry wanted no part of him.

   Parts of the 12^th Virginia predated the war. The Petersburg Old Grays were organized in 1828 and fought in the Mexican War. The Petersburg City Guard was organized in 1852. Those two companies served as a detail during the hanging of John Brown in December 1859. Several of the other companies were also organized prior to the war. Once the war came, these companies were organized into the 12^th Virginia Infantry.

   Like every other infantry or cavalry command, the new regiment needed a colonel. Virginia Governor John Letcher was considering Professor Thomas J. Jackson for the post. On one hand, Jackson was extremely qualified for the post. He was a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, and had seen service in the Mexican-American War in an artillery battery, earning several brevets for his actions. His tour in Mexico also saw him serving in the quartermaster’s and commissary’s offices. Jackson was then posted at Fort Columbus, New York; Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania (court-martial duty); then at Fort Hamilton, New York. In December 1850, Jackson and his company were sent to Florida. He then left the army to begin teaching at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington.[1]

    Jackson was not the most engaging teacher, and his rigid teaching style soon earned the enmity of many of his young pupils. “[S]o difficult & taught by such a hell of a fool,” wrote one student in an optics class. A fellow professor wrote that “As a Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy -, Major Jackson was not a success. He had not the qualifications needed for so important a chair. He was no teacher, and he lacked the tact required in getting along with his classes. He was a brave man, a conscientious man, and a good man, but he was no professor.” That fellow professor would add “His genius was in the Science and Art of War.” [2]

   That view of Jackson, a genius in the science and art of war, had yet to emerge when the 12^th Virginia was being formed. In April 1861, Jackson delivered the VMI cadets to Richmond to serve as drillmasters for the many new companies and regiments in the capital. Not having an assignment, Jackson volunteered to instruct artillery companies. Jackson was then appointed a major in the topographical engineers. Then Jackson was appointed colonel by Governor Letcher. But, what regiment to assign him to? Word arrived at the camp of the forming 12^th Virginia Infantry that Letcher was considering Jackson to be their colonel. When his nomination came up before the Virginia legislation, someone asked “Who is this Thomas J. Jackson?” A post-war newspaper reported that,  at the beginning of the war, Jackson “was assigned by the Governor of Virginia to command of the Twelfth Virginia Infantry, stationed at Norfolk, and composed of crack companies from different parts of the State. The regimental officers had been told that Jackson was of ‘an eccentric and ascetic disposition,’ and they protested against him so strongly that the Governor assigned him to another field duty. He was soon heard from as Stonewall Jackson, and the Twelfth Virginia kept very quiet about a certain little matter.”[3]

   Jackson was promoted to colonel, then sent to Harpers Ferry to take command of all the troops present. On June 17, 1861, he was promoted to brigadier general. The 12^th Virginia “kept very quiet about a certain little matter.” If you would like to learn more about the 12^th Virginia Infantry, check out John Horn’s The Petersburg Regiment in the Civil War (2019).

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[1] Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, 77.

[2] Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, 121, 125.

[3] Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, 219; The Somerset Press, February 15, 1875.

The Jackson-Pender meeting at Chancellorsville

   The story of Stonewall Jackson’s wounding on the night of May 2, 1863, is well known. During a lull in the fighting after Jackson had rolled up the flank of the Army of the Potomac, Jackson and his staff rode forward into the darkness to scout the Federal lines. How far he rode is not certain. The front Confederate line was held by the 33^rd North Carolina Troops, deployed as skirmishers. To their rear were the other four regiments of Lane’s brigade. It was dark and there was a lot of confusion. There was also a lot of skirmishing as the Federals constructed works. Things were so jumbled up that four or five members of the 7^th North Carolina State Troops were able to capture almost 200 members of the 128^th Pennsylvania Infantry. In the ensuing confusion, Jackson was wounded by his own troops and taken to the rear.

   Capt. James P. Smith wrote an account of the night of May 2 for Century Magazine entitled “Stonewall Jackson’s Last Battle.” Picking up Smith’s account, Jackson, after his wounding was taken behind the lines. The “litter was soon brought, and again rallying a few men, we essayed to carry him farther, when a second bearer fell at my side. This time, with none to assist, the litter careened, and the general fell to the ground, with a groan of deep pain. Greatly alarmed, I sprang to his head, and, lifting his head as a stray beam of moonlight came through clouds and leaves, he opened his eyes and wearily said: "Never mind me, Captain, never mind me." Raising him again to his feet, he was accosted by Brigadier-General Pender: "Oh, General, I hope you are not seriously wounded. I will have to retire my troops to re-form them, they are so much broken by this fire."[1]

   The difficulty with this story is that Pender’s brigade had yet to deploy when Jackson was wounded. Why would they need to retire and re-form if they were only harassed by a little stray artillery fire?

   Who was James P. Smith? Born in Ohio, Smith attended both Jefferson College and Hampton Sidney. When the war came along, he enlisted in the Rockbridge Artillery. On October 8, 1862, he was promoted to lieutenant and transferred to the staff of Jackson as an aide de camp. There is nothing in his record to indicate that he was not with Jackson that night.[2]

   Brig. Gen. William Dorsey Pender was commanding a brigade in A.P. Hill’s Light Division on May 2, 1863. The Light Division was the last of three divisions that accompanied Jackson on his celebrated flank march on May 2. Most historians do not discuss the order of march for the Light Division, save that two brigades, under Archer and Thomas, were left behind to deal with the threat at Catharine’s Furnace. That left Hill with four brigades: those of Lane, Pender, Heth, and McGowan.[3]

   Jackson commenced his attack at 5:30 that afternoon. In his deployment of brigades for the attack, Sears lost Pender’s brigade. In the most popular book on the battle, Sears writes that Jackson’s front line consisted of troops from Rodes’s division: brigades belonging to Iverson, O’Neal, Doles, and Colquitt. In the second line were Ramseur’s brigade from Rodes’s Division, and Warren’s and Jones’s brigades from Colston’s division. A third line, north of the Orange Plank Road, was composed of Nicholls’s brigade of Colston’s Division, and Heth’s brigade of Hill’s Division. “[A]nother of Hill’s brigades, James Lane’s was deployed in column on the Turnpike.” What happened to Pender? And McGowan? Schenck likewise is no help, only adding that as Jackson was deploying, “Hill’s Division was partly deployed and partly in column on the road. The two rear most brigades were still coming up.” Furgurson goes a little further, writing that Heth’s and Pender’s brigades were forming north of the Orange Plank Road, while Lane and McGowan’s brigades (in that order) were still on the road when the attack commenced. However, Furguson provides no source for the disposition of the Light Division.[4]

   What of the reports in the Official Records? A. P. Hill gives the slimmest of details, and nothing about the disposition of his division on the march or the battle on May 2. Heth, after his skirmish on the morning of May 2, writes that he was ordered to disengage, “crossing the plank road and [follow] the rest of division.” On reaching the stepping-off place for the late afternoon attack, Heth was ordered to “form line of battle on General Colston’s left.” However, Colston “advanced his line before” Heth could deploy. Heth then was ordered to deploy off Pender’s left. “This was done.” At some point, Heth and Pender advanced “1 ½ miles on the left of and parallel to the Plank road.” Heth makes no more mention of Pender’s brigade until after Jackson is wounded. Lane, in his official report, makes no mention of the order of march. Pender, in his report, does not write about the order of march, but does write that they were formed in support of Colston’s division on the left of the road. “In this order we advanced some distance, when orders were received to enter the road again and push on by the flank, in which order I moved until reaching the advanced position of our troops.” Since Lane’s brigade was in the lead at this point, Pender’s brigade must have been somewhere behind Lane’s men.[5]

   Both Lane and Pender write about the artillery bombardment. After Lane had been ordered to deploy, but before he could execute his orders, the Federals “opened a terrific artillery fire, which was responded to by our batteries.” It was Lane who suggested that Hill order his batteries to stop fire, and when they did, the Federals also stopped their fire. "All old soldiers know how difficult it is to maneuver the bravest troops in the dark under a murderous fire, through scrubby oaks & pine thickets, & over the abatis of the enemy's abandoned works," Lane wrote after the war. Pender, someplace further down the road behind Lane, writes that he was ordered to move to the left and deploy his troops. “Here, after my men were subjected to a most galling and destructive shelling from the batteries near Chancellorsville, I moved my regiments in to the left and formed line of battle…” Lane writes that the artillery duel lasted fifteen minutes. Once it ended, Lane deployed his troops, looked for Hill for further orders, found Jackson instead and received orders from him. Then Jackson and his staff rode maybe half a mile forward and partway back before being wounded by Lane’s men, who were still in front of Pender.[6]

   There was some Federal artillery fire later. Shrapnel hit Jackson’s litter bears at least once, forcing them to stop another time. Is this the “galling and destructive shelling” that Pender mentions?  Furthermore, most accounts have Capt. Benjamin Leigh being sent to the rear to find a surgeon and ambulance for Jackson. Leigh rode back 100 yards (through Lane’s brigade) where he found “Pender marching up the road with his brigade.” It is important to note that Leigh is writing on May 12, 1863. The events are still fresh in his mind. Pender, in both his official report, and in his letters home, made no mention of Leigh.[7]

   Back to Smith--He recalled Pender telling Jackson: “I will have to retire my troops to re-form them, they are so much broken by this fire." Much of this boils down to timing. How much time passed between the severe artillery fire that both Lane and Pender made mention of, and Pender encountering Jackson on the stretcher being carried to the rear in the darkness? Fifteen minutes? Half an hour? How far back was Pender’s brigade? If Leigh is correct in finding Pender still stacked in the road, then why the need to fall back and reform? Lane’s brigade survived the artillery bombardment and was successfully deployed. Pender was someplace behind him, and had Lane’s brigade to provide cover while they reformed from an artillery barrage fifteen or thirty minutes before. Of course, we know that Pender did not retire. He went in on Lane’s left just a short time later. Smith’s account is often repeated or alluded to. Stephen Sears, Mathew Lively, and Ernest Furgurson all mention this account. The timing just seems odd. Maybe Pender compressed the timing and the artillery barrage into one event, without all of the gaps.

   Pender seems more interested in writing to wife about his prospects for promotion than about the battle. I understand wanting to protect his loved one from the atrocities of war, but history could have used a little more detail, detail we could use, nearly a hundred and sixty years later, to help us understand the movements of long-dead men on a dark, confusing battlefield.

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[1] Johnson and Buel, Battles and Leaders, 3:212.

[2] Krick, Staff Officers in Gray, 269.

[3] Sears, Chancellorsville, 256; Schenck, Up Came Hill, 248.

[4] Sears, Chancellorsville, 260-61; Schenck, Up Came Hill, 248; Furgurson, Chancellorsville, 1863, 167, 168.

[5] Official Records, Vol. 25, 1:885, 890, 915-16, 935.

[6] Official Records, Vol. 25, 1:916, 935; James Lane to Marcellus Moorman, "Narrative of Events and Observations Connected with the Wounding of General T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson," SHSP, 30:111-13.

[7] Leigh, “Wounding of Stonewall Jackson,” SHSP, 6:233; Lively, Calamity at Chancellorsville, 72.