USA > Virginia > Henrico County > Henrico County > Richmond howitzers in the war. Four years campaigning with the Army of northern Virginia > Part 3
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was very young and small in size. Frank, gleeful and radiant with boy- ish mischievousness, was ever as ready for fun as for duty, but discip- line in a trifling matter of capturing a fine, big turkey was something he had never looked out for, and he was very glad to throw off his fence rail when the word of command was given, along with the fatherly admo- nition "not to do so any more."
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CHAPTER XIII.
THIS promiscuous visiting was put in abeyance by the battle of Seven Pines, and the series that began on the 26th of June. On the 31st of May, the enemy having concentrated along the Chickahominy river, the opportunity of battle was presented to General Johnston, who immediately seized it for attacking, and, but for his wounding and other miscarrying occurrences, a more complete success would doubtless have resulted. The battery, now serving in combination with others and large masses of troops, took part in this as in the subsequent fights, under General R. E. Lee, newly appointed, at Mechan- icsville, Cold Harbor, Gaines' Mill, Savage Station, and Malvern Hill. In marching and fighting through the tangled belt along the Chickahominy, trying hardships and privations, hun-
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ger, loss of sleep, fatigue, pain and sorrow as well as joy and victorious shouts fell to the lot of the Howitzers, and they emerged from these famous fields as full-fledged veterans, with an experience that afterward bore them in good stead. Such battles, such scenes as those of the war, were first- class educators-imparters of a know- ledge beyond all college cramming, above the power of books to bestow. Another rest was secured by the bat- tery after the protracted fighting near Richmond. Attached to Cabell's battalion of Artillery, McLaws' Di- vision, and united with Jackson's and Hill's corps, it accompanied the army under General Lee into Maryland, where it was conspicuously engaged at the battle of Sharpsburg. The short campaign in Maryland was at- tended only with the usual humdrum life of the soldier on duty, marching incessantly and putting up with all kinds of privations and emergencies through absolute necessity, with no alternative but endurance. The bat -.
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tery was encamped in Pleasant Val- ley while Jackson and Longstreet were negotiating for the reduction of Harper's Ferry, Generals D. H. Hill and Garland holding Rockfish Gap. After the surrender of Harper's Ferry, the battery, with the army, crossed the Potomac at Shepherdstown. On the night of the second day's fighting at Sharpsburg the army withdrew from that obstinately-contested field and the battery recrossed into Vir- ginia. After slow marching and fre- quent camping, it proceeded to the banks of the Rappahannock, to op- pose Burnside's advance, or the third "On to Richmond" movement, and arrived at Fredericksburg during a cold nor'easter rain. The smooth routine of camp life there was not of long endurance, and on the 13th of December the two opposing armies joined battle. The battery was posted behind earthworks near Marye's Heights, and, though ex- posed to a galling fire in the early part of the day, was not actively en-
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gaged, as it was not thought expe- dient to fire from that point upon the advancing foe. General Barksdale, picketed at the outset on the river front, and suffering from the enemy's artillery and sharpshooters, sent for a section of the battery to support him, and it accordingly started out to his assistance, but, meeting on the way with General McLaws, he remarked that "no artillery can live where you are going," and ordered it to re- turn to the line of earthworks. The victory won, the battery went at once into winter quarters.
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CHAPTER XIV.
THE Howitzers' winter quarters were during each of the four memo- rable winters most comfortably rigged out. Their style of architec- ture was by far more useful than or- namental. Canvas or board roofs over small log cabins, having brick, wood, or mud chimneys, were readily put up, as the cannoneers had made themselves expert in building, and wood was ever close at hand, to be had for the cutting. Good cabins and good fires never lacked, and, what- ever else might lack, there was always plenty of Virginia's staple "weed " for smoking in camp. Some of the improvised dwellings were more tasty than others, some extremely queer, but all were very snug for use, with bunks, containing straw or bushes for sleeping accommodation, and, above all else, they resounded
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with an endless flow of cheerful con- tentment or playful gaiety. Winter quarters were oases in the barren waste of war; the two singled out by general consent as the most agree- able were Goose Creek, near Lees- burg, in 1861, and Morton's Ford, on the Rapidan, in 1863. As a member was often wont to remark, most complacently, during the actual course of his marching and camping : "No command in the army is more fer-tile in resource for entertaining itself than the first company of How- itzers!" Truly, its members did pos- sess in an eminent degree varied ac- complishments. Some were musicians and sang in glee-clubs. The aforesaid member used, in his spare moments, to call upon one of his singing com- rades : "Ned, I think you've the finest tenor voice I ever heard in my life; sing that song, 'Moon behind the Hill,' I think it's the sweetest thing I ever heard in my life!" Some were card-players, of whom the ad- mirer of " Moon behind the Hill " was
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the chief, which rank invariably kept him the busiest inmate in winter quarters. Whilst some were literary in their tastes. The latter read every- thing they could lay their hands upon; but that was not much, ex- ception being made of "Les Misera- bles," which persistently turned up in every camp-ground. throughout the army during the two last years, Victor Hugo's spirited sketch of Wa- terloo was an attraction, and, be- sides, the book was about the only one, certainly the only readable one printed in the Southern Confederacy. There was no way or excuse for lug- ging literature around on the march. The detachments allotted to each gun of the battery were numbered first, second, third, and fourth; they were also given a certain rank, on the score of their peculiar qualifica- tions, by "public opinion," which was powerful in the company. The first detachment was rated .as "highly moral swells," the second as "musicians and æsthetical critics,"
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the third as "pirates, gamblers, out- laws," the fourth as "a school of philosophers, learned in all the arts and sciences, bold to discuss and dis- pute anything."
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CHAPTER XV.
ON the 30th of April, 1863, Hooker crossed the Rappahannock, and forti- fied with strong earthworks at Chan- cellorsville, within half a mile of the river, and this move was promptly met by General Lee's army. Active operations, after the long winter rest, were resumed by the Howitzers. Their four guns bore a prominent part in firing, with very damaging effect, upon the retreating forces when they rushed to cross the river and get back to their muddy encampment on the Stafford side.
Chancellorsville was the last vic- tory of Stonewall Jackson, the most splendid effort in the short but ever memorable career of this great hero, who was idolized by the whole army and by none more admired and appre- ciated than by the Howitzers, who were present on the field where he
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first achieved a name, and also near by the spot where he fell to rise no more. The country around Chan- cellorsville, a wilderness of forest and undergrowth, was well calculated to conceal the enemy's fortifications, and at the same time admirably adapted to screen the direction of an attack upon him. Lee, with his army, was at Fredericksburg. Jackson was or- dered forward, and on the 1st.of May he vigorously attacked the enemy's forces deployed in front of his fortified works, and pressed the attack until the impregnable character of these works became apparent. Meanwhile Lee arrived on the scene, and a con- sultation was held in regard to the further plan of action. Jackson was the first to see at a glance the field open for a supreme exhibition of his usual strategy, with a decisive victory for result. As it was clearly out of the question to attack in front, Jack- son proposed to attack in flank, and suggested that he should make a de- tour of six miles, and then, under
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cover of the forest, suddenly swoop down on Hooper's right and rear at Chancellorsville. Lee immediately gave his sanction. The origination and execution of this bold movement was Jackson's greatest achievement, and Lee, in his own handwriting, at- tributed the victory to this successful piece of strategy.
From the first of his battles, Jack- son had been partial to this kind of manœuvre, a partiality that sprang from his fertile and dauntless mind and the thickly wooded country in which the military operations were generally conducted, and which in- clined the opposing armies, when face to face for battle, to fortify their re- spective fronts by a line of earth- works. Jackson, alone of all the generals, adopted the rule, as simple as it was daring, of marching around the opposing earthworks in order to get at his opponents, on unprotected ground and equal chances. To this main point, then, his movements converged through a series of calcula-
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tions as nicely conceived as they were accurately carried out. His last flank movement was begun on the morning of May 2nd. Hour after hour, over winding paths and through dense jungles, he toiled forward, at the head of his corps, so skilfully and silently that, up to the last moment, the enemy, engrossed by the demon- strations in front, did not so much as suspect his design. Finally, at a quarter past five in the evening, Jack- son gave the order of attack and his troops rushed ahead with their ac- customed yell. The charge, as sud- den as it was unlooked for, was de- cisive. Scarcely any resistance was opposed to the sweeping fire and rapid charge of the advancing forces, amongst whom Jackson rode, point- ing ahead and exclaiming: "Press forward! press forward !" The pur- suit lasted over two hours, or until further headway was stopped by a heavy abatis of trees.
Shortly after this obstacle was en- countered, or about 10 o'clock at
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night, Jackson, with his staff, rode a little ahead of his lines, in order to reconnoitre; for, in spite of the dark- ness and the tangled undergrowth, he had determined upon pressing his advantage by swinging his corps around and interposing it between the river and the enemy's army, so placing the latter between two fires- his own and that of Lee. For this purpose he wanted, as he afterward said, "one more hour of daylight;" indeed, his plans for completing the victory were known when he fell, but, to those who succeeded in command of his corps, they seemed impossible of execution and were not attempted, and only he himself could have re- moved their seeming impossibility and actually applied them under the circumstances. The distance between his own corps and the forces he had been pursuing was only two hundred yards, and he soon found himself in advance of his own troops, without a thought of danger, but bent only on the idea that a great result de-
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pended upon his inspecting the ground with his own eyes. Being warned, he quickly remarked : "The danger is all over, the enemy is routed; go back and tell A. P. Hill to press right on." He had advanced more than a hun- dred yards beyond his troops, when, suddenly, without any conceivable cause, a heavy volley was fired by his own infantry, apparently directed at him and his escort, scattering the party. Jackson turned into the forest and galloped about twenty steps, when he came upon more of his in- fantry in the attitude of kneeling to repel cavalry, under the notion that a cavalry charge was being made on them in the dark. They fired a vol- ley, and by this fire he was wounded in three places: one ball entered his left arm two inches below the shoul- der-blade, shattering the bone and severing the main artery; a second passed between the elbow and wrist of the same arm, and a third pierced through the palm of his right hand. In his helpless condition his horse ran
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away with him under a low bough, which tore off his cap and threw him violently backward, though he righted himself in the saddle, seized the bridle with his bleeding right hand, and turned the horse into the road, when one of his staff officers came to his aid and stopped the fugitive animal. The firing ceased as suddenly as it began.
When about to fall from his horse, and being in great pain, he had suffi- cient strength to murmur the words: "You had better take me down." The officer caught him in his arms as he threw himself forward, and laid him under a tree near the road, when a messenger was despatched for a sur- geon and an ambulance. The officer then proceeded to examine his injuries, after removing his field-glasses and havresack, (which contained some paper, envelopes, and two religious tracts, ) cutting away the sleeves of the rubber overall, the coat and two shirts from the bleeding arm. Jack- son had just remarked to the staff offi-
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cer in attendance on him, "Captain, I wish you would get me a skilful sur- geon," when General A. P. Hill came up and asked him if the wound was painful. "Very painful," was the re- ply; "my arm is broken." General Hill pulled off his gauntlets, which were full of blood, and removed his sabre and belt. The arm, now much swollen, was tied up with a handker- chief, and brandy and water were given him to revive his strength. One of the officers exclaimed, in fear of an advance from the direction of the abatis: "Let us take the general up in our arms and carry him off." Jack- son faintly and weakly replied : "No; if you can help me up, I can walk." Just at this moment the batteries across the abatis opened with great violence upon the spot, and, amidst a terrific fire of grapeshot and shell, he slowly dragged himself toward his lines. As he passed through them the troops asked, "Who is that?" To this the reply was, "Oh, it is only a friend of ours who is wounded."
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The inquiry became so frequent that Jackson said, "When asked, just say it is an officer." He was extremely anxious lest the men about to renew the battle should be discouraged by learning of his wounds, and besought General A. P. Hill and the others not to mention the accident; but the truth could not be kept from them, and their great sorrow and sense of loss dampened their ardor for the conflict.
After a while an ambulance-litter was secured, and he was placed upon it and borne to an ambulance-wagon, amidst a hurricane of shell and can- ister, during which the litter was once let fall by one of the men, on ac- count of having been shot through both of his arms, when the wounded general fell on his shattered aim, the pain causing him to groan. As he was being borne along he was recog- nized by one of his division generals, who approached and said : "Ah, gen- eral, I am sorry to see you have been wounded. The lines here are so much
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broken by the enemy's fire that I fear we will have to fall back." Raising his drooping head, Jackson exclaimed : "You must hold your ground, Gen- eral Pender! You must hold your ground, sir!" It was his last order on the field. The next day he lay on a hospital bed, just on the edge of the battle-field, listening to the roar of the fighting which was being com- pleted as far as possible under the stunning drawback of his enforced absence. As soon as the wounded general arrived at the field hospital, the chief surgeon, Dr. Hunter McGuire, of Richmond, decided to amputate his arm. Accordingly, he asked, "If am- putation is necessary, shall it be done at once?" "Yes, certainly; Dr. McGuire, do for me whatever you think right." The operation was per- formed, and he went to sleep; on awakening, he asked that his wife might be sent for. He never com- plained of his wounds, and only re- ferred to them as having been given to him "by Providence" as "one of
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the great blessings of my life. I would not part with them if I could." After the close of the battle he was highly gratified to get the following note from General Lee:
"Ihave just received your note in- forming me that you were wounded. I cannot express my regret at the oc- currence. Could I have directed events, I should have chosen, for the good of the country, to have been dis- abled in your stead. I congratulate you on the victory, which is due to your skill and energy."
After reading it, he said, "General Lee should give the glory to God."
The presence of his wife, who nursed him until his death, was a source of satisfaction to him. When, finally, she in tears announced to him that his last moments were approaching, he murmured, calmly: "Very good, very good; it is all right." He sent kind messages to his friends and comrades, and expressed a wish to be buried "in Lexington, in the Valley of Virginia." He was delirious a few
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brief moments, but finally his excite- ment ended, his features became se- rene, and his last words were whis- pered, with a smile: "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees." He died at fifteen min- utes past three in the afternoon of Sunday, the 10th of May, from the effects of his wounds, complicated with pneumonia.
In every land the conviction steadily grows that he was the greatest mili- tary genius since Napoleon I., to whom he is likened in military bril- liancy, as he is to Cromwell in stern- ness and inflexibility of character. His genius is all the more clearly made manifest in view of the subordinate rank he held and the paucity of means at his disposal. It was genius alone that enabled him to do what he did, in spite of the insurmountable obstacles of a vicious system that beset his path and cramped his progress. An- alysis of his generalship indicates that its two distinguishing characteristics were celerity of movement and accu-
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racy of calculation. It was with these high tactics that he took the field, and they were synonymous with bold, energetic action, always success- fully crowned. Whether acting sepa- rately, detached from any supervision on the part of his commander-in-chief, or under the latter's immediate eye, his action was of the same order- evolved out of his own mind, original, never second hand. In cach battle his style of fighting bore the unmis- takable stamp of his individuality. In the eye of the superficial observer he appeared to take delight in defy- ing established rules; in reality he merely adapted them to his own pe- culiar way of working; or, rather, took upon himself to extract their good points, and conform to them, while leaving the weaker based on routine. His absorbing study of the art of war led him to choose its vivi- fying spirit, and to eschew its useless letter, by which his great intuitive perceptions scorned to be fettered. Yet none more than he enjoined strict
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military discipline, for all strengthen- ing of discipline he knew to be of value to an army. When his deeds are considered, this thought is con- stantly suggested: what great re- sults would he not have wrought had he wielded supreme control over the South-what still greater, if he had held in his grasp the ample resources of the North? The campaign in the Valley of Virginia, during the spring of 1862, which sent his name ringing round the world, was war on a small scale, truly-a miniature example of Bonaparte's first campaign in Italy ; yet the same in kind, equally as bril- liant and marking. But, even for a moment supposing that, if years had been vouchsafed to him, his exploits should have equalled, or surpassed, those of the French genius, he could never have developed into a Bona- parte, for his moral character was of as pure and high quality as his intel- lect itself. Defiance of law, usurpa- tion of authority, treading on right, could not have possessed a soul like his.
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Several members of the Howitzer company had the honor of being taught by Jackson when he was a professor at the Virginia Military In- stitute, and they had seen him closely. Their souvenirs in connection with these student-days under "Old Jack" were numerous, and proudly they re- ferred back to the good example, the many useful hints of conduct, he set before them. All the cadets whom he had taught were anxious to serve un- der him in the field, many of them did, and a few were killed in his bat- tles. It was a delight of the cadets who joined the Howitzer company to give a detailed account of his odd ways, to relate feats of his wonderful memory, at the Military Institute. One of these ex-cadets, John Baird, vividly described "Old Jack's" strict method of treating the pupils in the "section-room." "Solemnly, and rather awkwardly seated on his plat- form, he used to say very little him- self, when a cadet was standing be- fore the blackboard. Each was put
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through the demonstration of a prob- lem, and compelled to grasp it thor- oughly. At his order I sometimes demonstrated the problem to the class, and he gave the closest atten- tion at all of our recitations. Shortly after South Carolina seceded, a mis- understanding between two of the cadets stirred up quite a row among all, and, coming to the ears of 'Old Jack,' he assembled the corps in one of the large section-rooms and made them a little speech, deprecating con- flicts between brother cadets, and as- suring them of his belief that they would in a short while be called upon to show their fighting qualities in be- half of Virginia. In closing his re- marks, he exclaimed: 'And when the sword is drawn,' suiting the action to the word and drawing his own, 'the scabbard should be thrown away!' at the same moment so vig- orously throwing away his own that, instead of its falling on the floor, it broke clean through a window pane and dropped to the ground outside.
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When we were returning from the Maryland campaign, I fell in with him at the crossing of the Potomac at Williamsport. 'Old Jack ' was sit- ting very erect on his horse in the river, close to the bank, and person- ally supervising the passage of the army train over a bad part of the water'sedge. Dick Wharton (another of 'Old Jack's' cadets) and I were with the battery, near by on the hill, and he proposed that we should go down to the river and have a chat with him, that it would be a great thing, and so forth. I knew 'Old Jack' too well for anything of that sort, and declined to go. 'Well, I'll go and see him,' said Dick, and off he started. A few hours later I saw Dick returning to the battery, bespat- tered with mud and looking quite dis- gusted. 'Well,' I asked, 'what did "Old Jack " have to say ?' 'Say ?' he growled, 'I no sooner spoke to him than he set me to work toting stones and shoveling dirt with the infantry!'"
On the day before the first battle of
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Manassas, Jackson with his brigade, drilled in and drawn from the Valley with the rest of Johnston's forces, took position on Bull Run, and, on the morning of the fight, Sunday, July 21st, 1861, he was ordered in haste to the battle field in order to support some Georgians and Ala- bamians under General Bee, who were slowly but steadily yielding ground in front of overwhelming odds. Learn- ing from a courier that reinforce- ments were on the way to him, Bee galloped in the direction of the fresh troops and was soon face to face with Jackson at the head of his brigade. Bee, covered with dust and sweat, his sword drawn, his horse foaming, despairingly cried out, "General, they are beating us back!" Jackson be- trayed no emotion, but, with a glit- tering eye, coolly answered, "Sir, we will give them the bayonet." The words electrified Bee, who galloped back to his men, and, pointing to Jackson, shouted, "Look, there is Jackson standing like a stone wall!
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Let us determine to die here and we will conquer!" His men rallied be- side Jackson's line, which swept for- ward, first checking, then, at the crit- ical moment, so piercing the enemy's advance as to contribute decisively to the victory. Bee, who was killed, had given Jackson a new name, one destined to become historic, for from that day forth he was to be called only "Stonewall Jackson." After that day his brigade also was called by the name of "Stonewall." When appointed to a separate command in the Valley, his movements were from the outset aggressive. War with him meant fighting as a business. His Valley campaign commenced in earn- est about the time Mcclellan laid seige to Richmond. The aim he had in view was to manœuvre and fight his little force, at first 4,000 men and later increased to 20,000, so as to threaten Washington and prevent the enemy's troops in his front from join- ing the besiegers. and this aim he car- ried out in a most masterly manner.
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