Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

HE IS WOUNDED.

291

that might have happened on either side in the gathering gloom. He fell from his horse into the arms of one of his staff, and was found to be wounded in two places, in his right hand and in his left arm. Both were at once tied up to stop the flow of blood; but such was the confusion that it was some time before a stretcher could be brought to carry him to the rear, where he could receive proper attention. At length it came, and the bearers raised up their beloved chief, but had gone only a few steps when one of them was killed by a shot of cannister from a Federal battery, and he was thrown to the ground with a violence that caused him intense agony. Again he was lifted up and started on his way. Meanwhile the Major had gone for the surgeon, Dr. McGuire, who took him in an ambulance to the rear, where he found the arm so shattered that it must be amputated immediately, to which the General submitted with his usual fortitude.

But the wound was considered by no means fatal. Nothing was needed but care and rest. That he might been left a line of Confederate skirmishers and sharp-shooters, to deceive the enemy with a show of attack in front, who were only apprised of the change of base, as Jackson's ubiquitous and irresistible 'Stonewall Brigade' came charging down upon them from the rear!

"Towards evening I had deployed my regiment as skirmishers, when a squadron of Federal cavalry rode right into our midst, and we bagged them to the last man. Just then Jackson rode up with a few staff officers, and said, 'Colonel, fire at anything that comes from that direction!' This order, which it was my fortune to receive, was the last Stonewall Jackson ever gave. He then rode on to reconnoitre the position of the enemy. Later my regiment was relieved by one of the North Carolina infantry, to whose Colonel I repeated Jackson's order. In a few moments Jackson and his staff and escort came riding back rapidly, and the men of this regiment mistook them, as it was then dark, for another squadron of Federal cavalry, and fired!"

[blocks in formation]

be away from the noise of the camp, and in a place of safety, he was carried a few miles across the country to a private house west of Fredericksburg, near Guiney's Station, which was pointed out to me as we came up from Richmond. Here for a few days he seemed to be on the road to recovery. The Major, who accompanied him thither, found him the following day cheerful and hopeful. Indeed, with his strong religious faith, he felt that he could not die, for he was sure that "the Lord had more for him to do," and he fully expected to get well, and to take part in the campaign. But even then he would not let those around him pray for his recovery, except in entire submission to the Divine will, and that will had decreed otherwise. The shock had been very great from his double wound, with the loss of blood, the fall from the litter, and the amputation; and when, after all this, pneumonia set in, the end was inevitable.

It was on the Sabbath day that he saw the light for the last time. He said "I have always desired to die on Sunday," and his wish was granted. The sun rose brightly that morning-the tenth of May, 1863-and though he had been told that this day would be his last, he would not keep his chaplain at his bedside, but insisted that he should go to headquarters, and preach as usual. It was a sorrowful service, for all hearts were bowed with a sense of the great loss that was impending. When it closed, General Lee inquired eagerly for the latest news, and when told that Jackson could not live through the day, he turned away, unable to control his emotion. Even then he was passing through the valley of the shadow of death. He still breathed, but his mind was wandering. Perhaps a gleam from the river of life caught his dying eye, as he murmured faintly, "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the trees," and the strong, brave heart stood still.

BURIED AT LEXINGTON.

293

The death of Jackson caused universal mourning throughout the Confederacy, where he was regarded as the greatest of the Southern leaders, with the exception only of General Lee. It took away all the exultation of Chancellorsville. As the Commander-in-chief himself said, "Any victory would be too dear at such a price." It was but a melancholy consolation to pay the highest honors to his memory. The body was borne to Richmond and laid in state in the Capitol, where tens of thousands thronged to look for the last time on the face that they had seen so often amid the smoke and thunder of battle; and then they carried him away to his last resting-place among the hills which he so much loved. Spending Sunday in Lexington, I went to the church where Jackson had worshipped for ten years, after which two of the Professors who had been associated with him, took me to the spot where he rests. It is on a hill-top, looking down into the peaceful valley, beyond which rise the everlasting hills. "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem,” so are they round about Lexington, and no saint or soldier could desire a better spot in which to lie down and sleep till the heavens be no more.

In the opinion of many the death of Jackson was a fatal blow to the Confederacy. No one felt the loss so much as General Lee, when two months later, he fought the battle of Gettysburg, the result of which might have been victory if his "right arm " had not been taken from him. But that was not to be. The Ruler of Nations had ordained a different issue- a fact which we have to recognize, even if we cannot explain. It is not necessary to go quite so far as a good priest of New Orleans, an ardent Confederate, a chaplain of one of Jackson's Louisiana regiments, who felt called upon, in a prayer at the unveiling of a monument to Jackson, to offer an excuse for the Almighty, which he did

294

HIS DAUGHTER LAID BESIDE HIM.

in this remarkable address to the Throne of grace: "When in Thine inscrutable decree it was ordained that the Confederacy should not succeed, it became necessary for Thee to remove Stonewall Jackson!" But we need not inquire into the purposes of Him with whom are the issues of life and death. Without attempting what does not belong to us, we can recognize the great qualities of the heroic dead, and on this day of peace, beautiful as the Sabbath on which he died, I would place a flower on the grave of Stonewall Jackson.

Six months passed, and I visited Lexington again, and once more turned aside to stop at the gate of the old Cemetery, and walked along the path trodden by so many feet, to the well known spot which attracts so many pilgrims. I found beside it a new made grave, which had been opened but a few days before to receive the only daughter of Stonewall Jackson, who was but a babe when her father died, and was brought to him in his last moments to be laid upon his bed to receive a last fond caress. Little seemed it then that she would be with him again so soon. But with gentle footsteps she, like the true daughter that she was, has followed him till she too has "passed over the river"; and now the warrior and his child, forgetting all the sorrows of this troubled life, "rest together under the trees" in the Paradise of God.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE LAST YEARS OF GENERAL LEE.

"The last hope of the Confederacy was dead when Stonewall Jackson was laid in his grave at Lexington!" So said the Major after he had taken the greater part of a day in detailing to me, to my intense interest, the marvellous career of that great soldier. But not so reasoned all those who had fought by Jackson's side. Not so Jackson himself: for when, on hearing of his wound, Lee wrote to him, "Could I have directed events, I should have chosen, for the good of the country, to have been disabled in your stead," he answered, "No, no! Better that ten Jacksons should fall than one Lee!" And now, though Jackson was dead, Lee still lived, and hope lived with him; victory was still possible; and in that faith, and under that leadership, the Confederates fought on for two years more. (Jackson died on the 10th of May, 1863; but Lee did not surrender till the 9th of April, 1865.) How well they fought is matter of history. They fought as they could not have fought, had they not been led by a great Commander. From the very beginning of his military career, all around him recognized his extraordinary capacity. General Scott, with whom he served in Mexico, pronounced him "the very

« ZurückWeiter »