The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-18 00:00:00

lad of good parts, and they bore in mind the fact
that he had trudged hundreds of miles on foot in
order to obtain the education he coveted. Some
exertions were therefore used in his favour, and he
was sent to a little school close by, where he pre-
pared for the examination, and upon his second
attempt successfully passed it. Here, too, at the
same time, were Lee, and Grant, and Hooker, and
Baird, and Sheridan, and Longstreet, and other
commanders who have made themselves distinguished
by their services on one side or the other during the
late war.

After Jackson left West Point he took part in the
Mexican war, but his old companions lost sight of
him, and it was not until his name became a house-
hold word in the South that they recalled the moody
and retiring youth who spent so much of his time
in solitude and prayer. The men under his com-
mand did not understand his stern ways at first,
but they soon learnt that wherever their captain led
them it was to certain victory, and although his dis-
cipline was severe and inexorable, he came to be
regarded by his soldiers with the strongest affection.
Chary of speech at all times he never made addresses
to his men ; and, indeed, at the councils of war his
opinion was always given in a few words. After the
battle of Fredericksburg, when Lee summoned the
generals around him to decide what was to be done,
after much discussion, Jackson was appealed to for
an opinion, " Drive 'em into the river ; drive 'em into
the river," said he curtly, waking up from a doze.
The strength of the Federals was gradually exerted
on a larger scale, and Jackson's hands were always
full of work. At last, in May, 1862, the Confede-
rate commanders formed an army of over 150,000
established under General Hooker at Chancellors-
ville, and Lee hastened down from Fredericksburg
to stop its further progress. An attempt was made
under Jackson to carry a part of Hooker's entrench-
ments, but the position being too strong it was pro-
posed by Jackson that he should pass rapidly round
the Federal front, where he would be partially con-
cealed by the woods, and attack Hooker on the right
flank. This movement was carried out, but not un-
perceived by the enemy. They saw him pass in
front, and fired upon his force, but left it to continue
its road under the impression, as it was said at the
time, and even reported now, that they were retreat-
ing towards Richmond. That this story should still
gain credence only shows how soon facts are for-
gotten here. I have the evidence taken before the
c)mmittee appointed to inquire into the conduct of
the war before me, in which it is conclusively proved
that General Hooker foresaw the attack upon his
flank, and issued explicit orders to Major-Generals
Slocum and Howard to strengthen their reserves in
order to resist a flank attack. General Hooker had
inspected the lines in the morning, and wrote an
urgent note to the officers named, bidding them to
make better defences for the threatened position.
These orders were entirely neglected, and mean-
while Jackson was pushing forward. As soon as he
had succeeded in getting his men into the desired
position he ordered the attack, and it was so unex-
pected and determined that it caused something like
a panic among the Federal forces in that direction.
Jackson designed, as his staff officers say, "to put
his entire force into action, extend his left, and place
that wing between Gen. Hooker and the Rappaha-
nock. Then, unless the Federal commander could
cut his way through, his army would be captured or
destroyed." Jackson himself said, a few hours later,
when his remaining moments were few, " we should
have surrounded their army, and they would have
been obliged to surrender, or cut their way out ;
they had no other alternative. My troops may
sometimes fail in driving an enemy from a posi-
tion, but the enemy always fails to drive my men
from a position." The accident which cost the life
of this invaluable officer happened before he could
see his purposes accomplished.
It appears from the statement of a " Virginian,"
who has gathered all the facts from Jackson's offi-
cers, that Jackson had ridden out to reconnoitre,
the night being a dark one except when the moon
occasionally broke through black drifts of clouds.
He had left orders behind with his men that they
should be very vigilant, and fire on any one they
saw approach, and particularly upon cavalry,
should any appear, " for," said he, " as we have
no cavalry about here, any that comes must be
the enemy's." He rode off with a few members of
his staff, his force being then so near the enemy
that Federal skirmishers strolled in and were taken
prisoners, amazed to find that they were actually
within the Confederate lines. Jackson was
about a mile away, listening intently for any sound
from the enemy, when suddenly a volley was fired
upon the party from his own force behind him.
" The origin of this fire," says the Virginian who
has painstakingly inquired into all the circum-
stances, "has never been discovered; and after Jack-
son's death there was little disposition to investigate
an occurrence which occasioned bitter distress to all
who by any possibility could have taken part in it."
It is believed, however, that the Confederates saw
the horses and men dimly, and believing them to be
the enemy's cavalry fired upon them. It was fatal
to several members of the staff, and Jackson him-
self galloped off into the woods close by to escape
from it. Unhappily, a brigade of his own men,
drawn up within 30 yards of him, saw him do so,
and, believing that he was a part of an advancing
force of Federals, fired with such fatal precision that
he was struck in three places, twice in the left arm
and once in the right hand. "At the moment when
he was struck," says the authority I have mentioned,
" he was holding his rein in his left hand, and his
right was raised either in the singular gesture habi-
tual to him at times of excitement, or to protect his
face from the boughs of the trees." It may be, how-
ever, that this gesture was intended as a signal to
the brigade to cease firing ; but his arm dropped
directly he was shot, and his horse carried him on
among the trees, until a branch caught him violently
in tho face and threw him back. Still he was not un-
seated, and catching the bridle with the broken and
bleeding fingers of his right hand, he recovered the
turnpike road, and succeeded in rejoining the surviv-
ing members of his staff. He sat on his horse a few
moments, looking up the road towards his lines
with apparent astonishment, and continued for
some time to look in that direction, as if " unable
to realise that he could have been fired upon and
wounded by his own men." Captain Wilbourne,
one of his staff, said to him, " They certainly must
be our troops." He nodded his assent, and in a few
minutes, finding himself exhausted by loss of blood,
said, "You had better take me down." He was lifted
off his horse and laid under a tree, begging that the
news of his being wounded should he kept a secret
from his men.

Before there had been time to bring the doctor up
the Federals pushed on their lines so rapidly that the
staff became anxious for the safety of their general,
who was close to the enemy, and proposed among
each other to carry him to the rear. Jackson said,
"No ; if you can help me up I can walk." He
" slowly dragged himself along towards the Confe-
derate lines, the blood from his wounded arm flow-
ing profusely over Capt. Leigh's uniform," on whom
he was leaning. At last they reached a litter, and
Jackson was lifted into it. The Federals opened a
heavy fire at this moment upon the road on which
.they were moving, and the officers who were with
Jackson ordered the litter to be laid down, and threw
theme lees on the ground to escape the deadly storm
s"wnhies of ell
struck millions
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Lieut. Smith prevented him. On
raise himself up, as if look round him, but
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litter Jackson and his two officers
moment, the men who bore the
having run
off into the woods to get beyond the reach of the
cannonade. Presently the fire relaxed, and Jack-
son was moved on till he came to the spot where
one of his generals, Ponder, was stationed. Pender
expressed his sorrow at seeing him wounded, and
said he thought he should fall back, in consequence
of his lines being much broken. But Jackson's
officers repeat now that his eye flashed with its
old fire, exhausted as he was, and he cried out,
" You must hold your ground, General Fender !
You must hold your ground, sir !" It was the last
order Jackson was destined to give. _ _

The party moved on, and before long one of the
men who carried the litter slipped and let it fall. It
struck upon the hero's " shoulder where the bone
had been shattered, and his awany must have been
extreme." lia zroaueci for the iirbt bole, but soon