The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1866-05-23
VOLUME T.. NUMBER Is.

energy. General Mcclellan is naturally
| enough pronounced the officer who "wil
probably rank, in the ultimate iudgmen,
OF military critics, as the ablest Fedora
: commander OF the war;" and his faith in
his own compliment to Gen. Mcclellan is
established by demonstrating that he was
yanquished on every battlefield bv hal,
as many OF the enemy as he commanded
The battles on the Peninsula are recorded
as successive victories of the rebels. FIGHT.
ing usually double their number. and even
Malvern Hill is hardly confessed to have
been repulse, whereas in no one of the
many bloody conflicts of McClellan's re-
taeat were the Union troops driven fromr
their position in battle. Antietam. we
are told, was fought mainly by $4,000 reb-
els, and with not more than $1,000 at
any one time, against 81 1854 Union men
actually in action, while from &c. 900 to
~, o0o rebels were allowed to roam through
the. Valley at will with orders from Lee to
rendezvous at Winchester. Lee, there
fore deliberately allowing half his army
to scatter loosely through Virginia, when
he had to fight ''the ablest Federal CONF
mander Of the war; against an odds of
three to one. Had Lee suddenly become
insane? Surely either Lee was stricken
with suicidal madness or the biographer
OF jackson is stricken with total obliyi-
4 BUSINESS of truth.
| The nation without regard to political
differences, will welcome lust biooranhy
OF Stonewall Jackson He was traitor
to the government that had educated and
fostered him as its child; but he is one of
the few OF the leading spirits of rebellion
who Is stamped with the rcdeeming Jewel
OF christian sincerity Of purpose even in
his fatal error. As a commander in his
sphere, none but himself can be his par.
allel OF all the military cheftains who
have won distinction, none could cope
with the skill, tenacity and versatility Of
jackson. His cannon would thunder
Banks across the Potomac one day; next
they would salute Harper's Ferry then
they you'd be heard in Winchester then
Millroy would be, driven, next Fremont,
next Shields, and he would escape from
four times his number besetting him on
every side; and while the confused Union
commanders would be feeling for him in a
dozen places, he would hurl his thunder
bolts OF war and his devoted corps against
McClellan's left wing on the Peninsula.
The siege Of Richmond raised, his artil-
lery is next heard at Cedar Mountain, ana
SO rapid are his marches, 50 terrible his
assaults, that he menaces the very capitol
with the din Of battle, aud escapes the
plans OF the profouadest strategy for his
capture or destruction. On the war path
he takes no rest. He plunges into Mary
land, ever in the advance, climbs the South
Mountain, marches to Williamsport, thence
Martinsburg and thence to Harper's Ferry,
and delivers his chief II 900 prisoners,
nearly one hundred cannon, and the next
day greets Mcclellan at lAntietam with
his captured shot and she'll, and saves Lee
from annihilation. Again at Fredericks-
burg he held the right of Lee and MAIN
tanned the severe shock of that desperate
conflict, and at Charlottesville he had
by one Of his characteristic flank marches,
executed with celebrity and success which
jackson only could perform, just snatched
victory from the army Of Hooker, when
he fell mortally wounded by the vigilance
of his own devoted warriors. Thus end
ed the career Of one of the most remark
able commanders Of the age and he died
with his. reputation as a chiyalrous, hui
name and inyincible soldier iinstained and
leaving fame that will endure while he
roism preserves its votaries. But his BIZ
ography is yet to be written. Exquisitey
as the publishers have presented this
work, with superb steel portrait, fine maps
Of all Jacksons important battle fields,
elegant tinted paper and most. attractive
type and binding, it lacks truthfulness.--,
Had it been issued Immediately after
Charlottesville, it might have been ac-
cepted by despairing traitors as admirably
designed to fire the Southern; heart. =
4 But the time for that has gone. by; "baad-
ty and boot" proclanations, threats ofser-
vile instructions in case of Union sue
cess. and the thousands of eXtravagances
which the presence of civil strife engyeaa-
dered, belong to the shifting canvass ofthe
past, and the sober words Of impartial his
| tory are now demanded. Failing to give
these, the author has failed in his work,
and especially so when the truthfully re-
corded deeds and character Of his hero
would make fiction pale in tameuess before
their grandeur. In this, the vital element
of history the author signally fails to do
| justice to the unfolding memory and heroic
achievements of Stonewall jackson.
|