The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1867-04-17
Correcting History,

~. Inseph h. Johnston has published
9 mn Selma Daily Messenger several im-
u sa ant historical corrections of the account
poI';abed by the author of the Life of
t flant General (Stonewall) Jackson" He
bi t..Is that this member of General Jack
in l'. staff was not sufficiently careful in
s sen statement of facts, and coloring of
~ Mfg The following are extracts from
ss GENERALS review:
w psge 2l7 az and, Beauregard, after
r.tsping in anxious suspense to hear bis
l Srs open upon the heights of Centreville,
mi Hi the day and the battle were too far
sa5canced for any other resort, relinqnished
s.hamoyement. The only tactics which
sDun,aued for the Confederate Generals
~ere to bring up such reinforcements as
,onld be spared from the centre and right
..uecessively."
Gen. Beauregard could not have listened
hr the opening Of guns on the heights OF
rentreyille, for none had been sent there.
Nelowells turning movement was reveal
a by Bee not earlier than halfpast ten.
# the centre and right had then been Or
dsred to Centreville, as the author states,
thew could not have reached it much, if at
al, before 2 M. If those troops had
then been ordered into the action, they
eo1ld not have Joined in tit would have
been too late. As it was, of the three and
ahslf brigades ordered up, two were too
late. although those orders were dispatched
Al least as early as II o'clock A. NJ. This
account of the battle does great injustice
10 General Beauregard, and to Bees and
Earlys brigades and their commanders.
General Jackson's great fame is in no de-
gree enhanced by such disparagements of
bis associates.
Page 233. ''Now, then, said the more
rejecting, was the time for vigorous au-
dacity. Now, Napoleonic genius, were
he present, would make this another Jena
lnits SPLENDID fruits. He would
firmly press upon the disorganized masses;
he would thunder at the gates OF Wash
jngton, and replenishing his exhausted
equipments with the mighty spoils,, rush
blazing, like the lightning that shineth
from one part under the heaven to the
other, through the atfrighted North,
Al readers to believe that this bombast was
really uttered in the army, or that ouI
soldiers condemned their General for not
being i" a Napoleonic genius, when but one
is found in all history. The splendid
fruits" of the battle of jena were due to
the fact that Napoleon, with about equal
force, turned the Prussian army before de
feating it. Had it been able to take refuge
In intrenchments covering the passage Of
a river mile wide, those fruits" would
have been Jess than ours--which were, the
preservation Of the Confederacy for the
time.
The masses referred to were less disor
ganized by defeat than our army by tri
umph. BY "gates of Washington" il
meant, suppose, the Notifications upon
which skillful engineers, commanding the
resources of the United States, were en-
gagged for several months-manned by dou
Die our numbers, half of whom had mo-
seen the battle-and a river a mile wild,
commanded by the guns of U S. feet
We attempted invasion in 1862 and agar
in 1868. First, after General Lees victo
ries over Mcclellan and Pope, and Jack
sons over Banks, Fremont aud Shields
The second time, when the way was sup
posed to have been opened by the effect o
the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancel
lorsville.
On these occasions, the forces defeated
were ten times as great as those repulset
on the 21st of July, 1861, and their losse
twenty times as great. Yet those.defeate,
armies met us at Sharpsburg and Gettys
burg, so strengthened in numbers ant
spirit as to send back the warinto Virginia
These events show how far in July, 1861
our army could have rushed blazing
through the North (if it could have crosse,
the Potomac) and how much the Nortl
would have been frightened" The failnr
of invasions conducted by Lee, aided b,
Longstreet and Jackson, and Attempted
under such circumstances, proves that tn
Confederaey- was too weak for ohensiv
war, and is conclusive argument in favo
of the course against which the author de
claims so vehemently.