The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1877-11-02
STONEWALL JACKSON.
REMINISCENCE OF THE WILDERNESS

N ''e uoyo LII gray, ana makes
thclr hearts thrill as they remember the ter
'rioie charge OF the Confederates to posses.
themselves of the key-positiou at Gettys
'ourS. one asks the veterans to remember
now the brave Seventh Michigan pushed
across the wide river flowing past Freder
icksburg and looked into the fierce ewes Of
,Barksdale's Mississippians. She calls upon
the sshse sight at Trevillian Station, the
tramp OF Stonewall Jacksof's men on the
plains of Manassas. and the mad, eager rush
at the earthworks around Petersburg.
Wei may memory sit at every veteran s
right hand, for under one soil, lulled to
eternal repose by the same soft breezes, are
the blue and the gray-falling on their
sklrmlsh line, in the charge, single and by
scores-and no man dares say that thsy
were not brave and true.
ihat was an awful day when that Con.
federate lion, Stonewall Jackson, crept up-
on poor Hooker, hidden in the wilderness.
LEE ON ONE sIDE-JAcKsoN ON THE 9TH
Err,
and the woods around Charlottesville
shook and tremblcd, and were almost swept
from the face of the earth by the whirriug
round-shot, and Kissing shell, and the
screaming grape.shotfs Men wefe struck
stone dead as the battle-line advanced or
retreated. White, faced recruits and bronze.
raced veterans were torn to fragments and
hurled against the living.
wounded men fell in their tracks, to be
crushed in the earth by the great limbs cut
from trees by shot and shell. The roar of
guns, the crackle of musketry, the fierce
shouts and awful groans, made such. y
upon earth of that battle -GelASc..o -. ''.na" ns.
seen before or afterz.D 80 ""' "''''
80! Fighting 1ae Hooker was in a box but
:. u wa.sh in his great army dreamed that
~ so until the long gray line of Stone
m Jackson came creeping through tho
Pquiet for.st at 3 o'clock on that ever-to. be-
remembered I'd day of May, 1868. The
light earthworks had been thrown up to
face another way-toward Ice. All lines
faced Lee; all men were looking for Lee
when three divisions Of Confedcrates, NOV
ing with soft step, took Hooker's army in
the rear, and drove one brigade pell.m
into and over another, until veteran soldiers
were without strength or presence Of mind
That awful night when
THE WOUNDED WERE BEING BURIED
ALIVE
in the woods, aud the dead were thicker
than. the leaves just broadening into full
life, report ran through the reorganized
ranks that the great Stonewall Jackson had
been killed. Thousands bebicved it; but
three of us, lying side by side in the new
battle line, born after night came down, put
no faith in the rumor. Why we did not is
what started TO write about.
Stuarts cavalry had been following up
Hooker's army, but it was like rat follow
ing in the footsteps Of horse. Lee was
so far away and coming up so slowly that
Hooker had time to throw up light earth
works, seize the best ground, fell trees to
protect his fanks and make ready to shattcr
and hurl back the expected attack. On
that I'd day of May, his soldiers, hidden
in the woods or lying in the fields, washed
their clothing, wrote letters home, made
comfortable beds for themselves, and were
not in the least troubled about what anoth-
er week would bring forth. AS deep riv-
er suddenly bends to avoid bluff, so did
that great army Of Lees bend to avoid the
Wilderness. 1t split in two to attack at a
given hour on both sides, and Joe Hooker
sat in his tent and congratulated himself on
MO AuIPSSoouio Pooi>ioh OF -fui-
pregnsble' by him when two great highways
ran along the rear Of half of his army. So
universal was the feeling of security that
soon after noon three infantrymen started
out to
BEG OR BUY FORAGE FOOD.
Sigels corps wac on Hooker's west flank,
and commanded that day by Howard. Part
of this corps faced the old turnpike and
plank road part faced the other way
Most of the men were hidden in the woods
and behind ridges, and up the broad high
ways which should have been first looked to
as Stuart was pushing his cavalrymen as skr-
mishers We three men were beyond Sig
'ePs corps, and on the point of entering
farm house from which everybody had fed !,
when, less than a rifle shot away, we caught
sight of the Confederate advance. The
oavalrymen we're advancing slowly, evident
ly expecting to find heavy guard at some
point, but at the time we imagined that less
than a regiment of Stuart's men were feel
ing along up to pick up stragglers, locate
positions, etc. We, at least, did not fear
them, and the proposition to enter the
IL % Al. Il.