Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1879-03-08
WOMEN ON THE BATTLEFIELD.

wall Jackson's many biOgraphers that
the American civil war, abundantly
as it was of narrowing
scenes and thrilling episodes, had
more pathetic to exhibit dur
ing it's protracted course than the
meeting between the great Confeder-
ate soldier and his wife Oh the day
but one preceding his death. Stone
wall Jackson was wounded, as it will
be remembered, at the battle of
Chancellorville, upon May 2, 1868,
and was carried, upon the second
day, to a Virginia farmhouse, situated
in the neighborhood Of little station
on the Richmond and Fredericksburg
Railway. For a while his progress
was satisfactory, but during the night
of the 9Th, the sufferer, feeling restless
and oppressed, called upon his black
servant, and requested that a wet
towel might be applied to his chest.
After sleeping some hours he yoke
in violent pain, and the doctor pro-
nounced, upon investigation, that
pneumonia and congestion Of the lungs
had set in. At this critical moment
the trai,: arrived from Richmond, and
from it descended Mrs. jackson, car
rying in her arms a baby which had
been born since she and her husband
had last met. Her face was radiant
with smiles, for the bulletins which
reached Richmond before her depart
ure pronounced that the General was
recovering with marvellous rapidjty
from wounds, and that he would soon
be fit to take the field again. But
upon her arrival at Guinea's station
n far different tale awaited her :lnx-
ious ear, announcing that her idolized
husbands life was despaired of, and
could under no circumstances be pro-
longcd for many hours.
1t was under these circumstances
that the broken wife entered
her dying husbands bed-clanber for
the last meeting they were destined
to have on earth. Distressed at the
amazing bitterness of her grief, but
llnappalled at the imminent approach
of death, the General exclaimed to an
English friend, who entered the room
to bid HIM farewell, "Did / not tell
YOU that it were for soldiers who carry
their lives in their hand, to go into
battle without having wives and chill
dren to mourn them if they fail p
Shortly before his death, and when
L., 1,,s,,
they were his last words-with IL
smile of incf1;,blc sweetness, and with
an expression as of relief, "Let lis
cross over the river, and rest under
the shade of the trees"
In war which was accompanied
by as large an effusiOn of blood as was
probably ever poured forth within
four years, Gen. Jackson was not the
only officer of distinction who held
that, in order to do their duty when
the battle flag is unfurled, emo fond
regret should soldiers know" But
nevertheless, there never yet was a
war in which some devoted wives
had notinsisted upon accompanying
their husbands into the field and shar-
ing their bivouac, 18th a view, should
occasion arise, of nursing them whel
wounded. We are reminded by the
death, aged eight eight, Of the widow
of Lieut.. Lero,x, of the 4Sth foot
which has just been announced as
having occurred at Plymouth, thai
from the passage of the Douro, OF
MAY IL, 1909, until the battle of Sal:,
manca, fought on July 23, 1912, she
was the constant companion OF he
husband through all the dangers ant
vicissitudes of more than three years
of the Pcninsular war.
| Turning, again, to the experience
of the American war, we might quote
the instance of Mrs. Gordon, the wifi
of one of the most gallant and high
minded officers who ever went int
battle-an officer who, we are happ,
to add, was spared to survive TIN
painful carnage to which the Soutller,
armies were exposed, and who ha
lived to serve his country admirabl.
into another arena as one of the Unite'
States Senators for his native State O
Georgia. Gen. J. i. Gordon was on
of the most conspicuously brave ant
devoted officers of the illustrious fra
ternity which fought under Gen. Lee
and he was among the small an
select band which, numbering eigh
thousand altogether, surrendered t
the overpowering legions of Genera
Grant at AppomattOx Courthouse, o.
the 9th of April, 1865.
1t cannot be pretended that tn
constant presence of Mrs. Gordon b.
her husbands side during by far tn