The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-05-26
sTONEWALL JACKsON's WAY.
Asleep at Council War--NoveI Plan
for Night Attack.
"w. G. E." in Chicago Times.

pOrtant council of war held during our
late misunderstanding nave been kept,
| it would afford great deal of interest
ing reading. The grit, the back bone,
the resources, and the mental fertility Of
! leaders were shown quite as forcibly in
| these councils as on the battlefield. Who
! does not know of the council of Confed-
crate generals called on the night of the
| first Manassas, and at JacksOn's ''Give
me 10000 men and l will go to Washing
ton tomorrow 2" Jackson was always
unwilling to speak first in a council of
war and when the council was called
by Lee he was never called upon until
the older men and old soldiers had ex-
pressed their opinions.
On the night of the battle of Freder
icksburg, when Burnside was trying to
get his army back to the Stafford side of
the river over the one pontoon bridge
that was left. Lee called a council of
war. Jackson had been holding a posi-
ton about three miles down the river
from Marve's heights, where the tiercest
fighting had taken place, but had moved
his command up closer later in the after
noon. The night was fearfully dark,
and drizzling ram had set in. Jackson
came into the council, salut7d the Off
GERS present, and took a seat off in a cor
ner. Gen. Lee stated the purpose for
which the council had been called, and
asked one Of the senior officers for his
opinion and then another, and another,
until all had spoken save Stonewall. Lee
then turned and asked his opinion, but
received no response. All turned tOhear
what he would say, and there sat Jack
son bolt upright in his chair fast asleep
"Why, bless me" said Lee, "the cid fell
low is asleep" and going to him he shook
his arm and called his name, which
awakened him. Gen. jackson will you
give us your opinion as to what should
be dOneY
Gentlemen" he said. Il am sorry that
have not heard all that has been said,
but my plan is, if the council will agree
to it, to go back to my corps and march
it into Fredericksburg at once. The enc
my has met with severe reverse, and
it is in all probability demoralzed. They
have only one bridge over which to es-
cape. One corps is sufficient to do this
work, to destroy what remains of that
army on this side of the river, and
that being done the campaign will be
over"
But. general" said Lee, consider the
fact these men have only the one bridge
over which to escape; they will fight
desperately"
what if they do? My corps is accus-
! toned to desperate fighting. But the
very fact that they have only one avenue
of escape, in their demoralized condition
will cause them to make every effort to
use the bridge. They will not fight so
desperately as you think"
But consider the darkness of the
night. Your men will not be able to dis
tinguish their own comrades"
Il have thought of all that. l will
make my men pull their shirt-taiIs out
and march in they will know one anoth-
er then"
Gen. Lee walked back and forth for
some time, deeply engaged in thought.
Finally he said "Gen. Jackson, I can
not agree to your proposition the slaugh-
ter would be horrible, and my conscience
cannot approve of it"
"'NIy conscience approves of it thor
oughly," said Jackson. ''War is war !;
the slaughter to-day has been horrible,
and would have been worse had the enc
my gained those heights The enemy is
in a trap and we should take advantage
of it. If the tables were turned they
would march in on us
and at this very time, said a Union
officer to me last April, I'VE were getting
out of that place as fast as men could be
got over one bridge. We were looking
every minute for the Confederate troops
to rush in upon us and if they had done
so we would have been utterly ruined.
Pope's army, when Jackson got behind
him, was at picnic compared to our sit
uation that night And when I told
him of Jacksons plan for enabling his
troops to know their comrades, he said :
"Fabius Maximus is the only other man
who ever lived who would have thought
of such a thing, and his soldiers didn't
have thought of such thing, and his
soldiers didn't have the materials
\ School Girl Runs an Engine.
Wichita Eagle.
All the engineers on this end of the
: Fort Scott Road accompanied the re-
mains of McDaniels to Fort Scott last
Saturday. On Sunday it was found ne
cessary to send train out to the Mime.
scah bridge with material, and no engi-
/ neers being on hand Mr.. George n. Bau.