The Opelousas courier., 1885-05-30
The shirt.Tail III War.
Hcw SroNEwALL JACKSON PROPOSED
TO MARK Hrs MEN.

On the night of the battle of
fredericksburg, when Burnside
was trying to get his army
hack to the Stafford side of the
river over the one pontoon
bridge that was left, Lee called
d council of war. jackson had
been holding a position some
three miles down the river from
Mary's Heights, where the
fiercest fighting had taken
place, but had moved his COM
mand up closer late in the af-
ternoon. The night was fear
fully dark and a drizzling rain
had set in. Jackson came into
the council, saluted the officers
present, and took q seat off in
the corner. Gen. Lee stated the
purposes 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 turn
ed and asked his opinion, but
received no response. All turn
ed to hear what he would say,
and there sat Jackson, bolt up
right in his chair fast asleep.
why, bless me-" said Lee;
the old fellow is asleep" and,
going to him, he shook his arm
and called his name, which
awakened him. "Gen. Jack
son, will you give us your opin-
ion as to what should be done +? y
"Gentlemen." he said, II am
sorry that / have not heard
what has been said but my
plan is, if the council will agree
to it, to go back to my corps
and march into Fredericksburg
at once. The enemy has met
with a severe reverse, aud is, ia
all probability, demoralized
They have only one bridge over
which to escape. One corps is
sufficient to do this work, to
destroy what remains of thai
army on this side of the river
and that being done the cam
paign will be over"
"But General said Lee
consider the fact that those
men have only one bridge over
which to escape; they will fght
desperately"
What il they do.9 My corps
is accustomed to desperate fight.
ing. But the very fact thai
they have only one avenue O
escape, in their d~emoralized
condition, will cause them to
make every effort to use the
bridge. They will not fight 81
desperately as yon think"
But consider the darkness
of the night. Your men viii
not be able to distinguish theil
own comrades
q I have thought of all that
/ will make my men pul
their shirt-tails ont and marcl
in ; they will know one anothe
then.n
Gen. Lee walked back an'
forth for some time, deeply en-
gagged ii thought. Finally b
said /. Gen. Jackson / canno
agree to yonr proposition; tn
slaughter would be horrible, an
nv conscience cannot APPROX
Of it,
!" NV conscience approves 9
ii thoroughly, said Jackson
aWar Is war he slaughter to
day has been horrible, an
would have been worse had th
enemy. gained tie highs. lib
enemy IS IN q trap, and y
should take advantage Of IT.
the tables were turned the
would march i'll oilAus.o
Y And lit this very time,
said 4 Union soldier to me las
April. we were getting ont
that place ais fast rs men coul
be got over one bridge. "
were locking every minute e
The Confederate troops to rus
il upon lis, and If they ha
done "a we would have bee
utterly ruined. Pope's arm.
when jackson got behind blu
was at d picnic compared to q
situation that night And whe
I told him Of Jackson's pla
for enabling his troops to kno,
their comrades, he exclaimed
L Fabius Maximus IS the onl
other man who ever lived Wh
would have thought of such
thing, and his soldiers didn
have the Observation-Disclosures
COurier-Jonrnak
T.c, Il.