The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1888-05-03
Stonewall Jackson and his Men,
London Telegraph, March 3l.l


In modern times no army ever made
better Use of its legs-not in retreat.
but in continuous attack-than the
''foot-cavalry" of Stonewall Jackson in
1861 and 1862. The following descrip-
ton of the men by whose aid Stone
wall Jackson drove three fedora, ar
mics, under General Shields, Fremont
and Banks-each of them stronger
numerically and infinitely better armed
and found than his own-out of the
Valley Of Virginia. 1851, was written
from Stonewall Jackson's headquarters
by an English eyewitness, who was
accompanied by Lord, then Colonel
Wolseley. "As we advanced, the road
was thickly crowded by the refuent
tide of sick and furloughed soldiers.
Such gaunt, wan, bony, famished skel-a
etons, many of them shoeless and hat
less, almost all in rags, the fame of
life burnt down to the socket, the eyes
deep-sunken and lustreless, the hair
matted and tangled like a wild beasts,
it had never been my fortune, to en-
counter before on earth. Suffering,
hungry, thirsty and reduced as the poor
fellows were, not one faint-hearted,
timid or complaining word issued from
their lips" With men of this stamp
StonewaG jackson held the valley of
Virginia securely month after month,
against armies collectively outnumber-
ing his in the ratio of eight or ten TO z
one, and with them he marched over
hills and across rivers, by night and by 3
day, until no federal general lay down
to sleep without a misgiving that when
to-morrow's dawn broke Stonewall
Jackson might burst on his fanksor
center and strike panic into the hearts
of the invaders of Virginia. With them
Stonewal Jackson descended with as
tonishing rapidity from the D.ue Ridge
and joined General Lee before the seven
days of battle around Richmond, in
1862, which ended in the total discom-
future of General Mcclellan. How, it.
will be asked, were Stonewall Jackson's
'foot cavalry" equipped? Not in the
same manner as the English infantry
which, on June II, I775, attacked the
raw American levies posted on Bunker
Hill, near Boston, and carried their !
works, with tremendous loss to the as
sailants, who, according to Mr.. Charles
Ross the biographer ofLord Cornwa1lis,
'moved to the attack in heavy march
ing order, with three days provisions
in their knapsacks, and carried alto.
gether a weight of 125 pounds. Bun
ker Hill was fought on fearfuly hot
day-the climax of the torrid summer
of America-and the British regulars
OF those days wore the leather straps. or
neckcloth which even in the temperate
climate of England. no one would now
regard otherwise than as an instrument
of torture. Very different was the
equipment of fStonewall Jackson's men,
A loose jacket, soft and outrageous
felt hat, a musket, seventy or eighty
rounds Of bell cartridge, a blanket rolled
mp and slung diagonally over the shoul-
der, and tin water bottle-such was
the preparation for battle, for skirmish-
ing, for climbing hills and fording
rivers with which the Virginians,
North Carolinians, Georgians and Ala.
bamians who constituted the "Stone-.
wall Brigade achieved wonders to
which few parallels can be found in the
history ofwar.