Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-24
sToNEwALL JAcKs0N's PLAN.
A Startling Statement That He Proposed
Raising the Black Flag.

H. NJ. Field ID. D., in Harper's Monthly
One chapter, however, furnished by an.
other pen, is new and startling-that which
ascribes to Jackson at one moment pro-
posal to raise the black flag! This is the
last extremity OF the war, and its most hor-
rible barbarity. The very word suggests
slaughter without mercy. The black flag
floats only at the masthead of pirate ships,
telling by O sign that cannot be misunder-
stood that quarter will neither be asked nor
given. In a warfare on land it would 6e un-
derstood as q massacre of prisoners, thing
unknown among nations at the present day,
and that would bring upon any man or any
government that should attempt it the exc
Grafton of the whole civilized world. The
very idea of such a thing is SO alien to the
character of Stonewall jackson that a state
ment of this kind must be received with
great reserve.
1t would not be deemed worthy of a
moments attention were it not that it is
given on the authority of his own brother
in-law, General Rufus Barringer, of the
Confederate army, who details at considera-
BILE length o remarkable interview that took
place after the seven-days' battles, while the
army was still ped near Richmond.
But the statement is explicit, and leaves no
doubt that jackson believed In the Crom-
wellian way of carrying on war-that, If war
must be, the more tremendous the blows the
sooner will it come to an end-and he would
push the war into the North and make it
felt in all its severity. But he never would
have dealt with prisoners as Cromwell did
with the Irish garrison at Drogheda, or
Napoleon with the Turks at Jaffa.
The best proof of what he would do is in
what he did do when the fortune of war
threw a whole garrison into his hands. Al
Harper's Ferry he captured 1000 men, and.
instead of treating them with great sever
ity, he paroled them all; by which, instead
OF being sent to Southern prisons, they were
transported to Il camp near Chicago, where
they were kept in comparative comfort till
they were exchanged. OF course. ii they
violated their parole they would be exposed
to the utmost penalty of war. But the policy,
instead of being cruel, was the mlldest that
could have been adopted. 1t was not, how
ever, on the ground of humanity, but to dis
cucumber his army, that lie might move it
rapidly, which he could not do with thou
sands of prisoners dragging on its heels. II
at Harper's Ferry he had stopped 60 look
after them it would have delayed his march
to join Lee for the approaching battle.
When he declared, therefore, that he would
reason. He had laid out plan of campaign
which, he believed, il vigorously pushed,
would end the war. 1t was to form three or
four crest movable columns" of 40, 600 men
each, which should be literally stripped for
battle, leaving behind not only prisoners,
but even fortified posts, that the whole fight
ing force might be concentrated 1nCO n lew
compact bodies, which could be moved with
great rapidity into the Northern States and
against Northern cities. That this grand
strategy would have succeeded We do not
believe, for the best of sll reasons, that it
was twice attempted and failed-at Antie-
tam and Gettysburg-in the first of which
jackson himself took part. But at the time
OF the interview this had not been at
tempted, and lie was very sanguine of sue
cess, even picturing to himself how he would
plant his guns within shelling distance of
dolr, nd