The Forrest City times., 1891-11-27
THE BLACK FLAG.
A Startling Proposal Which Is Attributed
 to Stonewali Jackson


 to stonewsli Jackson.
 One chapter. however, furnised by another pen, is new and startling-that which ascrlbes to Jackson at one mo- ment proposal to raise the black flagl This is the last extremity of war, and its most horrible barbarlty. The very word suggests slaughter without mercy. The black flag floats only at the masthead of pirate ships, telling by a sign that can not be misunderstood that quarter will neither be asked nor given. In warfare on land 1t would be understood as d massacre of prisoners, a thing unknown among nations at the present day, and that would bring upon any man or any government that should attempt it the eXecration Of the civilized wolrd. The very idea of such thing is SO alien to the character of Stonewall Jackson that statement of this kind must be received with great reserve. It would not be deemed worthy of a moments attention were 1t not that it is given on the authority of his own brOtherin law, Gen. Rufus Barringer. of the Confederate army, who details at considerable length a remarkable interview that took place dlltl tIt StNtl udDo bdblito, hIllt bllt army was still encamped near Rich mond. But the statement Is explicit, and leaves no doubt that Jackson be- lieved in the Cromwellian way of car rying on war-that, if war must be, the more tremendous the blows the sooner will 1t come to an end-and he would push the war into the North, and make it felt in all it's severity. tt l.,. .uanll h prisoners as Cromwell did with the irish garrison at Drogshsda, or Napo- leon with the Turks at Jaffa. The best proof of what he would do Is in what he did do when the fortune of hands. At Harpers Ferry he cap tured II ,000 men, and, instead of treat ing them with great severity, he par roled them all, by which, instead of being sent to Southern prisons, they were transported to camp near Chi cago, where they were kept in con- parative comfort till they were ex- changed. Or course, if they violated their parole they would be exposed to the utmost penalty of war. But the policy, instead of being cruel, was the mildest that could have been adopted. It W dS ItI, uON NCNti Oh tbC SiohHu VI humanity, but to diseDcumber his army. that he might move 1t rapidly, which he could not do with thousands of prisoners dragging on his heels. If, at IIarper's Ferry, he had stopped to look after them it would have delayed his march to join Lee for the approach ing battle. When he declared, there fore, that he would "keep no prison- CTS, :" it was for military reason. He had laid out plan of campaign which, he believed, if vigorously pursued, would end the war. It was to form three or four great movable columns" of i0, 900 men each, which should be literally stripped for battle, leaving be- hind not only prisoners, but even for tified posts that the whole fighting force might be concentrated into few 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 all reasons, that it was twice attempted and failed, at Antietam and Gettysburg, in the first of which Jack son himself took part. But at the time of tine interview this had not been attempted, and he was very san guine of success, even picturing to himself how he would plant his guns within shelling distance of Philadel phia and New Iork.-ll. NJ. Field, D. D., in Harpers Magazine.