Year: 1869

Letter From Aajor.0eneral j. a. Early.


DIUAAoNDyILLE ONTARIO, CANADA,


December 10, 1868.


Editors Savannah Morning NeIs:


The communication to your paper over the
signature of A Virginian,' In reference to
Pollard statement that Gen jackson ''once
recommended night attack TO be made BY as
sailants stripped naked and armed with Bowie
knives, with your comments | have met with
in another Journal, and trust it will not be
considered obtrlslve on nay part to Eaake a
statement of facts coming within my knosledge,
and going to show that there was no founda
ton either for Pollard's statement Or that Of
your correspondent.


OF what little is left us there is nothing
which We should guard with mere care than
the sacred memory of our fallen heroes and
III the case Of Gen. Jackson it is more neces
sary to protect his reputation against the cons
mentaries of lnjudicous friends than even the
assaults OF open enemies.


| served under General Jackson from the
beginning Of the battle Of Malvern Hill to his
death, and was personally present as a brig
ade Or division commander IN every battle iu
which he participated during that period from
the beginning to the close Of the engagements
except the battle Of Charlottesville proper at
which time [ had separate duty assigned me
at Fredericksburg. ] served With him longer
than any other general officer of his command
aud was division commander In his corps
longer than any who survived the war 1t will
therefore be seen that it is not inappropriate
that | should say something when statements
are SYSTEMATICALLY put forth which, however in
tended, are calculated to bring discredit on the
great and pure soldier and Christian who gave
his life to his country defence.


| have not seen Mr. Pollard article in Put
nanss Monthly, and all | know of it is what I
see in the Communication to your paper, and
your own comments. [ Can undertake to as
sert, with the most perfect confidence, that
General jackson could not have made such q
proposition as that mentioned by Pollard be-
cause it was moral impossibility for him to
have done it. Gladiators, In ancient times, or
the members OF the prize-ring in modern times,
might strip fer their brutal contests, but there
is sentiment among ali civilized Christian
people which would prevent decent man from
being as brave when stripped naked as when
his pakedness is concealed by his usual cover
ing 4 naked sword is more terrible than q
sheathed one, but there is no reason why a
naked man should be more terrible than well
clad one and certainly at the battle of Fred
ericksburg, In the middle of December, body
Of naked assallants would soon have become so
paralyzed by the cold that the enemy would
have no trouble In dealing with them. Gene,
al jackson not only could not have made SO
foolish, SO absurd, a proposition at Fredericks.
burg, or anywhere else, for these reasons.
but he could not have done it for
the simple AID conclusive reason that ut
no time were the Bowie knives to be
had In the very beginning Of the war some
men carried vii h them into the service Bowie
knives, but they were never very plenty, and
the only military use l ever knew to be made
of them was iu aiding to throw up slight en-
trenchmcnt the day after the fight at Black
burns ford, on Bull Run. After that time
they were generally abandoned, or, if used at
all, used only for chopping beet. don't think
that in General jackson $ entlre corps enough
could have been found to arm one company,
and there were certainly none in the ordnance
department


Your correspondent states, as corroborative
Of Pollard 8 statement, that at Fredericksburg,
on the night Of the 18th Of December, 1862,
after the enemy S repulse, council Of war was
held by the Confederate chiefs, at which Gen
eral jackson suggested that the artillery of
the First and Second corps, his and Long
streets, should be collected upon the hills di-
recty in front Of the town, and heavy fire
opened upon it, and that the men of bis corps
DC StilppGN W Islt Wd.ot, ~ ttActu
from the enemy, and, under cover Of the artil
lery FIRE, force their way into the town and bay
onet all who were not similarly sttired. This
suggestion your correspondent says was sdop
ted but not carried out asd he further says
''it was afterwards told by men Of the Second
corps that they had received orders to strip to
their waist Your comments On Pollard S
statement are ye~y just, though you seem to
pondent. Not doubling the sincerity Of your
correspondents belief in what be. states, yet,
il he has no better authority for it than the
uncoptradicted statement Of some army CORES
pondent, or camp rumor, will say that he
vas very bad authority. There we're numerous
erroneous stat tnents which found their way in-
to the newspapers and went uncontradcted, as
there were many false reports In camp which
obtained crede-ce sometimes even from officers.
General Lee never thought it consistent with
his position to contradict any OF the many er-
roneous statements put afoat during the war,
and he discouraged everything Of the kind on
the part Of bis Officers. knew bis views on
that subject, because on one occasion, when I
had corrected misstatement OF correspon-