_IN FRONT OF RICHMOND_.
I.
PLAN OF THE FEDERAL CAMPAIGN.
The pathetic interview which we have just described took place in the
month of March, 1862.
By the latter part of that month, General McClellan, in command of an
army of more than one hundred thousand men, landed on the Peninsula
between the James and York Rivers, and after stubbornly-contested
engagements with the forces of General Johnston, advanced up the
Peninsula--the Confederates slowly retiring. In the latter part of
May, a portion of the Federal forces had crossed the Chickahominy, and
confronted General Johnston defending Richmond.
Such was the serious condition of affairs in the spring of 1862. The
Federal sword had nearly pierced the heart of Virginia, and, as the
course of events was about to place Lee in charge of her destinies,
a brief notice is indispensable of the designs of the adversaries
against whom he was to contend on the great arena of the State.
While the South had been lulled to sleep, as it were, by the battle of
Manassas, the North, greatly enraged at the disaster, had prepared to
prosecute the war still more vigorously. The military resources of the
South had been plainly underestimated. It was now obvious that the
North had to fight with a dangerous adversary, and that the people of
the South were entirely in earnest. Many journals of the North had
ridiculed the idea of war; and one of them had spoken of the great
uprising of the Southern States from the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico
as a mere "local commotion" which a force of fifty thousand men would
be able to put down without difficulty. A column of twenty-five
thousand men, it was said, would be sufficient to carry all before it
in Virginia, and capture Richmond, and the comment on this statement
had been the battle of Manassas, where a force of more than fifty
thousand had been defeated and driven back to Washington.
It was thus apparent that the war was to be a serious struggle, in
which the North would be compelled to exert all her energies. The
people responded to the call upon them with enthusiasm. All the roving
and adventurous elements of Northern society flocked to the Federal
standard, and in a short time a large force had once more assembled at
Washington. The work now was to drill, equip, and put it in efficient
condition for taking the field. This was undertaken with great energy,
the Congress coöperating with the Executive in every manner. The city
of Washington resounded with the wheels of artillery and the tramp
of cavalry; the workshops were busy night and day to supply arms and
ammunition; and the best officers devoted themselves, without rest, to
the work of drilling and disciplining the mass.
By the spring of 1862 a force of about two hundred thousand men was
ready to take the field in Virginia. General Scott was not to command
in the coming campaigns. He had retired in the latter part of the
year 1861, and his place had been filled by a young officer of
rising reputation--General George B. McClellan, who had achieved the
successes of Rich Mountain and Carrick's Ford in Western Virginia.
General McClellan was not yet forty, but had impressed the authorities
with a high opinion of his abilities. A soldier by profession, and
enjoying the distinction of having served with great credit in the
Mexican War, he had been sent as United States military commissioner
to the Crimea, and on his return had written a book of marked ability
on the military organizations of the powers of Europe. When the
struggle between the North and South approached, he was said--with
what truth we know not--to have hesitated, before determining upon his
course; but it is probable that the only question with him was whether
he should fight for the North or remain neutral. In his politics he
was a Democrat, and the war on the South is said to have shocked his
State-rights view. But, whatever his sentiments had been, he accepted
command, and fought a successful campaign in Western Virginia. From
that moment his name became famous; he was said to have achieved
"two victories in one day," and he received from the newspapers the
flattering name of "the Young Napoleon."
The result of this successful campaign, slight in importance as
it was, procured for General McClellan the high post of
commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States. Operations in
every portion of the South were to be directed by him; and he was
especially intrusted with the important work of organizing the new
levies at Washington. This he performed with very great ability. Under
his vigorous hand, the raw material soon took shape. He gave his
personal attention to every department; and the result, as we have
said, in the early spring of 1862, was an army of more than two
hundred thousand men, for operations in Virginia alone.
The great point now to be determined was the best line of operations
against Richmond. President Lincoln was strongly in favor of an
advance by way of Manassas and the Orange and Alexandria Railroad,
which he thought would insure the safety of the Federal capital. This
was always, throughout the whole war, a controlling consideration with
him; and, regarded in the light of subsequent events, this solicitude
seems to have been well founded. More than once afterward, General
Lee--to use his own expression--thought of "swapping queens," that is
to say, advancing upon Washington, without regard to the capture of
Richmond; and President Lincoln, with that excellent good sense which
he generally exhibited, felt that the loss of Washington would prove
almost fatal to the Federal cause.--Such was the origin of the
President's preference for the Manassas line. General McClellan did
not share it. He assented it seems at first, but soon resolved
to adopt another plan--an advance either from Urbanna on the
Rappahannock, or from West Point on the York. Against his views and
determination, the President and authorities struggled in vain.
McClellan treated their arguments and appeals with a want of ceremony
amounting at times nearly to contempt; he adhered to his own plan
resolutely, and in the end the President gave way. In rueful protest
against the continued inactivity of General McClellan, President
Lincoln had exclaimed, "If General McClellan does not want to use the
army, I would like to borrow it;" and "if something is not soon done,
the bottom will be out of the whole affair."
At last General McClellan carried his point, and an advance against
Richmond from the Peninsula was decided upon. In order to assist this
movement, General Fremont was to march through Northwestern Virginia,
and General Banks up the Valley; and, having thus arranged their
programme, the Federal authorities began to move forward to the great
work. To transport an army of more than one hundred thousand men
by water to the Peninsula was a heavy undertaking; but the ample
resources of the Government enabled them to do so without difficulty.
General McClellan, who had now been removed from his post of
commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States, and assigned to
the command only of the army to operate against Richmond, landed his
forces on the Peninsula, and, after several actions of an obstinate
description, advanced toward the Chickahominy, General Johnston, the
Confederate commander, deliberately retiring. Johnston took up a
position behind this stream, and, toward the end of May, McClellan
crossed a portion of his forces and confronted him.
II.
JOHNSTON IS WOUNDED.
The army thus threatening the city which had become the capital of the
Confederacy was large and excellently equipped. It numbered in all,
according to General McClellan's report, one hundred and fifty-six
thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight men, of whom one hundred and
fifteen thousand one hundred and two were effective troops--that is to
say, present and ready for duty as fighting-men in the field.
Results of such magnitude' were expected from this great army, that
all the resources of the Federal Government had been taxed to bring
it to the highest possible state of efficiency. The artillery was
numerous, and of the most approved description; small-arms of the best
patterns and workmanship were profusely supplied; the ammunition was
of the finest quality, and almost inexhaustible in quantity; and
the rations for the subsistence of the troops, which were equally
excellent and abundant, were brought up in an unfailing stream from
the White House, in General McClellan's rear, over the York River
Railroad, which ran straight to his army.
Such was the admirable condition of the large force under command of
General McClellan. It would be difficult to imagine an army better
prepared for active operations; and the position which it held had
been well selected. The left of the army was protected by the wellnigh
impassable morass of the White-oak Swamp, and all the approaches from
the direction of Richmond were obstructed by the natural difficulties
of the ground, which had been rendered still more forbidding by an
abattis of felled trees and earthworks of the best description. Unless
the right of McClellan, on the northern bank of the Chickahominy, were
turned by the Confederates, his communications with his base at the
White House and the safety of his army were assured. And even the
apparently improbable contingency of such an assault on his right had
been provided for. Other bodies of Federal troops had advanced into
Virginia to coöperate with the main force on the Peninsula. General
McDowell, the able soldier who had nearly defeated the Confederates at
Manassas, was at Fredericksburg with a force of about forty thousand
men, which were to advance southward without loss of time and unite
with General McClellan's right. This would completely insure the
communications of his army from interruption; and it was no doubt
expected that Generals Fremont and Banks would coöperate in the
movement also. Fremont was to advance from Northwestern Virginia,
driving before him the small Confederate force, under Jackson, in the
Valley; and General Banks, then at Winchester, was to cross the Blue
Ridge Mountains, and, posting his forces along the Manassas Railroad,
guard the approaches to Washington when McDowell advanced from
Fredericksburg to the aid of General McClellan. Thus Richmond would be
half encircled by Federal armies. General McClellan, if permitted by
the Confederates to carry out his plan of operations, would soon be in
command of about two hundred thousand men, and with this force it was
anticipated he would certainly be able to capture Richmond.
Such was the Federal programme of the war in Virginia. It promised
great results, and ought, it would seem, to have succeeded. The
Confederate forces in Virginia did not number in all one hundred
thousand men; and it is now apparent that, without the able strategy
of Johnston, Lee, and Jackson, General McClellan would have been in
possession of Richmond before the summer.
Prompt action was thus necessary on the part of the sagacious soldier
commanding the army at Richmond, and directing operations throughout
the theatre of action in Virginia. The officer in question was General
Joseph E. Johnston, a Virginian by birth, who had first held General
Patterson in check in the Shenandoah Valley, and then hastened to the
assistance of General Beauregard at Manassas, where, in right of his
superior rank, he took command. Before the enemy's design to advance
up the Peninsula had been developed, Johnston had made a masterly
retreat from Manassas. Reappearing with his force of about forty
thousand men on the Peninsula, he had obstinately opposed McClellan,
and only retired when he was compelled by numbers to do so, with
the resolution, however, of fighting a decisive battle on the
Chickahominy. In face, figure, and character, General Johnston was
thoroughly the soldier. Above the medium height, with an erect figure,
in a close-fitting uniform buttoned to the chin; with a ruddy face,
decorated with close-cut gray side-whiskers, mustache, and tuft on the
chin; reserved in manner, brief of speech, without impulses of any
description, it seemed, General Johnston's appearance and bearing were
military to stiffness; and he was popularly compared to "a gamecock,"
ready for battle at any moment. As a soldier, his reputation
was deservedly high; to unshrinking personal courage he added a
far-reaching capacity for the conduct of great operations. Throughout
his career he enjoyed a profound public appreciation of his abilities
as a commander, and was universally respected as a gentleman and a
patriot.
General Johnston, surveying the whole field in Virginia, and
penetrating, it would seem, the designs of the enemy, had hastened to
direct General Jackson, commanding in the Valley, to begin offensive
operations, and, by threatening the Federal force there--with
Washington in perspective--relieve the heavy pressure upon the main
arena. Jackson carried out these instructions with the vigor which
marked all his operations. In March he advanced down the Valley in the
direction of Winchester, and, coming upon a considerable force of
the enemy at Kernstown, made a vigorous assault upon them; a heavy
engagement ensued, and, though Jackson was defeated and compelled to
retreat, a very large Federal force was retained in the Valley
to protect that important region. A more decisive diversion soon
followed. Jackson advanced in May upon General Banks, then at
Strasburg, drove him from that point to and across the Potomac; and
such was the apprehension felt at Washington, that President Lincoln
ordered General McDowell, then at Fredericksburg with about forty
thousand men, to send twenty thousand across the mountains to
Strasburg in order to pursue or cut off Jackson.
Thus the whole Federal programme in Virginia was thrown into
confusion. General Banks, after the fight at Kernstown, was kept in
the Valley. After Jackson's second attack upon him, when General Banks
was driven across the Potomac and Washington threatened, General
McDowell was directed to send half his army to operate against
Jackson. Thus General McClellan, waiting at Richmond for McDowell to
join him, did not move; with a portion of his army on one side of the
stream, and the remainder on the other side, he remained inactive,
hesitating and unwilling, as any good soldier would have been, to
commence the decisive assault.
His indecision was brought to an end by General Johnston. Discovering
that the force in his front, near "Seven Pines," on the southern bank
of the Chickahominy, was only a portion of the Federal army, General
Johnston determined to attack it. This resolution was not in
consequence of the freshet in the Chickahominy, as has been supposed,
prompting Johnston to attack while the Federal army was cut in two, as
it were. His resolution, he states, had already been taken, and was,
with or without reference to the rains, that of a good soldier.
General Johnston struck at General McClellan on the last day of May,
just at the moment, it appears, when the Federal commander designed
commencing his last advance upon the city. The battle which took place
was one of the most desperate and bloody of the war. Both sides fought
with obstinate courage, and neither gained a decisive advantage. On
the Confederate right, near "Seven Pines," the Federal line was
broken and forced back; but, on the left, at Fair Oaks Station, the
Confederates, in turn, were repulsed. Night fell upon a field where
neither side could claim the victory. The most that could be claimed
by the Southerners was that McClellan had received a severe check; and
they sustained a great misfortune in the wound received by General
Johnston. He was struck by a fragment of shell while superintending
the attack at Fair Oaks, and the nature of his wound rendered it
impossible for him to retain command of the army. He therefore retired
from the command, and repaired to Richmond, where he remained for a
long time an invalid, wholly unable to continue in service in the
field.
This untoward event rendered it necessary to find a new commander for
the army without loss of time. General Lee had returned some time
before from the South, and to him all eyes were turned. He had had no
opportunity to display his abilities upon a conspicuous theatre--the
sole command he had been intrusted with, that in trans-Alleghany
Virginia, could scarcely be called a real command--and he owed his
elevation now to the place vacated by General Johnston, rather to his
services performed in the old army of the United States, than to any
thing he had effected in the war of the Confederacy. The confidence
of the Virginia people in his great abilities had never wavered, and
there is no reason to suppose that the Confederate authorities were
backward in conceding his merits as a soldier. Whatever may have been
the considerations leading to his appointment, he was assigned on the
3d day of June to the command of the army, and thus the Virginians
assembled to defend the capital of their State found themselves under
the command of the most illustrious of their own countrymen.
III.
LEE ASSIGNED TO THE COMMAND--HIS FAMILY AT THE WHITE HOUSE.
Lee had up to this time effected, as we have shown, almost nothing in
the progress of the war. Intrusted with no command, and employed
only in organizing the forces, or superintending the construction of
defences, he had failed to achieve any of those successes in the field
which constitute the glory of the soldier. He might possess the great
abilities which his friends and admirers claimed for him, but he was
yet to show the world at large that he did really possess them.
The decisive moment had now arrived which was to test him. He was
placed in command of the largest and most important army in the
Confederacy, and to him was intrusted the defence of the capital not
only of Virginia, but of the South. If Richmond were to fall, the
Confederate Congress, executive, and heads of departments, would all
be fugitives. The evacuation of Virginia might or might not follow,
but, in the very commencement of the conflict, the enemy would achieve
an immense advantage. Recognition by the European powers would be
hopeless in such an event, and the wandering and fugitive government
of the Confederacy would excite only contempt.
Such were the circumstances under which General Lee assumed command of
the "Army of Northern Virginia," as it was soon afterward styled. The
date of his assignment to duty was June 3, 1862--three days after
General Johnston had retired in consequence of his wound. Thirty days
afterward the great campaign around Richmond had been decided, and to
the narrative of what followed the appointment of Lee we shall at once
proceed, after giving a few words to another subject connected with
his family.
When General Lee left "Washington to repair to Richmond," he removed
the ladies of his family from Arlington to the "White House" on the
Pamunkey, near the spot where that river unites with the Mattapony to
form the York River. This estate, like the Arlington property, had
come into possession of General Lee through his wife, and as Arlington
was exposed to the enemy, the ladies had taken refuge here, with the
hope that they would be safe from intrusion or danger. The result was
unfortunate. The White House was a favorable "base" for the Federal
army, and intelligence one day reached Mrs. Lee and her family that
the enemy were approaching. The ladies therefore hastened from the
place to a point of greater safety, and before her departure Mrs. Lee
is said to have affixed to the door a paper containing the following
words:
"Northern soldiers who profess to reverence Washington, forbear to
desecrate the home of his first married life, the property of his
wife, now owned by her descendants.
"A GRAND-DAUGHTER OF MRS. WASHINGTON."
When the Federal forces took possession of the place, a Northern
officer, it is said, wrote beneath this:
"A Northern officer has protected your property, in sight of the
enemy, and at the request of your overseer."
The resolute spirit of Mrs. Lee is indicated by an incident which
followed. She took refuge with her daughters in a friend's house near
Richmond, and, when a Federal officer was sent to search the house,
handed to him a paper addressed to "the general in command," in which
she wrote:
"Sir: I have patiently and humbly submitted to the search of my house,
by men under your command, who are satisfied that there is nothing
here which they want. All the plate and other valuables have long
since been removed to Richmond, and are now beyond the reach of any
Northern marauders who may wish for their possession.
"WIFE OF ROBERT LEE, GENERAL C.S.A."
The ladies finally repaired for safety to the city of Richmond, and
the White House was burned either before or when General McClellan
retreated. The place was not without historic interest, as the scene
of Washington's first interview with Martha Custis, who afterward
became his wife. He was married either at St. Peter's Church near by,
or in the house which originally stood on the site of the one now
destroyed by the Federal forces. Its historic associations thus failed
to protect the White House, and, like Arlington, it fell a sacrifice
to the pitiless hand of war.
From this species of digression we come back to the narrative of
public events, and the history of the great series of battles which
were to make the banks of the Chickahominy historic ground. On
taking command, Lee had assiduously addressed himself to the task of
increasing the efficiency of the army: riding incessantly to and
fro, he had inspected with his own eyes the condition of the troops;
officers of the commissary, quartermaster, and ordnance departments
were held to a strict accountability; and, in a short time, the army
was in a high state of efficiency.
"What was the amount of the Confederate force under command of Lee?"
it may be asked. The present writer is unable to state this number
with any thing like exactness. The official record, if in existence,
is not accessible, and the matter must be left to conjecture. It is
tolerably certain, however, that, even after the arrival of Jackson,
the army numbered less than seventy-five thousand. Officers of high
rank and character state the whole force to have been sixty or seventy
thousand only.
It will thus be seen that the Federal army was larger than the
Confederate; but this was comparatively an unimportant fact. The event
was decided rather by generalship than the numbers of the combatants.
IV
LEE RESOLVES TO ATTACK.
General Lee assumed command of the army on the 3d of June. A week
afterward, Jackson finished the great campaign of the Valley, by
defeating Generals Fremont and Shields at Port Republic.
Such had been the important services performed by the famous
"Stonewall Jackson," who was to become the "right arm" of Lee in the
greater campaigns of the future. Retreating, after the defeat of
General Banks, and passing through Strasburg, just as Fremont from the
west, and the twenty thousand men of General McDowell from the east,
rushed to intercept him, Jackson had sullenly fallen back up the
Valley, with all his captured stores and prisoners, and at Cross
Keys and Port Republic had achieved a complete victory over his two
adversaries. Fremont was checked by Ewell, who then hastened across to
take part in the attack on Shields. The result was a Federal defeat
and retreat down the Valley. Jackson was free to move in any
direction; and his army could unite with that at Richmond for a
decisive attack upon General McClellan.
The attack in question had speedily been resolved on by Lee. Any
further advance of the Federal army would bring it up to the very
earthworks in the suburbs of the city; and, unless the Confederate
authorities proposed to undergo a siege, it was necessary to check the
further advance of the enemy by a general attack.
How to attack to the best advantage was now the question. The position
of General McClellan's army has been briefly stated. Advancing up the
Peninsula, he had reached and passed the Chickahominy, and was in
sight of Richmond. To this stream, the natural line of defence of the
city on the north and east, numerous roads diverged from the capital,
including the York River Railroad, of which the Federal commander made
such excellent use; and General McClellan had thrown his left wing
across the stream, advancing to a point on the railroad four or five
miles from the city. Here he had erected heavy defences to protect
that wing until the right wing crossed in turn. The tangled thickets
of the White-oak Swamp, on his left flank, were a natural defence; but
he had added to these obstacles, as we have stated, by felling trees,
and guarding every approach by redoubts. In these, heavy artillery
kept watch against an approaching enemy; and any attempt to attack
from that quarter seemed certain to result in repulse. In front,
toward Seven Pines, the chance of success was equally doubtful. The
excellent works of the Federal commander bristled with artillery, and
were heavily manned. It seemed thus absolutely necessary to discover
some other point of assault; and, as the Federal right beyond the
Chickahominy was the only point left, it was determined to attack, if
possible, in that quarter.
An important question was first, however, to be decided, the character
of the defences, if any, on General McClellan's right, in the
direction of Old Church and Cold Harbor. A reconnoissance in force was
necessary to acquire this information, and General Lee accordingly
directed General Stuart, commanding the cavalry of the army, to
proceed with a portion of his command to the vicinity of Old Church,
in the Federal rear, and gain all the information possible of their
position and defences.
V.
STUART'S "RIDE AROUND McCLELLAN."
General James E.B. Stuart, who now made his first prominent appearance
upon the theatre of the war, was a Virginian by birth, and not yet
thirty years of age. Resigning his commission of lieutenant in the
United States Cavalry at the beginning of the war, he had joined
Johnston in the Valley, and impressed that officer with a high opinion
of his abilities as a cavalry officer; proceeded thence to Manassas,
where he charged and broke a company of "Zouave" infantry; protected
the rear of the army when Johnston retired to the Rappahannock, and
bore an active part in the conflict on the Peninsula. In person he was
of medium height; his frame was broad and powerful; he wore a heavy
brown beard flowing upon his breast, a huge mustache of the same
color, the ends curling upward; and the blue eyes, flashing beneath a
"piled-up" forehead, had at times the dazzling brilliancy attributed
to the eyes of the eagle. Fond of movement, adventure, bright colors,
and all the pomp and pageantry of war, Stuart had entered on the
struggle with ardor, and enjoyed it as the huntsman enjoys the chase.
Young, ardent, ambitious, as brave as steel, ready with jest or
laughter, with his banjo-player following him, going into the hottest
battles humming a song, this young Virginian was, in truth, an
original character, and impressed powerfully all who approached him.
One who knew him well wrote: "Every thing striking, brilliant, and
picturesque, seemed to centre in him. The war seemed to be to Stuart a
splendid and exciting game, in which his blood coursed joyously, and
his immensely strong physical organization found an arena for the
display of all its faculties. The affluent life of the man craved
those perils and hardships which flush the pulses and make the heart
beat fast. He swung himself into the saddle at the sound of the bugle
as the hunter springs on horseback; and at such moments his cheeks
glowed and his huge mustache curled with enjoyment. The romance and
poetry of the hard trade of arms seemed first to be inaugurated when
this joyous cavalier, with his floating plume and splendid laughter,
appeared upon the great arena of the war in Virginia." Precise people
shook their heads, and called him frivolous, undervaluing his great
ability. Those best capable of judging him were of a different
opinion. Johnston wrote to him from the west: "How can I eat or sleep
in peace without _you_ upon the outpost?" Jackson said, when he fell
at Chancellorsville: "Go back to General Stuart, and tell him to act
upon his own judgment, and do what he thinks best, I have implicit
confidence in him." Lee said, when he was killed at Yellow Tavern:
"I can scarcely think of him without weeping." And the brave General
Sedgwick, of the United States Army, said: "Stuart is the best cavalry
officer ever _foaled_ in North America!"
In the summer of 1862, when we present him to the reader, Stuart had
as yet achieved little fame in his profession, but he was burning to
distinguish himself. He responded ardently, therefore, to the order of
Lee, and was soon ready with a picked force of about fifteen hundred
cavalry, under some of his best officers. Among them were Colonels
William H.F. Lee and Fitz-Hugh Lee--the first a son of General Lee, a
graduate of West Point, and an officer of distinction afterward;
the second, a son of Smith Lee, brother of the general, and famous
subsequently in the most brilliant scenes of the war as the gay and
gallant "General Fitz Lee," of the cavalry. With his picked force,
officered by the two Lees, and other excellent lieutenants, Stuart set
out on his adventurous expedition to Old Church. He effected more
than he anticipated, and performed a daring feat of arms in addition.
Driving the outposts from Hanover Court-House, he charged and broke a
force of Federal cavalry near Old Church; pushed on to the York River
Railroad, which he crossed, burning or capturing all Federal stores
met with, including enormous wagon-camps; and then, finding the
way back barred against him, and the Federal army on the alert, he
continued his march with rapidity, passed entirely around General
McClellan's army, and, building a bridge over the Chickahominy,
safely reëntered the Confederate lines just as a large force made its
appearance in his rear. The temporary bridge was destroyed, however,
and Stuart hastened to report to his superiors. His information was
important. General McClellan's right and rear were unprotected by
works of any strength. If the Confederate general desired to attack in
that quarter, there was nothing to prevent.
The results of Stuart's famous "ride around McClellan," as the people
called it, determined General Lee to make the attack on the north bank
of the stream, if he had not already so decided. It was necessary now
to bring Jackson's forces from the Valley without delay, and almost
equally important to mask the movement from General McClellan. To this
end a very simple _ruse_ was adopted. On the 11th of June, Whiting's
division was embarked on the cars of the Danville Railroad at
Richmond, and moved across the river to a point near Belle Isle, where
at that moment a considerable number of Federal prisoners were about
to be released and sent down James River. Here the train, loaded with
Confederate troops, remained for some time, and _the secret_ was
discovered by the released prisoners. General Lee was reënforcing
Jackson, in order that the latter might march on Washington. Such was
the report carried to General McClellan, and it seems to have really
deceived him. [Footnote: "I have no doubt Jackson has been reënforced
from here."--_General McClellan to President Lincoln, June 20th_.]
Whiting's division reached Lynchburg, and was thence moved by railway
to Charlottesville--Jackson marched and countermarched with an
elaborate pretence of advancing down the Valley--at last, one morning,
the astute Confederate, who kept his own counsels, had disappeared; he
was marching rapidly to join Lee on the Chickahominy. Not even his own
soldiers knew what direction they were taking. They were forbidden
by general order to inquire even the names of the towns they passed
through; directed to reply "I don't know" to every question; and it
is said that when Jackson demanded the name and regiment of a soldier
robbing a cherry-tree, he could extract from the man no reply but "I
don't know."
Jackson advanced with rapidity, and, on the 25th of June, was near
Ashland. Here he left his forces, and rode on rapidly to Richmond.
Passing unrecognized through the streets, after night, he went on
to General Lee's headquarters, at a house on the "Nine-mile road,"
leading from the New Bridge road toward Fair Oaks Station; and here
took place the first interview, since the commencement of the war,
between Lee and Jackson.
What each thought of the other will be shown in the course of this
narrative. We shall proceed now with the history of the great series
of battles for which Jackson's appearance was the signal.