SECOND BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG--CHANCELLORSVILLE--WOUNDING AND DEATH OF
STONEWALL JACKSON
The battle at Kelly's Ford was the forerunner of the crossing of
Burnside's army to our side of the river, although this was delayed
longer than was expected. In the latter part of April we were roused one
morning before dawn to go into position on the fatal hill in the bend of
the railroad. The various divisions of the army were already in motion
from their winter-quarters, and, as they reached the neighborhood, were
deployed in line of battle above and below.
The high hills sloping toward the river on the enemy's side were manned
with heavy siege-guns, from which shells were thrown at intervals as our
troops came into view. Here we lay for a day or more, with guns
unlimbered, awaiting the tedious disposition of the various divisions.
The bluff on which our guns were posted, commanding, as it did, an
extensive view of the country, attracted many of the officers, who had
preceded their men, and, with field-glasses, scanned the surroundings. I
saw at one time, within a few rods of where we stood, Generals Lee,
Jackson, D. H. and A. P. Hill, Early, Rodes and Colston, besides a score
of brigadiers. At this time the enemy were moving across their pontoon
bridges and extending their skirmish-lines on the right and left.
The only time I met General Jackson to speak to him since he had left
Lexington was when he rode away from this group of officers. As I held
aside the limb of a tree in his way, near our gun, he extended his hand
and, as he gave me a hearty shake, said, "How do you do, Edward?" A
short time after this, our battery had orders to fire a few rounds, as a
sort of "feeler", and the enemy at once replied. The officers, not
having been informed of the order, were for a time exposed to an
unnecessary and what might have proved very serious danger. However,
they withdrew before any damage was done, although a large piece of
shell which flew past our gun gave General Colston a close call as he
tarried near it. After threatening weather, the sun rose clear on the
following morning. A light mist which lay along the river soon
disappeared, and again, as at Harper's Ferry, our elevated position
afforded a superb view. A level plain extended to the river in our front
and for some miles to the right, and as far as Fredericksburg (two
miles) to the left, and beyond the river the Stafford Heights.
While we were standing admiring the scene, three horses without riders
came dashing from within the Federal lines, and swept at full speed
between the two armies. They ran as if on a regular race-track and
conscious of the many spectators who cheered them to their best. Then,
veering in their course from side to side, they finally shot through an
opening made to receive them into our lines, which raised a "rebel
yell," as if Jackson were passing by. One of these horses trotted into
our battery and was caught and ridden by Sergeant Strickler, under the
name of "Sedgwick," to the close of the war.
Burnside's crossing the river at Fredericksburg was only a feint, as the
mass of his army crossed near Chancellorsville, and thither our army
went, leaving Early's division, two other brigades and several
batteries, including ours, to oppose Sedgwick's corps. After three days
here, with occasional artillery duels, Sedgwick recrossed the river, and
Early, supposing he would join Hooker, set out with his command toward
Chancellorsville. Before we had gone three miles I heard General
Barksdale, as he rode along the column, ask for General Early, who was a
short distance ahead, and announce, "My young men have told me that the
Federals are recrossing the river." A few moments later, as the two rode
back together, General Early said, "If that is the case, I must go back
or they will get my wagon-train."
We at once countermarched, and by eleven o'clock were back in position
on the same bluff. The fourth detachment was in front and failed to get
the order to countermarch, and so kept on almost to Chancellorsville,
and did not rejoin us until eight o'clock the next morning (Sunday),
having spent the whole night marching.
I will mention here a striking instance of what I suppose could be
called the "irony of fate." My bedfellow, Stuart, as already stated, had
been fearfully wounded at Winchester, his first battle. After his return
many months later he often expressed the greatest desire to pass through
one battle unhurt, and regarded his companions who had done so as
fortunate heroes. It was now Sunday morning and there had been heavy
firing for an hour or two about Fredericksburg, and thither the third
and fourth pieces were ordered. As they were starting off, I saw Stuart
bidding good-by to several friends, and I, not wishing to undergo a
thing so suggestive, was quietly moving off. But he called out, "Where
is my partner?" and came to me, looking so jaded after his long
nightmarch that his farewell made me rather serious. In half an hour he
was dead. As he was going with his gun into position a case-shot
exploded close to him and three balls passed through his body, any one
of which would have been fatal.
Two other members of the battery, Henry Foutz and J. S. Agnor, were also
killed in this engagement. The position was a trying one. Two batteries
had already suffered severely while occupying it, and the cannoneers of
a third battery were lying inactive by their guns as ours came into it.
But in less than an hour thereafter the enemy's guns were outmatched;
at any rate, ceased firing. General Hoke, who had witnessed the whole
affair, came and asked Major Latimer to introduce him to Captain Graham,
saying he wanted to know the man whose guns could do such execution.
About noon my section joined the others a short distance in rear of this
place on the hills overlooking Fredericksburg.
Soon after we had gotten together, the bodies of our dead comrades were
brought from the places at which they had fallen, and William Bolling,
Berkeley Minor and myself, messmates of Stuart, were detailed to bury
him. His body was taken in our battery ambulance, which we accompanied,
to the Marye family cemetery near our old camp, and permission gotten to
bury it there. If I was ever utterly miserable, it was on this Sunday
afternoon as we stood, after we had dug the grave, in this quiet place,
surrounded by a dense hedge of cedar, the ground and tombstones
overgrown with moss and ivy, and a stillness as deep as if no war
existed. Just at this time there came timidly through the hedge, like an
apparition, the figure of a woman. She proved to be Mrs. Marye; and,
during the battle, which had now continued four days, she had been
seeking shelter from the enemy's shells in the cellar of her house. She
had come to get a lock of Stuart's hair for his mother, and her
presence, now added to that of our ambulance driver, as Minor read the
Episcopal burial service, made the occasion painfully solemn. In less
than an hour we were again with the battery and in line of battle with
the whole of our battalion, twenty guns, all of which opened
simultaneously on what appeared to be a column of artillery moving
through the woods in our front. However, it proved to be a train of
wagons, some of which were overturned and secured by us the next day.
Here we lay during the night with guns unlimbered near Gen. "Extra
Billy" Smith's brigade of infantry. Next afternoon we had a fine view of
a charge by Early's division, with Brigadier-Generals Gordon and Hoke
riding to and fro along their lines and the division driving the
Federals from their position along the crest of the hill. The greater
portion of the enemy's killed and wounded were left in our hands. Many
of the latter with whom we talked were heartily sick of the war and
longed for the expiration of their term of service. This series of
battles, continuing, as it did, at intervals for a week, was not yet
done with.
After dark our battery was ordered to move down toward Fredericksburg
and occupy some earthworks just outside of the town. We had been well in
range of the siege-guns already, but now the only hope was that they
would overshoot us. As I was on guard that night I had ample time, while
pacing the breastworks, for cogitation. I heard distinctly the barking
of the dogs and the clocks striking the hours during the night. When
morning came, a dense fog had settled along the river, entirely
concealing us, and while it hung we were ordered to pull out quietly.
Two hundred yards back from this place we came into clear sunlight and,
as we turned, saw an immense balloon poised on the surface of the mist,
and apparently near enough to have pierced it with a shell. Not a shot
was fired at us--veiled, as we were, by the mist--until we had gotten
still farther away, but then some enormous projectiles landed around us.
A question that would naturally present itself to one who had heard of
the repeated victories won by the Confederate army would be, "Why were
no decisive results?" By carefully studying the history of the war, the
inquirer could not fail to notice that at every crisis either some
flagrant failure on the part of a subordinate to execute the duty
assigned to him occurred, or that some untoward accident befell the
Confederate arms. Conspicuous among the latter was Jackson's fall at
Chancellorsville.
That General Hooker seemed entirely ignorant of the proximity of General
Lee's army was disclosed by the discovery, by General Fitz Lee, that the
right flank of the Federal army was totally unguarded.
General Jackson, when informed of this, proceeded by a rapid march to
throw his corps well to the right and rear of this exposed wing, and by
this unexpected onset threw that portion of Hooker's army into the
utmost confusion and disorder. Falling night for a time checked his
advance, but, while making dispositions to push the advantage gained,
so as to envelope his adversary, he passed, with his staff, outside of
his picket line, and when returning to re-enter was mortally wounded by
his own men.
This May 4 closed the great effort of General Hooker, with 132,000 men,
to "crush" General Lee's army of 47,000. The two last of the six days of
his experience in the effort probably made him thankful that the loss of
20,000 of his force had been no greater.
The mortal wounding of Jackson and his death on the tenth more than
offset the advantage of the victory to the Confederates. His loss was
deplored by the whole army, especially by General Lee, and to his
absence in later battles, conspicuously at Gettysburg, was our failure
to succeed attributed. In fact General Lee said to a friend, after the
war, that with Jackson at Gettysburg our success would have been
assured--a feeling that was entertained throughout the army.
On the evening of the fifth, rain, which seemed invariably to follow a
great battle, fell in torrents and we went into camp drenched to the
skin. After drying by a fire, I went to bed and slept for eighteen
hours. Being in our old position on the hill, we converted it into a
camp and there remained.
On that portion of the great plain which extended along the railroad on
our right we witnessed a grand review of Jackson's old corps, now
commanded by General Ewell. The three divisions, commanded,
respectively, by Generals Ed. Johnson, Rodes and Early, were drawn up
one behind the other, with a space of seventy-five yards between, and
General Lee, mounted on "Traveler" and attended by a full staff and
numerous generals, at a sweeping gallop, made first a circuit of the
entire corps, then in front and rear of each division. One by one his
attendants dropped out of the cavalcade. Gen. Ed. Johnson escaped a fall
from his horse by being caught by one of his staff. Early soon pulled
out, followed at intervals by others; but the tireless gray, as with
superb ease and even strides he swept back and forth, making the turns
as his rider's body inclined to right or left, absorbed attention. The
distance covered was nine miles, at the end of which General Lee drew
rein with only one of his staff and Gen. A. P. Hill at his side. Such
spectacles were to us extremely rare, and this one was especially well
timed, affording the troops, as it did, an opportunity to see that they
were still formidable in number, and although Jackson was dead that the
soul of the army had not passed away.