A Confederate Colonel.
Before going on with the life of our hero, I must tell you, in a few
plain and truthful words, the causes of the Civil War which in 1861
broke out between the States.
You remember that, after the Revolutionary War, the thirteen colonies
agreed to form a Union, and adopted a set of laws called the
Constitution of the United States.
From the very first, however, the States did not agree; in fact, laws
which suited one section did not suit the other, so that there was
always some cause for a quarrel.
At last, the question of slavery seemed to give the most trouble. You
have been told that African slaves were first brought to Virginia in
1619 by the Dutch, and that afterwards English and Northern traders
brought others, until all of the colonies held slaves.
The cold climate of the North did not suit the negroes, who had been
used to the hot sun of Africa. So, by degrees, they were sold to
Southern planters.
Many influential men North and South wished to see the slaves freed.
But, as the slaves increased in the South, Southern men saw that a rapid
abolition of slavery would be disastrous to both whites and blacks,
because the negroes were not ready for it. As slavery decreased in the
North, many Northern people did not realize this. Besides, the North did
not wish slave labor to compete with the free labor of the North.
The North insisted that slaves should not be brought into the new States
as they came into the Union. The South demanded that a slave-holder
should be free to carry his slaves from one State into another.
Many Southern people also believed that the negroes were the happiest
and best cared for working people in the world, and that the North was
trespassing upon their just rights.
So the quarrel went on until October, 1859, when an event happened in
Virginia which greatly increased the hatred of both parties. A man named
John Brown laid a plot for freeing the negroes, first in Virginia and
then in the whole South.
For two years, he sent men through the South secretly to stir up the
negroes and incite them to kill the whites. He bought long iron pikes
for the negroes to fight with, as they did not know how to use
fire-arms.
When he thought that all was ready, he entered Harper’s Ferry by night,
with only eighteen men, and seized the arsenal there, sending out armed
men into the country to capture the principal slave-owners and to call
upon the slaves to join him. This was done secretly during the night,
and the next morning every white man who left his home was seized, and
imprisoned in an engine-house near the arsenal. Only a few negroes came
in, and they were too much scared to aid in the deadly and dastardly
work.
As soon as the news of this raid spread over the country, angry men came
into town from all sides, and before night John Brown and his men were
shut up in the engine-house.
[Illustration: _Harper’s Ferry, Virginia._]
Soon a band of marines, under the command of Colonel R. E. Lee, was sent
out from Washington by the Government, and as John Brown would not
surrender, the soldiers at once stormed the engine-house. Ten of John
Brown’s men were killed by the soldiers, and all the rest, including
Brown himself, were wounded. Six of the storming party were killed and
nine wounded. John Brown and seven of his men were brought to trial at
Charles Town, Virginia, and being found guilty of treason, were hanged.
The cadets of the Virginia Military Institute were ordered to Charles
Town to protect the officers of the law. Major Jackson commanded a
section of light artillery accompanying the battalion, and was present
at the death of Brown. He afterwards gave his friends a graphic account
of this dreadful scene.
This event cast great gloom over the country. Many persons at the North
thought that John Brown had died a martyr to the cause of slavery, while
the people at the South saw that they could no longer enjoy in peace and
safety the rights granted to them by the Constitution.
Major Jackson was truly Southern in feeling. He believed in the “Rights
of States” and also that the South ought to take her stand and resent
all efforts to coerce and crush her. He, however, dreaded war and
thought it the duty of Christians throughout the land to pray for peace.
A month before South Carolina went out of the Union, Major Jackson
called upon his pastor, Dr. White, and said: “It is painful to know how
carelessly they speak of war. If the Government insists upon the
measures now threatened, there must be war. They seem not to know what
its horrors are. Let us have meetings to pray for peace.” Dr. White
agreed to his request, and the burden of Major Jackson’s prayer was that
God would preserve the land from war.
After the election of Mr. Lincoln, in November, 1860, to be President of
the United States, the Southern States saw no hope of getting their
rights and resolved to secede, or withdraw from the Union of the States.
South Carolina took the lead and seceded on the 20th of December, 1860.
She was quickly followed by Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, and Texas.
On the 9th of January, 1861, these States united and at Montgomery, in
Alabama, formed a government called “The Confederate States of America,”
with Jefferson Davis as President.
Virginia was slow to withdraw from the Union formed by the States; but,
when President Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand soldiers to
invade the Southern States, she delayed no longer. On April 17th, 1861,
she seceded and began to prepare for war.
“In one week,” says Dabney, “the whole State was changed into a camp.”
The sons of Virginia rushed to arms, and soon the city of Richmond was
filled with men drilling and preparing to fight.
At daybreak on Sunday morning, April 21st, 1861, an order came to
Lexington from the Governor of the State (Governor Letcher) to march the
cadets that day to Richmond. As the senior officers were already in
Richmond, Major Jackson at once prepared to go forward with his corps.
[Illustration: _View of the Business Portion of Richmond, Va., after the
Evacuation Fire of 1865._]
At eleven o’clock A. M. he went to his home to say good-bye to his wife.
They retired to their own room, where he read the 5th chapter of Second
Corinthians, which begins with these beautiful words: “For we know, if
our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of
God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
He then knelt and prayed for themselves and for their dear country,
imploring God that it might be His holy will to avert war and bloodshed.
He then said good-bye to his wife and left his dear home, never more to
return to it. After a few days, his wife went to live at the home of a
friend—his house was closed.
Major Jackson and the cadets marched forward to Staunton, whence they
went by train to Richmond, and at once went into camp on the
Fair-Grounds.
From Richmond, Major Jackson wrote thus to his wife: “Colonel Lee, of
the army, is here and has been made Major-General of the Virginia
troops. I regard him a better officer than General Scott.”
After a few days, on April 21st, Major Jackson was made colonel of the
Virginia forces and ordered to take command at Harper’s Ferry, a town on
the Potomac river where the United States Government had had a great
number of workshops and fire-arms. This important place had already been
captured by Virginia troops, and it was necessary to hold it until the
arms and machinery could be moved away.
Just here it may be well to give you a word-picture of our hero as he
began a career which was to fill the world with his fame.
[Illustration: _Colonel Thomas J. Jackson._]
[Illustration: Portrait annotation.]
_This is a copy of a Portrait I have of my husband which I consider the
best likeness extant Mrs. T. J. Jackson_
Jackson was tall and very erect, with large hands and feet. His brow was
fair and broad; his eyes were blue placid and clear when their owner was
calm, but dark and flashing when he was aroused. His nose was Roman, his
cheeks ruddy, his mouth firm, and his chin covered with a brown beard.
His step was long and rapid, and if he was not a graceful rider, he was
a fearless one. In battle, or as he rode along his columns, hat in hand,
bowing right and left to his soldiers, whose shouts arose on high, no
figure could be nobler than his. Few, even of his intimate friends, were
conscious of his military genius, so he burst upon the world as a meteor
darts across a star-lit sky.
On his way to Harper’s Ferry, he wrote thus to his dear wife:
“Winchester, April 29th, 1861.
“I expect to leave here about two P. M. to-day for Harper’s Ferry. I
am thankful to say that an ever-kind Providence, who causes ‘all
things to work together for good to them that love Him,’ has given me
the post which I prefer above all others. To His name be all the
praise. * * * You must not expect to hear from me very often, as I
shall have more work than I have ever had in the same time before; but
don’t be troubled about me, as an ever-kind Heavenly Father will give
me all needful aid.”
“This letter,” says a friend, “gives a true idea of his character. He
feels within himself the genius and power which make him long to have a
separate command; but he also feels the need of resting upon his
Heavenly Father for aid and support.”
Colonel Jackson had been ordered by Major-General Lee to organize and
drill the men who had gathered at Harper’s Ferry and to hold the place
as long as possible against the foe.
He went to work with great zeal and, aided by Colonel Maury and Major
Preston, soon had the men organized into companies and regiments. As
Colonel Jackson was known to have been a brave soldier in the Mexican
War, he was readily obeyed by the soldiers in his little army, which
soon numbered forty-five hundred men.
But on the 2nd of May, Virginia joined the Southern Confederacy and
handed over all of her soldiers to that government, which bound itself
in return to defend Virginia and to pay her troops.
General Joseph E. Johnston was sent on the 23rd of May by the
Confederate Government to take command at Harper’s Ferry and Colonel
Jackson at once gave up his trust to General Johnston.
The Virginia regiments at that place—the Second, the Fourth, the Fifth,
the Twenty-seventh, and a little after, the Thirty-third, with
Pendleton’s battery of light field-guns—were now organized into a
brigade, of which Jackson was made the commander. This was the brigade
which afterwards became famous as the “Stonewall Brigade,” and which, we
shall see, did much hard fighting, and was to the Southern army what the
“Tenth Legion” was to the great Cæsar.
[Illustration: _Gen. J. E. Johnston._]
General Johnston soon found out that he could not hold Harper’s Ferry
against the foe which was now coming up under General Patterson. He,
therefore, burnt the great railroad bridge over the Potomac river at
Harper’s Ferry and moved away all his guns and stores; then on Sunday,
June 16th, he withdrew his little army to Bunker Hill, a place about
twelve miles from the city of Winchester. There he offered battle to
General Patterson, but the latter refused to fight and withdrew to the
north bank of the Potomac.
On June 19th, Colonel Jackson was ordered to march northward and watch
the foe, who was again crossing the river. He was also ordered to
destroy the engines and cars of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad at
Martinsburg.
This he did, though he writes of it in the following words: “It was a
sad work; but I had my orders, and my duty was to obey.”
Until July 2nd, Colonel Jackson, with his brigade, remained a little
north of Martinsburg, having in his front Colonel J. E. B. Stuart with a
regiment of cavalry. On that day General Patterson advanced to meet
Jackson, who went forward with only one regiment, the Fifth Virginia, a
few companies of cavalry, and one light field piece. A sharp skirmish
ensued. At last, the foe coming up in large numbers, Jackson fell back
to the main body of his troops after having taken forty-five prisoners,
and killed and wounded a large number of the enemy. Jackson’s loss was
only two men killed and ten wounded.
In this battle, which is known as that of Haines’s Farm, Colonel Jackson
was, no doubt, the only man in the infantry who had ever been under
fire, but they all behaved with the greatest coolness and bravery.
Jackson, in this first battle, showed such boldness, and at the same
time such care for the lives of his men, that he at once gained a hold
upon their esteem.
General Patterson now held Martinsburg; while General Johnston, having
come up with the whole army, offered him battle each day. But Patterson
had other plans, and soon moved away.
While General Johnston was at Winchester watching his movements, Colonel
Jackson received this note:
“Richmond, July 3rd, ’61.
_My Dear General_:
I have the pleasure of sending you a commission of Brigadier-General
in the Provisional Army; and to feel that you merit it. May your
advancement increase your usefulness to the State.
Very truly,
R. E. LEE.”
General Jackson, for so we must now call him, was much pleased at this
promotion, and wrote to his wife thus:
“Through the blessing of God, I have now all that I ought to wish in
the line of promotion. May His blessing rest on you is my fervent
prayer.”
Ar′sē-nal, a storehouse for arms and military stores.
Ma-rïnes’, soldiers doing duty on a ship.
Mär′tyr, one who is put to death for the truth.
Sēn′ior (sèn-yur), one older in age or office.
Vŏl-ŭn-teer′, one who enters into any service of his own free will.
Mē′teor, a shining body passing through the air.
Cæ′sar (sé-zär), a great Roman general.
Do you remember—
What happened in October 1859?
When Virginia seceded from the Union?
When Major Jackson left Lexington with the cadets?
Of what place Colonel Jackson first took command?
About Jackson’s first battle?
[Illustration: Around the campfire]
[Illustration: _General Robert E. Lee._]