Lee's Lieutenants by Douglas Southall Freeman

Author:Douglas Southall Freeman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 1998-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

Jackson Gets His Greatest Orders

1

“HOW CAN WE GET AT THESE PEOPLE?”

A mild and cloudy morning it was, that twenty-ninth of April, but rich in the promise of spring. The leaves of the oaks were beginning to open; the peach and cherry trees were in full bloom. In the woods and on the hillsides the anemone could be seen; the houstonia added its color. But Old Jack’s eyes were toward the Rappahannock, whence battery-smoke already was rising. He found that Jubal Early had deployed the veterans of Ewell’s division, now Early’s own, along the R.F. & P. Railroad and forward to the old Stage Road. Under the bank of the river were the Federals, who had crossed in pontoon boats and were laying bridges but as yet showed no disposition to attack.1

Jackson could ascertain little concerning their numbers or their disposition, but he concluded a fight was certain and that Mrs. Jackson and the baby must leave at once. He wrote his wife a little note to that effect and summoned his brother-in-law, Lieutenant Joseph Morrison. Would Morrison take an ambulance and go immediately to Yerby’s, get Mrs. Jackson and the child, and put them aboard the cars? Morrison was disciplined and not disposed to argue with a lieutenant general, but he could talk plainly to his sister’s husband. The general, said Morrison, would have need of all the staff officers. He would prefer to remain on duty and send Chaplain Lacy in his place. Jackson acquiesced; Lacy got the summons and went forthwith to Yerby’s. He hurried Mrs. Jackson and her maid and the baby to Guiney’s in time for the southbound morning train. Their safe departure he duly reported to his chief.2

Jackson ere that had seen the commanding general and learned of reports that indicated the Federals might be crossing the Rappahannock west of Fredericksburg either for a movement against Lee’s rear or for a drive against Gordonsville and the Virginia Central Railroad. Upon Lee, not upon Jackson, rested the burden of sifting these reports and of deciding whether to start a column immediately up the river or to await further development of the situation. Jackson’s task was to watch the enemy in his front and to bring up his other divisions. Rodes was putting D. H. Hill’s division into position on the extreme right. A. P. Hill was ordered to place his brigades on the military road above the railway and on the ridge where Maxcy Gregg had fallen. Trimble’s division, at Moss Neck and Skinker’s Neck, was called up to Hamilton’s Crossing.3

One circumstance might have disturbed a man less resolute than Jackson: Neither Allegheny Johnson, who was to take Harvey Hill’s division, nor Trimble, who was to lead Jackson’s old division, was with the troops. In place of Johnson, who had not yet reported for duty, Robert Rodes, the senior brigadier, well might act. He had experience and in every battle he had fought, from Seven Pines onward, he had distinguished himself. In Jackson’s own division,

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