Chancellorsville by Stephen W. Sears

Author:Stephen W. Sears
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

STONEWALL JACKSON rode ahead on the Orange Plank Road toward the front. At the old schoolhouse where Carter’s battery was posted he encountered A. P. Hill and a group of his staff. How soon would he be ready to advance, he asked Hill. “In a few minutes,” Hill replied, “as soon as I can finish relieving General Rodes.” Jackson then asked him if he knew the road from Chancellorsville to U.S. Ford. It would help if he had a guide, Hill said. Jackson detailed his engineering officer, Captain Keith Boswell, to guide the advance. Then looking intently at Hill he said, “General Hill, as soon as you are ready push right forward. Allow nothing to stop you. Press on to the United States Ford.”

Leaving Hill to follow, Jackson rode slowly on up the Plank Road and past Jim Lane’s deployed brigade. All that was ahead of him now was Lane’s skirmish line and then the enemy. It was always Old Jack’s way to lead like this from up front, to see the battlefield for himself rather than rely on others, and it was a habit that worried and exasperated his staff. The little party was about halfway between Lane’s line of battle and his line of skirmishers when Sandie Pendleton nerved himself to ask, “General, don’t you think this is the wrong place for you?” Jackson said in his abrupt way, “The danger is over. The enemy is routed. Go back and tell A. P. Hill to press right on.”16

By the account of Captain Robert E. Wilbourn, Jackson’s signal officer, the party was about a dozen strong. He rode on Jackson’s left, and behind was another staff man, Lieutenant Joseph G. Morrison, and two signal corps men, Lieutenant W. T. Wynn and Sergeant William E. Cunliffe. Captain W. F. Randolph of the escort headed what Wilbourn remembered as five or six couriers.

No one in Lane’s brigade—at least no officer—realized that Jackson’s party, and then A. P. Hill’s, were riding out ahead of the lines. Jim Lane was off to the right positioning his forces and knew nothing of it. Perhaps Jackson’s party assumed that someone in Hill’s would take the usual precaution of warning the troops; after all, Lane’s brigade was in Hill’s division. Perhaps Hill’s party assumed someone in Jackson’s had done so when passing through Lane’s line. In any event, when he investigated later General Lane found none of his lieutenants had known that Jackson and Hill had gone out to the front, and in the darkness—it was after 9 o’clock now—they were not easily seen.

There was no real reason for Jackson to be where he was just then except his own impatience. He believed, as he told Sandie Pendleton, that there was no longer any danger here, and apparently he expected Lane’s brigade to be advancing at any moment. Pushing ahead, skirmishers out front, the battle line would catch up with his party, which would move right along behind the line as it swept on toward Chancellorsville. A routed enemy must always be pressed so it could not catch its breath and make a stand.

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