Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

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[272] of withdrawing the army from Virginia and abandoning the State. But to some extent he spoiled the assurance by suggesting, in swollen words, that even if Richmond should fall, “the war could still be successfully maintained on Virginia soil for twenty years.”

The tardy battle for Richmond yet lingered. Public confidence and public courage rose each day of the delay. The eloquent press of Richmond was stirring the Southern heart. The Richmond Despatch wrote: “If there is blood to be shed, let it be shed here; no soil of the Confederacy could drink it up more acceptably and none would hold it more gratefully. Wife, family, and friends are nothing. Leave them all for one glorious hour to be devoted to the Republic. Life, death, and wounds are nothing, if we only be saved from the fate of a captured capital and a humiliated Confederacy. Let the Government act; let the people act. There is time yet.”

But while thus fluctuated the sentiment of Richmond there came an especial occasion to reanimate the cause of the Confederacy, to erect again the reputation of its arms, and to fill with gratitude and hope the hearts which had so long throbbed with anxiety in its besieged capital. That occasion was the splendid diversion of “Stonewall” Jackson in the Valley of Virginia. Public attention turned to the eccentric career of that commander to find a new hero, and an unexpected train of brilliant victories.

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Jackson's campaign in the Valley of Virginia.

When the principal scene of the war in Virginia was shifted from the lines of the Potomac, Gen. Jackson remained in the Shenandoah Valley. Ewell's division was sent to operate with him in that part of the State. The object of the combined force was to divert the army of McDowell at Fredericksburg from uniting with that of McClellan; and beyond this design the authorities at Richmond had no expectations from Jackson's small command.

It was an idea originating with the adventurous commander himself to act on the aggressive, and to essay the extraordinary task of driving the Federal forces from the Valley, then there under the three commands of Banks, Fremont, and Shields.

In order to understand the disposition of all the opposing forces at this time west of the Blue Ridge, it will be necessary to make a brief and rapid resume of operations and movements in that quarter for some weeks previous, so as to put before the reader a comprehensive scene and an intelligent situation.

The disposition of the enemy's forces west of the Blue Ridge was designed to co-operate with McDowell at Fredericksburg. They included