Zzzfought under a Paling Star.
First.
Jackson fought when the prestige of the
Confederacy was in the ascendancy.
Early, when it was on the decline.
Atlanta fell before
Sherman the day before he defeated
Crook, at
Kernstown.
Our misfortunes at
Vicksburg,
Gettysburg,
Missionary Ridge and
Knoxville, had taken place before
Early's campaign begun.
The waning resources of the
Confederacy and the collapse of its finances, had changed the face of affairs.
With
Mississippi,
Kentucky and
Tennessee overrun, the
Trans-Mississippi cut from us, and the lower basin useless, the enemy could concentrate at will against our forces in
Georgia and
Virginia.
Second.
The
Valley was a garden and a granary when
Jackson fought.
Early fought in a desert, where ‘the crow flying over it would have to carry his rations.’
He had to practice the art of
Napoleon—scatter to subsist, and concentrate for battle.
He had men seizing and grinding stacks of wheat while battle raged about them.
What shall we eat and wherewithal shall we be clothed, was the problem of his men, and if they plundered battlefields it was hunger and nakedness that prompted them.
Third.
Jackson's Cavalry was not overmatched by the enemy's, as
Early's was, three to one.
The
Valley, now denuded of fences and swept by fire, was a splendid field for cavalry operations; and
Early felt and expressed his sense of deficiency in cavalry.
His own was more overnumbered than any other arm of the service; it was terribly overworked and overstrained—for instance,
Payne's Brigade was under fire every day for a month before the
battle of Winchester.
The Federal Government supplied its troops with good mounts and bountiful forage, while our cavalry had to make shift to get horses as best they could, many being absent at all times in search for them.
When they got them, it was equally difficult to feed them; and
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more than once brigades were disbanded to get horses, while their remnants fought dismounted.
When
Sheridan mustered a cavalry corps that reported over sixteen thousand for duty, finely mounted and equipped, with sabres, pistols, and repeating rifles, our troopers had to procure any kind of weapons they could, while their half-famished steeds reminded us of the poor jades of Henry the Fifth at
Agincourt.
The gum down roping from their pale, dead eyes,
And in their pale, dull mouths the gimmal bit
Lies foul with chewed grass, still and motionless;
And their executors, the knavish crows, fly over them
All impatient for the hour.
It must be remembered
Early's first
chief of cavalry,
General Robert Ransom, was compelled to retire from ill health, and that he also lost the valuable services of
General Fitzhugh Lee by his wound at
Winchester.
That
Rosser and
Lomax,
McCausland, and their subordinates did so well under the circumstances is wonderful, and I wish I had time to refer more at length to their various exploits.
Rosser's movements at
New Creek and
Beverley—where he lit up the closing scenes of disastrous war with signal victories—deserves especial mention.
Many splendid deeds and names have I left out of my recital which well deserve historic praise.
What a glowing page might be made of the brave partisan
Mosby's remarkable movement in
Sheridan's rear, where with less than 500 men, he kept many thousands occupied guarding communications of the
Federal army and the approaches to
Washington.
But these will not be overlooked or forgotten.
They would adorn but they would not vary the thread of my story.
