Notes and Queries. the wounding of Stonewall Jackson.
In our Notes on this sad event in our last issue, we gave a statement of one who claims to have been one of the litter bearers who bore
Jackson from the field, and who expressed the opinion that
Jackson was wounded by the enemy, and not by his own men. We distinctly disavowed that idea, and said that the proofs were abundant that
Jackson fell by the fire of his own men; but we ought, perhaps, to have pointed out those proofs a little more clearly.
In Volume VI, pp. 230-234, Southern Historical Society papers, we published the narrative of
Major Benjamin Watkins Leigh, of
General A. P. Hill's staff.
In same Volume, pp. 261-282, we published a paper by
General Early in which he gives a letter from
Captain Wilbourn, of
Jackson's staff, who was with his chief at the time he was wounded.
And in Volume 8, pp. 493-496, we printed
General Lane's account of the affair.
These statements are all perfectly conclusive, and show beyond all cavil, that our great chieftain was shot down by the fire of his own men, who would gladly have laid down their lives for him.
Towns Burned by Federal Troops.
The following letter explains itself:
Dear Sir,--I have just read in your January and February number, a letter to you from my brother-in-law,
W. M. Polk, with a chapter
[
190]
from a forthcoming work — The Life of
Leonidas Polk.
I read also with interest a letter from
Rev. H. E. Hayden.
I will add another to the list of towns wantonly burnt by Federal officers during the war.
There were no Confederate forces in this part of the country, when
General Smith, belonging to
General Grant's army, ordered this town to be burnt.
All the houses around the square (except a small fire-proof store), the court-house,
Jacob Thompson's residence, James Brown's house, and many other private dwellings were destroyed, and an officer ordered to burn the
University.
Finding only peaceful occupants, literary and philosophical apparatus, he said he would rather lose his commission than carry out such a vandal order, and so it was spared.
The only reason that
General Smith gave for such wanton destruction was, that he had heard that
General Forrest was about to make a raid into
Memphis! (100 miles away). The better reason may have been that it was the home of
Jacob Thompson,
Very Respectfully,
Did Cutt's Battalion have sixty guns at Sharpsburg!
General Palfrey in his “
Antietam and
Fredericksburg” quotes
General D. H. Hill's report as saying: “I had, however, twenty-six pieces of artillery of my own, and near sixty pieces of
Cutt's battalion temporarily under my command.”
We have referred to
General Hill's report (A. N. V.
Reports, Vol.
II, page 114) and find that
General Palfrey has correctly quoted him.
But it is, of course, one of the many typographical errors in the volumes of Reports printed by order of the Confederate Congress.
No Confederate battalion of artillery had in it anywhere near sixty pieces.
We find no report of
Colonel Cutt's of
Sharpsburg in these volumes, but in his report of seven days around
Richmond he puts the number of guns in his battalion at fifteen, and he hardly had more at
Sharpsburg.
Who can give us
definite information on this point?
Stonewall Jackson Frightened for once.
Governor Jackson of
West Virginia tells this anecdote: “I recollect asking ‘
Stonewall,’ who was my cousin, if he had ever been frightened in war. He said yes, once he had been considerably under a sense of fear.
It was in the city of
Mexico.
A chest containing a large sum of money had been put in
Lieutenant Jackson's charge, and to be perfectly
[
191]
secure of it he ordered it to be carried to his headquarters, in an old abbey or convent, and laid down there alone in the room with it to sleep, a sentinel walking the corridor outside.
He had been there in bed only a few minutes, and was getting drowsy, when he distinctly heard something under his bed, which lifted up as if a man was secreted there.
Jackson said he leaped out of bed and drew his sword, and examined the bed and the room in vain.
Jackson then supposed he had been possibly dreaming, and resumed his bed. Just as he was thinking it was all a mistake his bed lifted again, plainly and with some force.
He started forth a second time, sword in hand, and be-hold!
nothing was there.
‘This time,’ said he, ‘ I was scared indeed, till my attention was called to a shouting outside in the street, and then I found that it was an earthquake passing under the city of
Mexico that had lifted my bed up and given me such apprehension.’
”
