AMERICAN CRISIS BIOGRAPHIES STONEWALL JACKSON HENRY ALEXANDER WHITE. A.M.. Ph.D. Author of " Robert E. Lee and the Southern Confederacy," "A History of the United States," etc. PHILADELPHIA GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY Published January, 1909 This volume is dedicated to My Wife Fanny Beverley Wellford White PREFACE THE present biography of Stonewall Jackson is based upon an examination of original sources, as far as these are available. The accounts of Jack son s early life and of the development of his per sonal character are drawn, for the most part, from Doctor Eobert L. Dabney s biography and from Jackson s Life and Letters, by Mrs. Jackson. The Official Eecords of the war, of course, constitute the main source of the account here given of Jackson s military operations. Colonel G. F. E. Henderson s Life is an admirable of his career study military ; Doctor Dabney s biography, however, must remain the chief source of our knowledge concerning the personality of the Confederate leader. Written accounts by eye-witnesses, and oral statements made to the writer by participants in Jackson s campaigns, have been of great service in the preparation of this volume. Some of these are mentioned in the partial list of sources given in the bibliography. HENRY ALEXANDER WHITE. Columbia, S. C. CONTENTS CHRONOLOGY 11 I. EARLY YEARS 15 II. AT WEST POINT .... 25 III. THE MEXICAN WAR ... 34 IV. THE VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE 47 V. THE BEGINNING OF WAR . 63 VI. COMMANDER OF VOLUNTEERS AT HARPER S FERRY ... 72 VII. THE FIRST BATTLE OF MANASSAS (BULL KUN) .... 82 VIII. THE EOMNEY CAMPAIGN . 99 IX. THE BATTLE OF KERNSTOWN . 113 X. MCDOWELL 127 XL WINCHESTER 144 XII. CROSS KEYS AND PORT EEPUBLIC . 167 XIII. THE MARCH FROM THE VALLEY TO EICHMOND 196 XIV. THE SEVEN DAYS : GAINES MILL . 208 XV. THE SEVEN DAYS: FRAZIER SFARM AND MALVERN HILL . 223 XVI. CEDAR EUN 236 XVII. GROVETON . ... 247 XVIII. THE SECOND MANASSAS . .261 XIX. THE CAPTURE OF HARPER S FERRY 273 XX. SHARPSBURG 283 XXI. FREDERICKSBURG . 301 10 CONTENTS XXII. THE WINTER OF 1862-1863 . 319 XXIII. CHANCELLORSVILLE . 337 XXIV. DEATH OF JACKSON .... 355 BIBLIOGRAPHY .... 366 INDEX 369 CHRONOLOGY 1824 January 21st, born in the town of Clarksburg, Va. (now West Virginia), third child of Jonathan Jackson and hia wife, Julia Neale. 1827 The father, Jonathan Jackson, dies. 1831 The mother, Julia Neale Jackson, dies. The son, Thomas Jonathan, finds a home with his father s half- brother, Cummins Jackson, and attends a country school taught by Robert P. Ray. 1841 Appointed to the office of constable of the county. 1842 Secures an appointment to West Point and enters the Academy in July. 1846 June 30th, is graduated with his class and receives the brevet rank of second lieutenant of artillery. 1847 March 3d, is promoted to grade of second lieutenant. 1847 March 9th, lands with Scott s army at Vera Cruz, Mex ico. Afterward promoted to position of first lieutenant for gallant conduct at the siege of Vera Cruz (March 22d-27th). 1847 August 19th, takes part with his battery in battle of Contreras, and for gallantry is promoted to brevet rank of captain. For heroic conduct at Chapultepec (Septem ber 13ch) receives the brevet rank of major. 1848 June, leaves City of Mexico with the rest of Scott s army and goes to Fort Hamilton on Long Island. 1850 Transferred to a military station in Florida. 1851 March, appointed Professor of Artillery Tactics and Natural Philosophy at the Virginia Military Institute. 1853 August 4th, marries Eleanor Junkin, daughter of Doctor George Junkin, President of Washington College in Vir ginia. In February, 1855, his wife and infant child die. 12 CHRONOLOGY 1857 July 16th, marries Mary Aima Morrison, daughter of Doctor Robert H. Morrison, President of Davidson Col lege, North Carolina. 1861 April 21st, leaves his home in Lexington in response to the summons of the governor of Virginia and leads the cadets of the Military Institute to Richmond to take part in the war. 1861 April 27th, appointed colonel of Virginia Volunteers ; April 29th, arrives at Harper s Ferry and assumes com to command of First mand ; June, assigned Brigade. 1861 July 2d, engages in skirmish at Falling Waters. 1861 July 3d, receives commission as brigadier-general of the Southern Confederacy. 1861 July 21st, leads the First Brigade in first battle at Man- 1861 October to of No 7th, promoted rank major-general ; vember 4th, assigned to command of Shenandoah Valley. 1862 January 1st, marches from Winchester toward Romney; after driving the enemy beyond the Potomac, returns, on January 24th, from Romuey to Winchester; sends resignation to Richmond, January 31st. 1862 March 23d, battle of Kerustown; May 8th, battle of Mc Dowell ; of Front May 23d, capture Royal ; May 25th, battle of Winchester; June 8th, battle of Cross Keys; June 9th, battle of Port Republic; June 17th, leaves Valley and marches toward Richmond. 1862 June 27th, battle of Games Mill ; June 30th, battle of White Oak Swamp; July 1st, battle of Malvern Hill. 1862 August 9th, battle of Cedar Run. 1862 August 25th, begins march toward rear of Pope s army ; August 26th, captures Manassas Junction ; August 28th, battle of Groveton s ; August 29th, repulses Pope army ; August 30th, drives Pope s army across Bull Run; Sep tember 1st, battle of Chantilly. 1862 September 5th, crosses Potomac and enters Maryland ; September 10th, marches from Frederick, Md., toward Harper s Ferry; September 15th, captures Harper s Ferry; September 16th, arrives at Sharpsburg and begins to fight against McClellan ; September 17th, battle of Sharpsburg; September 20th, repulses enemy at Boteler g Ford. CHEONOLOGY 13 1862 September 20th-November 22d, encamps in Valley near Winchester October to rank of ; llth, promoted lieuten ant-general and placed in command of Second Corps ; November 22d, marches from Valley toward Fredericks- burg; November 29th, arrives at Rappahannock River, near Fredericksburg ; December 13th, battle of Freder- icksburg ; December 16th, enters winterquarters at Moss Neck on Rappahannock. 1863 May 1st, leads Second Corps from Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville; May 2d, marches around Hooker s right flank, routs right wing of Federal army, and re ceives severe wounds ; May 10th, dies at Guiney Station near Fredei ioksburg. STONEWALL JACKSON CHAPTEE I EA&LY YEARS THOMAS JONATHAN JACKSON was born in the town of Clarksburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), on January 21, 1824. In that same year, Andrew Jackson, who won the famous victory over the British army at New Orleans, was brought forward as a candidate for the presidency of the United States; four years later (1828), he was elected to that high office. Did the same blood run in the veins " of these two great leaders, known as Old Hick J > 1 1 ory Jackson and Stonewall Jackson ? To this question a definite reply cannot be given. The most that can be said is that the ancestors of both men once lived in the same parish in the province of Ulster, in north Ireland. During the reign of King James I, and afterward, this province was filled with colonists, most of whom came from the Low lands of Scotland. In all probability, therefore, the Jacksons were Scots who found a home in that large Protestant community in Ulster, each one of whose citizens called himself Scoto-Hibernus, that is, a Scot-of-Ireland. In our own time these Scots of 16 STONEWALL JACKSON Ireland and their descendants are known as Scotch- Irish. About the year 1765, the father and mother of Andrew Jackson left the province of Ulster and sailed from the Irish port of Carrickfergus to seek a home in the Oarolinas. At an earlier date than this, however, John Jackson, great-grandfather of Stonewall Jackson, crossed the Atlantic. At what time he left the Ulster home of the Scotch 2 Jacksons we do not know, but in 1748, John Jack son boarded a vessel at an English port and sailed to the province of Maryland. There is on record a statement made by a grandson that this John 3 Jackson was born in England. If this be true, it means, perhaps, that his father was the first mem ber of the family to leave the Scotch community of Ulster and that he made his abode for a time in London. Upon the same ship that bore John Jackson westward across the Atlantic, in 1748, sailed a young Englishwoman, named Elizabeth Cummins, the daughter of a London tradesman. She was tall and handsome and had received a good education. A year or two after their arrival in Maryland, they were united in marriage and at once sought a home on the south branch of the Potomac in the western part of Virginia. For a brief period they dwelt at the place now called Moorefield, located in the present Hardy County. Then they moved their 1 Parton s Andrew Jackson. 2 Letter written by Judge John G. Jackson, and quoted in Dabney s Stonewall Jackson, p. 5. 3 Idem. EAELY YEAES 17 household goods a little farther westward and built a log cabin upon the site of the present town of Buckhannon, on the bank of the Buckhannon Eiver. There John Jackson cut down the trees of the forest, planted fields of corn and bought the title to large tracts of land. He brought up a family of five sons and three daughters. When the war of the American Revolution began in 1775, he shouldered his rifle and went into battle against the British, taking some of his sons with him.