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...One day while at West Point we were surprised by a visit from young
Major Stonewall Jackson, who had been serving since the war with an
artillery company on duty in New York harbor. At that time he was
convinced that one of his legs was bigger than the other, and that one
of his arms was likewise unduly heavy. He had acquired the habit of
raising the heavy arm straight up so that, as he said, the blood would
run back into his body and lighten it. I believe he never after
relinquished this peculiar practice, even upon the battle-field. He told
us he had procured a year’s furlough to try a professorship which had
been offered him at the Virginia Military Institute. He remained there
until the outbreak of the war between the States brought him before the
world as the great Christian soldier of his time.
His was the most remarkable character
I have ever known. Cold and impassive of aspect, he was tenderly
affectionate and full of fire. Filled with conscientious scruples, he
was at times cruelly unjust. His arrests of Hill, Winder, and General
Richard Garnett, three of the noblest officers in our service, were
inexcusable, especially that of Garnett, whom he arrested for not
charging Shields’ victorious army with the bayonet when his ammunition
failed! Jackson permitted him to remain in this painful position for
many months, and when Garnett finally succeeded in obtaining a trial
before a court-martial, he was acquitted upon Jackson’s own testimony!
The court yielded to Garnett’s insistence that his treatment had been so
unjustifiable as to make it only right that he should place on record
the testimony for the defense. Poor Garnett! He fell in the front of his
brigade at Gettysburg, loved and mourned by all who knew him.
The arrest of General Charles Winder
was another act of unreasoning harshness, which General
Dick Taylor, who
had great influence with Jackson, induced him to revoke. Twice he
arrested that noble soldier, A. P. Hill, whose name was the last upon
his own lips and those of Lee. General Lee was deeply pained by this inharmony between two of his ablest officers, and summoned them before
him with a view of causing a reconciliation. After hearing their several
statements, Lee, walking gravely to and fro, said, "He who has been the
most aggrieved can be the most magnanimous and make the first overtures
of peace." This wise verdict forever settled their differences. Jackson
unhappily died at Chancellorsville in the zenith of his great fame, and
in the grandest victory of Lee's army...
Taken from
Recollections of a Virginian in the Mexican, Indian, and Civil Wars by
General Dabney Herndon Maury |
