A Youth's History of the Great Civil War
Van Evrie, Horton & Co., ©1866
Revised edition, ©2006 www.ronie-mooney-encs.us
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CHAPTER XXIII, STONEWALL JACKSON IN THE SHENANDOAH
AT about the time of the entrance of Butler into New Orleans, there were some stirring events passing in the Valley of the Shenandoah, between Stonewall Jackson and the forces under the Federal General Shields. General Banks had been in that region all winter, but supposing that General Jackson had left the valley, he went off to Washington.
A correspondent who was with Jackson's army at this time, wrote as follows: "When I last put pen to paper I did not imagine that old Stonewall intended moving in such fearful weather; but when it was known that the general's servant had packed up, I knew we were all bound for a tramp somewhere. His negro said, "whenever I misses massa a little while in de day, I allers knows he's prayin' a spell; whenever he's out all day, I knows we's going to move next day; but when he stays out and comes back to have a long spell of prayin', I knows dare's goin' to be a fought somewhar, mighty quick, and dis chile packs up de walibles and gets out ob de way like a sensible cullored pusson!"
The same writer who relates this anecdote, gives the following interesting picture of the immortal Stonewall Jackson:
"'Stonewall' may be a very fine old gentleman, and an honest, good-tempered, industrious man, but I should admire him much more in a state of rest than continually seeking him moving in the front. And such a dry old stick, too! As for uniform, he has none-his wardrobe isn't worth a dollar, and his horse is quite in keeping, being a poor, lean animal of little spirit or activity. And don't he keep his aids moving about! Thirty miles ride at night through the mud is nothing of a job; and if they don't come up to time, I'd as soon face the devil, for Jackson takes no excuses when duty is in hand. He is about thirty-five years old, of medium height, strongly built, solemn and thoughtful, speaks but little, and always in a calm, decided tone; and from what he says there is no appeal, for he seems to know every hole and corner of this valley as if he made it, or at least, as if it had been designed for his own use. He knows all the distances, all the roads, even to cowpaths through the woods and goat tracks along the hills. He sits on his horse very awkwardly, (although, generally speaking, all Virginians are fine horsemen) and has a fashion of holding his head very high, and chin up, as if searching for something skywards; yet although you can never see his eyes for the cap-peak drawn down over them, nothing escapes his observation.
"His movements are sudden and unaccountable; his staff didn't pretend to keep up with him, and , consequently, he is frequently seen alone, poking about in all sorts of holes and corners, at all times of night and day. I have frequently seen him approach in the dead of night and enter into conversation with sentinels, and ride off through the darkness without saying, 'God bless you,' or anything civil to the officers. The consequence is, that the officers are scared, and the men love him. What service he has seen was in Mexico, where he served as lieutenant of artillery. At one of the battles there his captain was about to withdraw the guns, because of the loss suffered by the battery, and also because the range was too great. This did not suit our hero; he advanced his piece several hundred yards, and 'shortened the distance,' dismounted his opponent's guns, and remained master of the position."
An anecdote is told of this great commander in one of his Shenandoah battles against Banks. Being dissatisfied with the manner in which one of his cannon was handled, he jumped from his horse, and giving the cannon a deadly aim with his own hands, he devoutly lifted his eyes to heaven, uttering this prayer, "The Lord have mercy on their guilty souls," and gave the word to "Fire."
Jackson's small force of only twenty-one hundred men was at a place called Kearnstown, when on the afternoon of the twenty-third of March, General Shields advanced upon them in great force. Jackson instantly formed his line of battle, with Brigadier-General Garnett commanding the left, while Ashby with his cavalry held the right, and Jackson himself the centre. The battle raged with fearful violence for four hours, during which time Jackson's little band contended with unparalleled gallantry against overwhelming numbers. But at seven o'clock in the evening he ordered a retreat, after having lost five hundred men in killed and wounded, three hundred prisoners, and two cannon.
General Shields made no attempt to follow him until the next day. Though defeated, General Jackson lost no baggage, and no officer of prominence in his command was killed. General Shields lost several officers, and was himself badly wounded in the arm by a shell. But he had achieved a great glory in defeating Stonewall Jackson, for he is, I believe, the only Federal general who has won that renown.
But the skill and successes of General Shields in the field did not save him from the persecution of the abolitionists. He was blind enough to suppose that the object of the war was not to free negroes, but to simply enforce the laws of the United States. He therefore did not use his army to steal negroes, or to wantonly plunder and destroy the property of private citizens. And on this account the whole abolition press literally howled at him, notwithstanding he had saved the Northern army in the Shenandoah from utter annihilation in consequence of the innumerable blunders of General Banks. But his faithful adherence to the rules of civilized war, together with his refusal to use his army to catch negroes, caused Mr.Lincoln's government to give him the alternative of resigning or being removed.
When he came back to Washington, with his health shattered by his severe campaigns in the mountains of Virginia, he met with Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts, in the presence of Mr.Lincoln. Sumner at once began to upbraid him for his course in not allowing negroes to come within the lines of his army. General Shields replied that he had discovered that a great number of the negroes that thronged the Federal camps were simply spies, who remained within our lines just long enough to learn all they were capable of retaining, and then stole back to tell the Confederates all they knew.
He also stated that when he accepted a command, it was his understanding that the object of the war was not to free negroes, but to preserve the Union. Sumner replied that, "If the object of the war was not to abolish slavery, there is no object of the fight commensurate with the vast expenditure of life and property, and I would go for stopping it tomorrow." This remark was made in the presence of Mr.Lincoln, and General Shields was surprised that he said not one word in contradiction of Sumner's statement that the sole object of the war was to free negroes.
General McClellan, General Buell, General Fitz-John Porter, as well as General Shields, lost their commands, and were persecuted, because they insisted on conducting the war on the rules recognized by all Christian nations, and also because of their understanding that the object of the war was to preserve the Union, and not to free negroes. Thus was the Northern army stripped of four of its very ablest generals, who were sacrificed to the black and piratical shrine of abolitionism.
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