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Show STONEWALL JACKSON AT CHANCELLORSVILLE. 9 Last Tuesday was the forty-second anniver-sary anniver-sary of the death of General Stonewall Jackson. He had been accidentally wounded by his own men on the field of Chancellorsville the previous week and suffered the amputation of his right j'jH I arm. He rallied from the amputation, but a day or two later was seized with pneumonia and died. In some respects he was the most remarkable man of his age. He was always erratic, prior to the war. Many of his friends thought he was not quite level-headed. He was intensely pious, but on a battlefield he was the incarnation of force and action. He could march his corps farther and fight oftener than any other man in either army. General Lee said truly that when he died his own right arm was broken. It certainly was true. General Lee never won a victory after his death. That battle of Chancellorsville was in some respects the most remarkable battle of the war. McDowell had failed; McClellan had failed; Burn-side Burn-side had failed and the command was given to Hooker. He had performed prodigies at Antie-tam; Antie-tam; he had won the soubriquet of "Fighting Joe Hooker," and when he took command of that magnificent Army of the Potomac, the North was filled with hope. He made his plans, fought the battle of Chancellorsville and was defeated. Of that battle General Pleasanton said, almost in these words: "It was superbly planned. All the day up to 2 p. m. everything seemed moving to certain victory; there was no reason why it should not have been a crushing defeat to General Lee, a wonderful victory to the Northern army. But about 2 p. m. one or two Union German regiments regi-ments became demoralized. It was nothing unusual un-usual or serious, but General Hooker, who had been the perfect soldier and general all day, suddenly sud-denly seemed overwhelmed. He was as it was said Napoleon was at Bori-dino, Bori-dino, when the marshals near him urged that the final charge of the old' guard might be ordered to sweep the field, and the great Corsican kept repeating: "If I lose my army today where will I get another arniy to fight tomorrow?" Right there the battle was lost. In twenty minutes, without with-out any apparent cause, victory turned into a disastrous dis-astrous defeat. I cannot explain it except on the supposition that under the mighty strain of the day his battle nerve became benumbed." The pulses of both Napoleon and Grant were ten beats slower than that of ordinary men. What excited other men was merely a tonic to them. It was Stonewall Jackson's forced march and assault that won. It was his last triumph, it was Lee's last triumph, it was Hooker's last opportunityit oppor-tunityit was fate prolonging the war until the valor of the South should exhaust itself, and slavery slav-ery should utterly vanish from under the flag. |
