Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War
to mind his own affairs. So long as a hundred of us are left alive,”
said the signatories, “we will never in any degree be subjected to the
English. It is not for glory, or for riches, or for honour that we
fight, but for liberty alone, which no good man loses but with his
life.” More than five hundred years later, for the same noble cause and
in the same uncompromising spirit, the people of Virginia made appeal
to the God of battles.
[1] Grant’s _Memoirs,_ vol. i, p. 214.
[2] I have been somewhat severely taken to task for attaching the
epithets “misguided,” “unpractical,” “fanatical,’ to the
abolitionists. I see no reason, however, to modify my language. It is
too often the case that men of the loftiest ideals seek to attain them
by the most objectionable means, and the maxim “Fiat justitia ruat
cœlum” cannot be literally applied to great affairs. The conversion of
the Mahomedan world to Christianity would be a nobler work than even
the emancipation of the negro, but the missionary who began with
reviling the faithful, and then proceeded to threaten them with fire
and the sword unless they changed their creed, would justly be called
a fanatic. Yet the abolitionists did worse than this, for they incited
the negroes to insurrection. Nor do I think that the question is
affected by the fact that many of the abolitionists were upright,
earnest, and devout. A good man is not necessarily a wise man, and I
remember that Samuel Johnson and John Wesley supported King George
against the American colonists.
[3] On the publication of the first edition my views on the action of
the abolitionists were traversed by critics whose opinions demand
consideration. They implied that in condemning the unwisdom and
violence of the anti-slavery party, I had not taken into account the
aggressive tendencies of the Southern politicians from 1850 onwards,
that I had ignored the attempts to extend slavery to the Territories,
and that I had overlooked the effect of the Fugitive Slave Law. A
close study of abolitionist literature, however, had made it very
clear to me that the advocates of emancipation, although actuated by
the highest motives, never at any time approached the question in a
conciliatory spirit; and that long before 1850 their fierce cries for
vengeance had roused the very bitterest feelings in the South. In fact
they had already made war inevitable. Draper, the Northern historian,
admits that so early as 1844 “the contest between the abolitionists on
one side and the slave-holders on the other hand had become _a mortal
duel_.” It may be argued, perhaps, that the abolitionists saw that the
slave-power would never yield except to armed force, and that they
therefore showed good judgment in provoking the South into secession
and civil war. But forcing the hand of the Almighty is something more
than a questionable doctrine.
[4] Of 8.3 million whites in the fifteen slave-holding States, only
346,000 were slave-holders, and of these 69,000 owned only one negro.
[5] _Battles and Leaders,_ vol. iii, p. 689.
[6] There is no doubt that a feeling of aversion to slavery was fast
spreading among a numerous and powerful class in the South. In
Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri the number of slaves was decreasing,
and in Delaware the institution had almost disappeared.
[7] Grant’s _Memoirs,_ p. 214.
[8] _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ to wit.
[9] For an admirable statement of the Southern doctrine, see Ropes’
_History of the Civil War,_ vol. i, chap. i.
[10] “The Government had been Federal under the Articles of
Confederation (1781), but the [Northern] people quickly recognised
that that relation was changing under the Constitution (1789). They
began to discern that the power they thought they had delegated was in
fact surrendered, and that henceforth no single State could meet the
general Government as sovereign and equal.” Draper’s _History of the
American Civil War,_ vol. i, p. 286.
[11] It has been remarked that States’ Rights, as a political
principle, cannot be placed on the same plane as those with which it
is here grouped. History, however, proves conclusively that, although
it may be less vital to the common weal, the right of self-government
is just as deeply cherished. A people that has once enjoyed
independence can seldom be brought to admit that a Union with others
deprives it of the prerogatives of sovereignty, and it would seem that
the treatment of this instinct of nationality is one of the most
delicate and important tasks of statesmanship.
[12] _History of the Civil War,_ Ropes, chap. i, p. 3.
[13] Kentucky and Missouri attempted to remain neutral. Maryland was
held in check by the Federal Government, and Delaware sided with the
North. The first three, however, supplied large contingents to the
Confederate armies.
Chapter V
HARPER’S FERRY
1861 Immediately it became apparent that the North was bent upon
re-conquest Jackson offered his sword to his native State. He was
determined to take his share in defending her rights and liberties,
even if it were only as a private soldier. Devotion to Virginia was his
sole motive. He shrank from the horrors of civil strife. The thought
that the land he loved so well was to be deluged with the blood of her
own children, that the happy hearths of America were to be desecrated
by the hideous image of war, stifled the promptings of professional
ambition. “If the general Government,” he said, “should persist in the
measures now threatened, there must be war. It is painful enough to
discover with what unconcern they speak of war, and threaten it. They
do not know its horrors. I have seen enough of it to make me look upon
it as the sum of all evils.”
The methods he resorted to in order that the conflict might be averted
were characteristic. He proposed to the minister of his church that all
Christian people should be called upon to unite in prayer; and in his
own devotions, says his wife, he asked with importunity that, if it
were God’s will, the whole land might be at peace.
His work, after the Ordinance of Secession had been passed, was
constant and absorbing. The Governor of Virginia had informed the
Superintendent of the Institute that he should need the services of the
more advanced classes as drill-masters, and that they must be prepared
to leave for Richmond, under the command of Major Jackson, at a
moment’s notice.
The Lexington Presbytery was holding its spring meeting in the church
which Jackson attended, and some of the members were entertained at his
house; but he found no time to attend a single service—every hour was
devoted to the duty he had in hand.
On the Saturday of that eventful week he expressed the hope that he
would not be called upon to leave till Monday; and, bidding his wife
dismiss from her thoughts everything pertaining to the war and his
departure, they spent that evening as they had been accustomed, reading
aloud from religious magazines, and studying together the lesson which
was to be taught on the morrow in the Sunday-school.
But at dawn the next morning came a telegram, directing Major Jackson
to bring the cadets to Richmond immediately. He repaired at once to the
Institute; and at one o’clock, after divine service, at his request,
had been held at the head of the command, the cadet battalion marched
to Staunton, on the Virginia Central Railway, and there took train.
Camp Lee, the rendezvous of the Virginia army, presented a peculiar if
animated scene. With few exceptions, every man capable of serving in
the field belonged either to the militia or the volunteers. Some of the
companies had a smattering of drill, but the majority were absolutely
untaught, and the whole were without the slightest conception of what
was meant by discipline. And it was difficult to teach them. The
non-commissioned officers and men of the United States army were either
Irish or Germans, without State ties, and they had consequently no
inducement to join the South. With the officers it was different. They
were citizens first, and soldiers afterwards; and as citizens, their
allegiance, so far as those of Southern birth were concerned, was due
to their native States. Out of the twelve hundred graduates of West
Point who, at the beginning of 1861, were still fit for service, a
fourth were Southerners, and these, almost without exception, at once
took service with the Confederacy. But the regular officers were almost
all required for the higher commands, for technical duties,
and the staff; thus very few were left to instruct the volunteers. The
intelligence of the men was high, for every profession and every class
was represented in the ranks, and many of the wealthiest planters
preferred, so earnest was their patriotism, to serve as privates; but
as yet they were merely the elements of a fine army, and nothing more.
Their equipment left as much to be desired as their training. Arms were
far scarcer than men. The limited supply of rifles in the State
arsenals was soon exhausted. Flintlock muskets, converted to percussion
action, were then supplied; but no inconsiderable numbers of
fowling-pieces and shot-guns were to be seen amongst the infantry,
while the cavalry, in default of sabres, carried rude lances fabricated
by country blacksmiths. Some of the troops wore uniform, the blue of
the militia or the grey of the cadet; but many of the companies drilled
and manœuvred in plain clothes; and it was not till three months later,
on the eve of the first great battle, that the whole of the infantry
had received their bayonets and cartridge boxes.
An assemblage so motley could hardly be called an army; and the daring
of the Government, who, with this _levée en masse_ as their only
bulwark against invasion, had defied a great power, seems at first
sight strongly allied to folly. But there was little cause for
apprehension. The Federal authorities were as yet powerless to enforce
the policy of invasion on which the President had resolved. The great
bulk of the Northern troops were just as far from being soldiers as the
Virginians, and the regular army was too small to be feared.
The people of the United States had long cherished the Utopian dream
that war was impossible upon their favoured soil. The militia was
considered an archæological absurdity. The regular troops, admirable as
was their work upon the frontier, were far from being a source of
national pride. The uniform was held to be a badge of servitude. The
drunken loafer, bartering his vote for a dollar or a dram, looked down
with the contempt of a sovereign citizen upon men who submitted to the
indignity of discipline; and, in denouncing the expense of a standing
army, unscrupulous politicians found a sure path to popular favour. So,
when secession became something more than a mere threat, the armed
forces of the commonwealth had been reduced almost to extinction; and
when the flag was fired upon, the nation found itself powerless to
resent the insult. The military establishment mustered no more than
16,000 officers and men. There was no reserve, no transport, no
organisation for war, and the troops were scattered in distant
garrisons. The navy consisted of six screw-frigates, only one of which
was in commission, of five steam sloops, some twenty sailing ships, and
a few gun-boats. The majority of the vessels, although well armed, were
out of date. 9,000 officers and men were the extent of the personnel,
and several useful craft, together with more than 1,200 guns, were laid
up in Norfolk dockyard, on the coast of Virginia, within a hundred
miles of Richmond.[1]
The cause of the Confederacy, although her white population of seven
million souls was smaller by two-thirds than that of the North, was