Some time after midnight I was awakened by the chill of the early morning hours, and, turning over, caught a glimpse of a little flame on the slope above me, and, sitting up to see what it meant, I saw, bending over a scant fire of twigs, two men seated on old cracker boxes and warming their hands over the little fire. I had but to rub my eyes and collect my wits to recognize the figures of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Who can tell the story of that quiet council of war between two sleeping armies? Nothing remains on record to tell of plans discussed, and dangers weighed, and a great purpose formed, but the story of the great day so soon to follow.
It was broad daylight, and the thick beams of yellow sunlight, came through the pine branches, when some one touched me rudely with his foot, saying : “ Get up, Smith, the general wants you ! ” As I leaped to my feet the rhythmic click of the canteens of marching infantry caught my ear. Already in motion! What could it mean ? In a moment I was mounted and at the side of the general, who sat on his horse by the roadside, as the long line of our troops cheerily, but in silence as directed, poured down the Furnace road. His cap was pulled low over his eyes, and, looking up from under the visor, with lips compressed, indicating the firm purpose within, he nodded to me, and in brief and rapid utterance, without a superfluous word, as though all were distinctly formed in his mind and beyond question, he gave me orders for our wagon and ambulance trains. From the open fields in our rear, at the head of the Catharpin road, all trains were to be moved upon that road to Todd's Tavern, and thence west by interior roads, so that our troops would be between them and the enemy at Chaneellorsville. My orders having been delivered and the trains set in motion, I returned to the site of our night’s bivouac, to find that General Jackson and his staff had followed the marching column.
Slow and tedious is the advance of a mounted officer who has to pass, in narrow wood roads through dense thickets, the packed column of marching infantry, to be recognized all along the line and good-naturedly chaffed by many a gay-spirited fellow: “Say, here's one of Old Jack’s little boys; let him by, boys ! ” in the most patronizing tone. “Have a good breakfast this morning, sonny?” “Better hurry up, or you ’ll catch it for getting behind.” “Tell Old Jack we ’re all a-comin’.” “Don’t let him begin the fuss till we get thar ! ” And so on, until about 3 p. m., after a ride of ten miles of tortuous road, I found the general, seated on a stump by the Brock road, writing this despatch, which, through the courtesy of the Virginia State Library, is given in facsimile [see page 188].
The place here mentioned as Chancellor’s was also known as Dowdall’s Tavern. It was the farm of the Rev. Melzi Chancellor, two miles west of Chaneellorsville, and the Federal force found here and at Talley’s, a mile farther west, was the Eleventh Corps, under General Howard. General Fitz Lee, with cavalry scouts, had advanced until he had view of the position of Howard's eorps, and found them unsuspicious of attack.
STONEWALL JACKSON GOING FORWARD ON THE PLANK ROAD IN ADVANCE OF HIS
LINE OF BATTLE.
fronting Hooker’s advance from Chaneellorsville, near the Tabernacle Church on the Plank road. To meet the whole Army of the Potomac, under Hooker, General Lee had of all arms about 60,000 men. General Longstreet, with part of his corps, was absent below Petersburg. General Lee had two divisions of Longstreet’s corps, Anderson’s, and McLaws’s, and Jackson’s corps, consisting of four divisions, A. P. Hill’s, D. H. Hill’s, commanded by Rodes, Trimble’s, commanded by Colston, and Early’s; and about 170 pieces of field-artillery. The divisions of Anderson and McLaws had been sent from Fredericksburg to meet Hooker’s advance from Chaneellorsville; Anderson on Wednesday, and McLaws (except Barksdale’s brigade, left with Early) on Thursday. At the Tabernacle Church, about four miles east of Chaneellorsville, the opposing forces met and brisk skirmishing began. On Friday, Jackson, reaching Anderson’s position, took command of the Confederate advance, and urged on his skirmish line under Brigadier-General Ram-seur with great vigor. How the muskets rattled along a front of a mile or two, across the unfenced fields, and through the woodlands! What spirit was imparted to the line, and what cheers rolled along its length, when Jackson, and then Lee himself, appeared riding abreast of the line along the Plank road! Slowly but steadily the line advanced, until at nightfall all Federal pickets and skirmishers were driven back upon the body of Hooker’s force at Chaneellorsville.
Here we reached a point, a mile and a half from Hooker’s lines, where a road turns down to the left toward the old Catherine Furnace; and here at the fork of the roads General Lee and General Jackson spent the night, resting on the pine straw, curtained only by the close shadow of the pine forest. A little after nightfall I was sent by General Lee upon an errand to General A. P. Hill, on the old stone turnpike a mile or two north; and returning some time later with information of matters on our right, I found General Jackson retired to rest, and General Lee sleeping at the foot of a tree, covered with his army cloak. As I aroused the sleeper, he slowly sat up on the ground and said, “Ah, Captain, you have returned, have you? Come here and tell me what you have learned on the right.” Laying his hand on me, he drew me down by his side, and, passing his arm around my shoulder, drew me near to him in a fatherly way that told of his warm and kindly heart. When I had related such information as I had secured for him, he thanked me for accomplishing his commission, and then said he regretted that the young men about General Jackson had not relieved him of annoyance, by finding a battery of the enemy which had harassed our advance, adding that the young men of that day were not equal to what they were when he was a young man. Seeing immediately that he was jesting and disposed to rally me, as he often did young officers, I broke away from the hold on me which he tried to retain, and, as he laughed heartily through the stillness of the night, I went off to make a bed of my saddle-blanket, and, with my head in my saddle, near my horse’s feet, was soon wrapped in the heavy slumber of a wearied soldier.
eral J. E. B. Stuart of the movement in force by General Hooker across the Rappahannock upon Chaneellorsville; and during the night of Thursday, April 30tli, General Jackson withdrew his eorps, leaving Early and his division with Barksdale’s brigade to hold the old lines from Hamilton’s Crossing along the rear of Fredericksburg.
By the light of a brilliant moon, at midnight, that passed into an early dawn of dense mist, the troops were moved, by the Old Mine road, out of sight of the enemy, and about 11 A. M. of Friday, May 1st, they reached Anderson’s position, con-
coming to tell me what it was all about. Tell your good general that I am sure he knows what to do. I will meet him at the front very soon.”
It was Sedgwick who had crossed, and, marching along the river front to impress us with his numbers, was now intrenching his line on the river road, under cover of Federal batteries on the north bank.
All day long we lay in the old lines of the action of December preceding, watching the operation of the enemy. Nor did we move through the next day, the 30th of April. During the forenoon of the 29th General Lee had been informed by Gen-
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