maining one (Colonel Cummings') on the left of this. All the regiments had instructions to charge the enemy with the bayonet so soon as he should appear over the crest, and within about fifty yards. Apprehensive lest my flank should be turned, I sent orders to the colonels of cavalry to secure them. The enemy continued to advance, but not being able to force our centre, its batteries inclined to the right, evidently for the purpose of securing an oblique fire upon my front; but in so doing one of them approached so near my left regiment, that the Colonel by charging with the bayonet captured the guns. But in consequence of the severe small-arm fire of the enemy he was forced to abandon them; but the battery was of no further service during the action, in consequence of the cannoneers having been driven off and the horses killed. Finally, the onward movement of the enemy brought them so near my battery and central regiments as to call for the free use of the bayonet, and I accordingly ordered the charge to be made, which cut the enemy's centre, and thus separated his wings. A few moments more, and the field was essentially in the possession of the brigade, and of other troops; though both my flanks were turned by Federal forces. But by reposting the artillery in rear, and giving a few shots, taken in connection with the small-arm fire of other troops on my left, the victory was made complete. In the enemy's first battery there were two rifled guns and one twelve-pounder howitzer. The credit of taking these, so far as to prevent their being used by the enemy, belongs exclusively to Colonel Cummings' regiment. There were six other rifled guns which fell into the hands of the brigade, and a few other troops, in the final charge.

Through the blessing of Providence, my brigade passed our retreating forces, met the thus far victorious enemy, held him in check until reënforcements arrived, and finally pierced his centre, and thus gave a fatal blow.

I am more than satisfied with the part performed by my brigade during the action.

You must excuse my 66 not having written this letter in reply to yours" earlier, but a slight wound (a broken finger) requires me to keep watching the flies all the time. I received the wound during the last charge.

*

In reading about the recent battle, you must observe that the term "left of our line" is used in two senses-one meaning the left of our fortified line, and the other the left of our line of battle. The battle was fought principally to the left of the fortified line-that is, the armies in open battle met and fought there.

*

*

You will find that when my report shall be published, that the 1st brigade was to our army what the Imperial Guard was to the First Napoleon—that, through the blessing of God, it met the thus far victorious enemy and turned the fortunes of the day.

Please let me hear from you soon.

Your much attached friend

T. J. JACKSON.

II.

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER WRITTEN BY CAPTAIN W. B. LEIGH, A FEW DAYS AFTER THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.

* Jackson's corps had already commenced the flank movement of which you have read. D. H. Hill's division, under Brigadier-General Rodes, had gotten out of our way, and it had been followed by Trimble's division, under Brigadier-General Colston.

We left the plank road at a point so near the enemy that his balls whistled over our heads, and, marching from nine o'clock in the morning till five o'clock in the evening-a distance of ten or twelve miles, through a dense wilderness-formed ourselves at the other end of our détour, on the right flank of the enemy, and not more than three or four miles from the point at which we left the plank road. A part of our march was along a road in plain view of the enemy, and under fire from one of his batteries, and why he did not attack us I can hardly conjecture. I have understood that he believed we were in full retreat to the southward. It is certain they never guessed our real design, for their right flank was assailed by us when they so little expected an attack, that many of their troops were cooking their suppers. Our manœuvre seems to me to have been one of the boldest, and its results prove it to have been one of the most brilliant recorded in the annals of war. Arrived at the point of our destination, and having driven in the enemy's pickets, General Jackson made his dispositions for the attack. My position on General A. P. Hill's staff gave me an opportunity to learn the plan. It consisted simply in deploying D. H. Hill's and Colston's divisions on each side of the old turnpike road leading to Chancellorsville, with one brigade of (I believe) D. H. Hill's division deployed across the plank road, and the remaining brigades of A. P. Hill's division marching by flank down the old turnpike.

Aides-de-camp and couriers were galloping up and down the road, and through the woods, and across the fields, for some time before all the arrangements for the attack were complete. At length the troops were ordered forward, and in a little time the dropping fire of skirmishers announced their approach to the enemy. In a few minutes volley after volley of musketry, intermingled occasionally with the deep boom of the cannon, told us that the battle had begun. The woods in front of us seemed filled with combatants, but the musketry did not equal in volume or extent that which I have heard elsewhere-Gaines' Mill, for instance. The sounds gradually receded before us; our troops were evidently driving the enemy before them. This continued from about six o'clock in the evening, when the attack commenced, until about half-past nine o'clock.

In the mean time our troops had driven the enemy about three or four

miles toward Chancellorsville; they had run like sheep on our approach, throwing away their arms, knapsacks, haversacks, and every thing of which they could divest themselves. They had been completely surprised, having thrown up intrenchments to meet an attack from the front; but, as we assailed their right flank, their intrenchments were useless, and they abandoned them. They had, it is true, barricaded the roads, and some of their intrenchments were in the right direction to meet our attack; but neither barricades nor intrenchments enabled them to delay our progress. Our troops marched in line of battle through woods filled with thick undergrowth, and across several ravines, at a rapid pace for several hours. The thick woods, the combat, and the coming on of darkness, had deranged our lines, and brigades, and even divisions, had gotten mixed together. In this state of things we nevertheless pressed forward until we reached the brow of the declivity opposite to that on which the tavern, etc., known as Chancellorsville, is situated. Here we were met by the fire of a battery posted so as to enfilade the road, and General Jackson and General Hill rode forward for the purpose, as I suppose, of making arrangements for taking this battery. I accompanied General Hill as he rode down the road toward the enemy's battery. At one point we were subjected to a severe fire from the battery; but it slackened after awhile, and we pursued our course. We soon passed our most advanced lines, when suddenly a musketry fire opened to our right in the woods. From whom this fire proceeded I have never learned; but it seemed to serve as a signal for the enemy's battery to resume its fire. In an instant the road was swept by a storm of grape and canister; the shells burst above, around, and amongst

us.

General Hill, and his staff following him, turned back toward our lines, and, as we approached them, we abandoned the road-which was, as I have said, enfiladed by the enemy's battery-and turned off to our right into the woods. Whether it was that our troops mistook us for a body of Federal cavalry, or for some other reason, I do not know; but as we approached within fifteen or twenty paces of our lines, we were received with a blaze of fire. This alone-without the fire from the enemy's battery, which still continuedrendered our situation a most perilous one; and it seemed as if we were all doomed to destruction. I perceived that my only hope of escape was in getting to the ground, and lying so that I exposed as little of my person as possible to the fire of our men. I accordingly endeavored to dismount, but my horse was rearing and plunging so violently that I could not do so. Just at this time he was shot, as I judged from his frantic leaps, and whether he threw me off of him, or whether I managed to get off myself, I am unable to say; but I found myself lying on the ground, and he rushed off. I received a smart blow on the side of my head, and put up my hand to feel if I was wounded, but I found I was unhurt. I lay on the ground for a short time, until our troops discovered their error and ceased their fire, and then rose. I saw a number of dead and dying men and horses around me, and a horse

standing near me; I immediately mounted him, and rode about the woods to see if I could find General Hill. I soon found him. We came out into the road together at the point at which we had left it; and he informed me-or I heard some one say-that he was going forward to see General Jackson, who had been wounded. I perceived that almost all of his staff had disappeared: Captain Forbes had been mortally wounded, Captain Howard had disappeared, and, as I have since learned, was taken prisoner by the enemy; one of the couriers had been killed, another mortally wounded; another had disappeared, and is still missing; Captain Taylor had his horse shot under him; Captains Adams and Hill alone had been neither wounded nor dismountedthe latter was absent on duty when we were fired upon.

We soon came up to where General Jackson was, and found him lying by the side of the road under a little pine tree. General Hill directed me to go for a surgeon and an ambulance, and I hastened off for that purpose. I had not gone more than one hundred yards, or thereabouts, when I met General Pender marching up the road with his brigade. I told him that General Hill had sent me for a surgeon and an ambulance for General Jackson. He said there was an assistant-surgeon, Dr. Barr, with his command, who was called for and speedily appeared. Dr. Barr said that there was no ambulance within a mile of the place, but that he had a litter with him. I hastened with Dr. Barr and the litter-bearers back to where I had left General Jackson, and also carried with me Captain Smith, General Jackson's aide-de-camp, who had ridden up, inquiring for the General. We had been with the General but a short time when the enemy's battery again commenced to fire upon us. My horse -the second horse-was shot, and I had to let him go. General Jackson rose and walked a few yards, leaning on my arm. His left arm had been broken above the elbow, and a ball had passed through his right hand. He was, nevertheless, calm, and did not utter a groan. We had not gone far, when, at my suggestion, he laid down on the litter, which we took up and were carrying him along, when the cannonade became so terrific that the litterbearers abandoned the litter, leaving no one with General Jackson but Captain Smith and myself. We laid the General down in the middle of the road, and lay down ourselves beside him. The road was perfectly swept by grape and canister a few minutes before it had been crowded with men and horses; and now I could see no man or beast upon it but ourselves. After a little time General Jackson again rose and walked a short distance to the rear, turning aside off the road-partly because the enemy's fire was mainly aimed at the road, and partly because the road was again being encumbered with infantry and artillery, and it was easier to go through the woods. But he soon became faint, and we again put him in the litter. I could not induce any of the men whom I met to act as litter-bearers (and, by the way, I had myself carried the litter on after the General, when he undertook to walk a second time), until I told them it was General Jackson whom we wished them to

carry. This I was reluctant to do, as we wished to conceal from the troops, as long as possible, the fact of his having been wounded. As soon, however, as I mentioned his name, I found every one willing to aid us. We proceeded in this way for about half a mile. As we were going through the woods, one of the litter-bearers got his foot tangled in a grapevine and fell, letting General Jackson fall on his broken arm. For the first time he groaned, and most piteously he must have suffered agonies; but he soon recovered his compos ure, and we again took the road to avoid a repetition of such an accident. It was a long time before we got out of the space on which the fire of the battery seemed to be concentrated; as long as we were within it, the shells burst around us thick and fast; they seemed to fall like showers of falling

stars.

At length I met Dr. Whitehead, who, as I have since learned, had been summoned when General Jackson was first found wounded. Dr. Whitehead had procured an ambulance, in which the General was placed. At this time he complained of great pain in the palm of his left hand. He had before repeatedly asked for spirits, of which we could procure none for a long time; but at length Dr. Whitehead got a bottle. At Mr. Melzi Chancellor's we stopped to get some water for the General, and here we were joined by Dr. McGuire, chief surgeon of our corps, who took charge of him.

III.

NOTE TO PAGE 128.

The period of the incident here related is incorrectly given. Ashby's horse was shot on Jackson's last retreat, just before the battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic. The date of the event was accurately stated in the original MS. of this work; but a very gallant officer who took a prominent part in these scenes assured the writer that it occurred on the first retreat-his memory misleading him. As Jackson's report was not then at hand, the alteration was made. Circumstances connected with the publication of the work prevent a remoulding of the statement; this note will sufficiently guard the reader from an erroneous impression. The misstatement is not a serious one; but truth is always important.

THE END.

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