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102 9 Stonewall Jackson’s Discontent Alexander R. Boteler, Colonel, C.S.A. among the Confederate leaders in the late CivilWar,no one except perhaps the peerless and lamented [General Robert E.] Lee is remembered more affectionately throughout the South than [Lieutenant General Thomas J.] Stonewall Jackson. It would be strange, indeed, if this was not the case, for when we consider how unselfishly he devoted himself to the cause he espoused, how successfully he defended it, how calmly he encountered dangers, how resolutely he overcame difficulties, how consistently he maintained his Christian character , and how singularly free he was from the ordinary frailties of humanity, it is not at all surprising that the people with whom he lived and for whom he died should have enshrined his memory in their very hearts. But it is not my purpose to attempt a eulogy of Stonewall Jackson. That is now a needless task, for his name, known to all men, is numbered with those “which in themselves are a history and a consecration.” The object of this article is merely to give a circumstantial statement of facts connected with the tender of his resignation from the army in the first winter of the war. After the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861, at which Jackson and his famous brigade received, in a baptism of blood, their significant sobriquet “Stonewall,” he remained on duty with the Provisional Army near Centreville until the following November when, having been previously promoted to the rank of major general, he was assigned to the command of the Valley District. This was a separate military jurisdiction,extending from the crest of the Alleghenies , along the right bank of the Potomac to its confluence with the Shenandoah at Harper’s Ferry. Although under the supervision of General Joseph E. Johnston, commander-in-chief of the Confederate forces on both sides of the Blue Ridge,it was virtually an independent command.In illustration of the spirit in which he received the appointment, it is stated by a clerical friend who happened at that time to be with him in his tent that, after handing him the order 04.101-196_Cozz 12/2/03, 8:47 AM 102 to read, he remarked, with characteristic candor and simplicity, “Such a degree of public confidence and respect as puts in one’s power to serve his country, ought to be accepted and prized; but, apart from that, promotion is a temptation and a trouble. Had this communication not come as an order, I should instantly have declined it and continued in command of my brave old brigade.” On November 4 he wrote to his wife as follows: “I have received orders to proceed to Winchester.My trust is in God for the defense of that country.I shall have great labor to perform; but, through the blessing of an ever-kind Heavenly Father, I trust He will enable me, and other instrumentalities, to accomplish it. I hope you feel more gratitude to God than pride or elation at my promotion . Continue to pray for me, that I may live to glorify God more and more, by serving him and my country.” When he arrived at Winchester, where he established his headquarters, the only available troops he found in theValley were three fragmentary brigades of local militia under Brigadier Generals [G. S.] Meem, [J. H.] Carson,and [E.W.] Boggs, a few companies of imperfectly armed cavalry under the heroic [Colonel Turner] Ashby and [Robert] Chew’s Battery, with its famous little Blakely guns that did such deadly execution in subsequent campaigns.Appreciating the importance of time and activity in preparing for the emergencies of war,he took prompt measures to increase his effective force. In this he was so far successful that before December the skeleton regiments of his militia were filled up to an aggregate of three thousand muskets, and he had been joined by his brave old Stonewall Brigade, consisting of the Second, Fifth, Twenty-seventh, and Thirty -third Virginia regiments. Soon afterward the brigade commanded by Colonel William B.Taliaferro,composed of the First Georgia,Third Arkansas,Twenty -third and Thirty-seventhVirginia regiments, reached him from the Army of Western Virginia; so that, by Christmas, when [Brigadier General William W.] Loring followed with the brigades of Colonel William Gilham and Brigadier General S. R. Anderson, which were the last and largest, but by no means the best, installment of his reinforcements, Jackson...

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