Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 02 (of 15), American (2)Morris, Charles
History
Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 02 (of 15), American (2)
Morris, Charles
United States -- History
"From General Stuart I now received the first intimation of the heavy
calamity which had befallen us by the wounding of Jackson. After having
instructed his men to fire at everything approaching from the direction
of the enemy, in his eagerness to reconnoitre the position of the
Federals, and entirely forgetting his own orders, he had been riding
with his staff-officers outside our pickets, when, on their return,
being mistaken for the enemy, the little party were received by a South
Carolina regiment with a volley that killed or wounded nearly every man
of them and laid low our beloved Stonewall himself. The Federals
advancing at the same time, a severe skirmish ensued, in the course of
which one of the bearers of the litter on which the general was being
carried was killed, and Jackson fell heavily to the ground, receiving
soon afterward a second wound. For a few minutes, in fact, the general
was in the hands of the enemy, but his men, becoming aware of his
perilous position, rushed forward, and, speedily driving back the
advancing foe, carried their wounded commander to the rear."
Jackson received three balls, one in the right hand and two in the left
arm, one of these shattering the bone just below the shoulder and
severing an artery. He was borne to the Wilderness tavern, where a
Confederate hospital had been established, and there his arm was
amputated. Eight days after receiving his wounds, on the 10th of May, he
died, an attack of pneumonia being the chief cause of his death. His
last words were, as a smile of ineffable sweetness passed over his pale
face, "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the
trees."
Thus died the man who was justly named the "right hand" of General Lee,
and whose death converted his last great victory into a serious disaster
for the Confederate cause, the loss of a leader like Stonewall Jackson
being equivalent to the destruction of an army.
_JOHN MORGAN'S FAMOUS RAID._
The romance of war dwells largely upon the exploits of partisan leaders,
men with a roving commission to do business on their own account, and in
whose ranks are likely to gather the dare-devils of the army, those who
love to come and go as they please, and leave a track of adventure and
dismay behind them. There were such leaders in both armies during the
Civil War, and especially in that of the South; and among the most
daring and successful of them was General John H. Morgan, whose famous
raid through Indiana and Ohio it is our purpose here to describe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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