Historic Fredericksburg Part 6

Suddenly a Confederate picket shouted "Yankee cavalry," as he rode through the trees along the edge of the Plank Road. Then a volley from somewhere in Lane's North Carolina ranks poured out, and three bullets struck Jackson in the hand and arms. His horse bolted, but was stopped and turned, and Jackson was aided by General Hill to dismount. Almost all of Hill's staff were killed or wounded.

There was trouble getting a litter, and the wounded man tried to walk, leaning on Major Leigh and Lieutenant James Power Smith. The road was filled with men, wounded, retreating, lost from their commands. Hill's lines were forming for a charge and from these Jackson hid his face--they must not know he was wounded. A litter was brought and they bore the sufferer through the thickets until a fusilade pa.s.sed about them and struck down a litter-bearer, so that the General was thrown from the litter his crushed shoulder striking a pine stump, and now for the first time, and last time, he groaned. Again they bore him along the Plank Road until a gun loaded with canister swept that road clear, and the litter-bearers fled, leaving General Jackson lying in the road. And here, with infinite heroism, Lieutenant Smith (see sketch of life) and Major Leigh lay with their bodies over him to shield him from missiles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHERE "STONEWALL JACKSON" DIED

_In the Room on the Lower Floor, the Window of Which Looks Out on the Little Bush, The South's Hero Pa.s.sed Away_]

[Sidenote: _The Death of "Stonewall"_]

Later the wounded officer was gotten to a field headquarters near Wilderness Run, and Dr. Hunter McGuire and a.s.sistants amputated one arm and bound the other arm and hand. Two days later he was removed to Mr.

Chandler's home, near Guineas, where, refusing to enter the mansion because he feared his presence might bring trouble on the occupants should the Federals come, and because the house was crowded with other wounded, he was placed in a small outbuilding, which stands today. The record of his battle against death in this little cabin, his marvelous trust in G.o.d and his uncomplaining days of suffering until he opened his lips to feebly say: "Let us pa.s.s over the river and rest under the shade of the trees" is a beautiful story in itself. He died from pneumonia, which developed when his wounds were beginning to heal. The wounds only would not have killed him and the pneumonia probably resulted from sleeping uncovered on the night before referred to. Mrs. Jackson and their little child, Dr. Hunter McGuire, Lieutenant James Power Smith, his aide-de-camp; Mrs. Beasley and a negro servant were those closest to him in his dying hours.

Hill succeeded Jackson, and in twenty minutes was wounded and Stuart succeeded him, and fighting ceased for the night.

On May 3, General Lee attacked again, uniting his left wing with Stuart's right, and a terrific battle took place that lasted all day, and at its end Hooker's great army was defeated and dispirited, barely holding on in their third line trenches, close to the river; that worse did not befall him was due to events about Fredericksburg. (We may note here that Hooker lost at Chancellorsville 16,751 men while Lee lost about 11,000.)

[Sidenote: _Battle at Salem Church_]

For Sedgwick, with 30,000 men, took Marye's Heights at 1 o'clock of this day, losing about 1,000 men, and immediately General Brooks' division (10,000) marched out the Plank Road, where on each successive crest, Wilc.o.x's Alabamians, with a Virginia battery of two guns (4,000 in all) disputed the way. At Salem Church, General Wilc.o.x planted his troops for a final stand.

Here at Salem Church the battle began when Sedgwick's advance guard, beating its way all day against a handful of Confederates, finally formed late in the afternoon of May 3, prepared to throw their column in a grand a.s.sault against the few Confederates standing sullenly on the pine ridge which crosses the Plank Road at right angles about where Salem Church stands. Less than 4,000 Alabama troops, under General Wilc.o.x, held the line, and against these General Brooks, of Sedgwick's corps, threw his 10,000 men. They rushed across the slopes, met in the thicket, and here they fought desperately for an hour. Reinforcements reached the Confederates at sundown, and next morning General Lee had come with Anderson's and McLaw's commands, and met nearly the whole of Sedgwick's command, charging them late in the afternoon of May 4, and driving them so that, before daybreak, they had retreated across the river. Then, turning back to attack Hooker, he found the latter also crossing the river.

Unique in the history of battles are the two monuments which stand near Salem Church, erected by the State of New Jersey and gallantly uttering praise of friend and foe.

They mark the farthest advance of the New Jersey troops. The first, on the right of the Plank Road as one goes from Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville, is a monument to the Fifteenth New Jersey troops, and on one side is inscribed:

"The survivors of the Fifteenth New Jersey Infantry honor their comrades who bore themselves bravely in this contest, and bear witness to the valor of the men who opposed them on this field."

[Sidenote: _Monument at Salem Church_]

The other monument stands on the ridge at Salem Church, close to the road, and about where the charge of the Twenty-third New Jersey shattered itself against the thin lines of Wilc.o.x's Alabamians. It stands just where these two bodies of troops fought hand to hand amidst a rolling fire of musketry, bathing the ground in blood. In the end the Confederates prevailed, but when the State of New Jersey erected the monument they did not forget their foe. It is the only monument on a battlefield that pays homage alike to friend and enemy.

The monument was unveiled in 1907, Governor E. Bird Gubb, who led the Twenty-third New Jersey, being the princ.i.p.al speaker. Thousands were present at the ceremonies.

On one side of the splendid granite shaft is a tablet, on which is engraved:

"To the memory of our heroic comrades who gave their lives for their country's unity on this battlefield, this tablet is dedicated."

And on the other side another tablet is inscribed:

"To the brave Alabama boys, our opponents on this battlefield, whose memory we honor, this tablet is dedicated."

_Two Great Battles_

_The fearful fire swept Wilderness, and the b.l.o.o.d.y Angle at Spottsylvania_

After Chancellorsville, the Confederate Army invaded the North, and Hooker left the Stafford Hills to follow Lee into Pennsylvania. When Gettysburg was over, both armies came back to face each other along the Rappahannock, twenty to thirty miles above Fredericksburg.

Now, Chancellorsville is in a quiet tract of scrub pine woods, twelve miles west of Fredericksburg. The Plank Road and the Turnpike run toward it and meet there, only to diverge three miles or so west, and six miles still further west (from Chancellorsville) the two roads cross Wilderness Run--the Turnpike crosses near Wilderness Tavern, the Plank Road about five miles southward.

Two miles from Wilderness Tavern on the Turnpike is Mine Run. Here General Meade, now commanding the Northern Army, moved his forces, and on December 1, 1863, the two armies were entrenched. But after skirmishes, Meade, who had started toward Richmond, decided not to fight and retreated with the loss of 1,000 men.

In the spring General Grant, now commander-in-chief, began to move from the vicinity of Warrenton, and on May 4, 1864, his vast army was treading the shadowed roads through the Wilderness. It was one of the greatest armies that has ever been engaged in mobile warfare; for, by official records, Grant had 141,000 men.

Lee's army--he had now 64,000 men--was moving in three columns from the general direction of Culpeper.

Grant intended to get between Lee and Richmond, but he failed, for the Confederate commander met him in the tangled Wilderness, and one of the most costly battles of the war began--a battle than can barely be touched on here, for, fought as it was in the woods, the lines wavering and shifting and the attack now from one side, now from the other, it became so involved that a volume is needed to tell the story.

It is sufficient to say that the first heavy fighting began along the Turnpike near Wilderness Run, on May 4 and 5, and that shortly afterwards the lines were heavily engaged on each side of, and parallel to, the Plank Road. Northward, on the Germanna road, charges and countercharges were made, and on May 6, Sedgwick's line finally broke and gave ground before a spirited charge by part of Ewell's corps--the brigades of Gordon, Johnston and Pegram doubling up that flank.

The Northern left (on the Plank Road), which had been driven back once, rallied on the morning of May 6, and in a counter-attack threatened disaster to the Confederates under Heth and Wilc.o.x who (this was in the forenoon) were driven back by a terrific charge from the Federal lines near Brock Road. Expected for hours, Longstreet's march-worn men came up at this critical moment along Plank Road. Heading this column that had been moving since midnight was a brigade of Texans and toward these General Lee rode, calling:

"What troops are these?"

The first answer was simply:

"Texans, General."

[Sidenote: _"General Lee to the Rear"_]

"My brave Texas boys, you must charge. You _must_ drive those people back," the Confederate commander said, so earnestly that the Texas troops began to form while Lee personally rallied the men who by now were pouring back from the front. Then as Longstreet's men began to go forward Lee rode with them until the line paused while the cry arose from all directions "General Lee, go to the rear. Lee to the rear." Officers seized his bridle. "If you will go to the rear, General," said an officer waving his hand toward the lines "these men will drive 'those people' back." His promise was made good, for as Lee drew back, Longstreet's men--General Longstreet himself had now reached the head of the column--rushed through the woods, driving the advancing Federals back, and piercing their lines in two places. Before a second and heavier a.s.sault the whole line fell back to entrenchments in front of Brock Road, and soon the junction of that road and Plank Road was within Longstreet's reach, and the Northern line threatened with irretrievable disaster.

And now, for the second time, just as a great victory was at hand, the Southern troops shot their leader. General Longstreet was advancing along the Plank Road with General Jenkins, at the head of the latter's troops, when--mistaken for a body of the enemy--they were fired into. General Longstreet was seriously wounded, General Jenkins killed, and the forward movement was checked for several hours, during which the Federals reinforced the defenses at the junction.

[Sidenote: _Grant's Advance Defeated_]

At night of May 6 Grant had been defeated of his purpose, his army driven back over a mile along a front of four miles, and terrific losses inflicted--for he lost in the Wilderness 17,666 men, while the Confederate losses were 10,641. General Hays (Federal) was killed near the junction of Plank and Brock Roads.

Fire now raged through the tangled pines and out of the smoke through the long night came the screams of the wounded, who helplessly waited the coming of the agonizing flames. Thousands of mutilated men lay there for hours and hours feeling the heated breath of that which was coming to devour them, helpless to move, while the fire swept on through the underbrush and dead leaves.

The battle had no result. Grant was badly defeated, but, unlike Burnside, Hooker and Meade, he did not retreat across the Rappahannock. Instead, pursuing his policy and figuring that 140,000 men against 60,000 men could fight until they killed the 60,000, themselves loosing two to one, and still have 20,000 left, he moved "by the flank."

By the morning of May 8 Grant's army, moving by the rear, was reaching Spotsylvania Court House by the Brock Road and the Chancellorsville Road.

General Lee has no road to move on. But on the night of May 7 his engineers cut one through the Wilderness to Shady Grove Church and his advance guard moving over this intercepted Warren's corps two miles from the Court House and halted the advance. By the night of May 8, Lee's whole army was in a semi-circle, five or six miles in length, about the Court House. The center faced northward and crossed the Fredericksburg Road.

Grant attacked feebly on May 10, and again on May 11, and because of the lightness of these attacks Lee believed Grant would again move "by the flank" toward Richmond. But before dawn on May 12 Hanc.o.c.k's corps struck the apex of a salient just beyond the Court House, breaking the lines and capturing General Edward Johnson and staff and 1,200 men.

[Sidenote: _The Day of "b.l.o.o.d.y Angle"_]

In this salient, now known as the "b.l.o.o.d.y Angle," occurred one of the most terrible hand-to-hand conflicts of modern warfare. From dawn to dawn, in the area of some 500 acres which the deep and well-fortified trenches of the angle enclosed, more than 60,000 men fought that day. Artillery could hardly be used, because of the mixture of the lines, but nowhere in the war was such rifle fire known. The Northern forces broke the left of the salient, took part of the right, and, already having the apex, pushed their troops through. The lines swayed, advancing and retreating all day.

Toward evening the gallant Gordan advancing from base line of the Angle, with his whole command pouring in rifle fire, but mostly using the bayonet, drove back the Federals slowly, and at night the Confederates held all except the apex. But General Lee abandoned the salient after dark, and put his whole force in the base line. Here General Grant hesitated to attack him.