The Deadliest Single Shot of the War

   The Civil War looks different in different parts of the country. The guerrilla actions in Missouri and Western North Carolina are a far cry from the large battles waged in North Georgia and Central Virginia. The same is true for the naval actions. Ships on blockade duty off Charleston Harbor are far different from the ironclad gunboats that steamed along the Mississippi River.

   In 1861, the Federal government began building special ironclads that were able to navigate the Mississippi River. The USS Mound City was one of those ironclads. Constructed in Mound City, Illinois, in 1861, she was 175 feet long in total and drew five feet of water, with a speed of nine miles per hour. Her armament consisted of thirteen cannons overall: thee 9-inch, six 32-pounders, and four rifled 42-pounders, with a crew complement of 175 men.[1]

   The Mound City steamed up and down the Mississippi River.

USS Mound City.

    Typically, an ironclad would escort a mortar boat down the river to bombard Fort Pillow.  On May 10, 1862, the Confederate River Defense Fleet attacked at Plum Point Bend. Most of the Federal ironclads did not have sufficient steam to maneuver. Three Confederate vessels, the CSS General Brag, General Sumter, and General Sterling Price, rammed the USS Cincinnati; the vessel later sank. The USS Carondelet and Mound City arrived, and the CSS Earl Van Dorn rammed the Mound City, opening a four-foot hole in the Federal ironclad. The captain was able to run the ship ashore before it sank. The timber and cotton-clad rams of the Confederate fleet were able to sink two ironclads with no losses. They moved off before the rest of the Federal gunboats arrived.[2]

   The Mound City was repaired and rejoined the squadron. A month later, the Mound City took part in an expedition up the White River in Arkansas to destroy Confederate gun emplacements located at St. Charles, Arkansas. This would allow Federal vessels to resupply a Union army under Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis. Curtis was attempting to capture Little Rock but was stuck at Batesville due to a lack of supplies. Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman constructed fortifications near St. Charles to stop such an action. Besides the two artillery batteries, three ships were scuttled in the river as obstructions. Additional logs were floated down the river and driven into the bottoms to further impede ships. The main battery consisted of two rifled 32-pounders taken from the CSS Pontchartrain. The secondary position contained two, 3-inch Parrott rifles. Cannons were removed the CSS Maurepas before it was scuttled, and added to the defenses. Overall, the Confederate force numbered just seven cannons and 114 crewmembers, including 34 men from the 29^th Arkansas Infantry.[3]

   Joseph Fry, a former U.S. Naval Officer, the commander of the CSS Maurepas, was in overall command.

   The Federal expedition was composed of several ships – the timberclads USS Conestoga, New National, and White Cloud. Aboard the New National and the Jacob were members of the 46^th Indiana Infantry. Several miles below St. Charles, two scouting parties, one on the land and one on the river, were sent forward. They found the Confederate defenses but could not determine their strength.[4]

   On the morning of June 17, Federal naval vessels began moving up the river. The Mound City was in the lead. Confederate infantry, with a 12-pound howitzer, were sent as sharpshooters along the riverbank. When within two and a half miles out from the defenses, Confederates were spotted and the Mound City opened fire, scattering the pickets. The Federal infantry disembarked on the shore, and, with skirmishers posted, began to advance.[5]

   The Mound City began dueling with the shore batteries. Confederates were able to do much damage against the ironclad, even before they fired what appears to be the deadliest single shot of the entire war.  The Mound City moved to steam past the first battery when a solid shot struck near a gun port, killing three or four gunners. Then, the shot ruptured one of the ship’s boilers, filling the ship with scalding steam. Of the approximately 175 men on board, 125 were killed and over twenty others were wounded. The Mound City floated down the river and ran aground. Fry demanded that the remaining men onboard surrender. When they refused, the Confederates opened fire, killing several.[6]

   Additional Federal gunboats moved up into the position, and the Federal infantry positioned themselves to storm the works. With the Federals just fifty yards away, the Confederates abandoned their works. Twenty-nine Confederates, including Fry, were captured. Eight others were killed during the battle. The Mound City was towed downstream and the Federals began working on clearing the obstructions from the river. Many of the dead Federals were buried in a mass grave near the lower battery. The Federals destroyed the earthworks, transported the smaller cannons back to Memphis, and spiked the larger cannons, dumping them in the river.[7]

   What became of the USS Mound City? She was repaired and served in the Vicksburg Campaign, and later, the Red River Expedition. After the war, she was decommissioned and sold at public auction on November 9, 1865. The vessel was broken up in 1866.[8]

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[1] Mirza, Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks, 100.

[2] Symonds, The Civil War at Sea, 111.

[3] Chatelain, Defending the Arteries of Rebellion, 132, 181; Bearrs, “White River Expedition, June 10-July 15, 1862.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly, 21 (4): 315-318.

[4] Bearrs, “White River Expedition, June 10-July 15, 1862.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly, 21 (4): 312-314.

[5] Bearrs, “White River Expedition, June 10-July 15, 1862.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly, 21 (4): 319-20.

[6] Barnhart, “The Deadliest Shot,” Civil War Times, 45 (March/April 2006) 30-36

[7] Barnhart, “The Deadliest Shot,” Civil War Times, 45 (March/April 2006) 30-36; Hubbs, “A Rebel Shot Causes “Torture and Despair,” Naval History, 16 (2):46-50.

[8] https://www.navsource.org/archives/09/86/86066.htm

Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia

 

It has been a whirlwind past three weeks. Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was released on April 3, 2025. I have signed, packaged, and shipped about 200 books, I have presented several in- person programs, and I have been interviewed on several different podcasts and vlogs. The reception has been fantastic!

I was recently featured on the Emerging Civil War podcast and the Unfiltered Historian, both of which you can check out below. Also, if you would like to order a signed copy, please visit my website here.

Emerging Civil War podcast

The Unfiltered History vlog

Confederate Sutlers and the Army of Northern Virginia

   The year 2020 was a challenging time for research. I was trying to finish Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virgina. Most libraries were shut down. While I have several Francis Lord books, I did not have his volume on sutlers, and I really did not want to buy a copy. A library just forty-five minutes away had a copy, but I was not able to view it, as the library was closed for an unknown time. So I ordered the book. I had been warned that the information regarding sutlers catering to Confederate regiments was slim. That was very true. Lord spends eighty-nine pages on Federal sutlers and just three on Confederate sutlers. “Records of Confederate sutlers are extremely fragmentary,” Lord writes, and states “most Confederate units never had sutlers.” Lord then takes the next two pages to talk about Southern patent medicines.[1]

   Lord does take about two-thirds of a page to list twenty-six sutlers attached to Confederate regiments, and even one gun boat. This is in comparison to over ten pages of sutlers attached to Federal regiments.[2]

   Confederate regulations stated that every military post could have one sutler, “appointed by the Secretary of War. . . and approved by the commanding officer.” Regiments not attached to a post were also allowed one sutler for every regiment, also appointed by the commanding officer, and subject to the approval of “the general or other officer in command.” Sutlers were not allowed to have “ardent spirits, or other intoxicating drinks,” let others operate their business, or lend on credit more than one-third of a soldier’s pay.[3] 

Federal sutler outside of Petersburg in 1864.

   Is Lord’s assertion, that most Confederate regiments never had sutlers, true? Maybe there is some type of register for Confederate regiments comparable to that which Lord found for Federal regiments, although he confessed that the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James have good records, while the Army of the Tennessee and other western Federal regiments were not as well represented. To find mentions of those merchants who catered to Confederate regiments, we have to search their letters home.[4]

   Sutlers first made their appearance in soldiers’ letters, at least in the east, in the fall of 1861. A member of the 5^th Alabama Infantry noted that a brigade sutler was stationed nearby. The sutler was “crowded with men eager to buy.” However, the sutler “Charges double price for every thing he sells, yet is busy all the while.”[5] As inflation and scarcity rose, so did the prices that sutlers charged. Captain R.E. Parks, 12^th Alabama, noted that as the men were paid, the sutler’s wagons were being patronized. “Ginger cakes, porous and poor, cost 25 cents each. Vegetables and fruits are out of reach of the privates.”[6] In December 1863, Parks noted that after their sutler brought oysters for $20.00 a gallon, that he “couldn’t be a sutler. Their prices seem cruel and extortionate.”[7]

 

   Soldiers could buy a wide variety of items. A member of the 9^th Alabama recorded buying two chickens in November 1861; in July 1862, a member of the 15^th Georgia was purchasing fruit pies and loaves of bread; also in July 1862, a soldier in the 53^rd Georgia wrote of his regimental sutler having coffee, sugar, butter, chickens, and cabbage; right before the battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, the regimental sutler of the 5^th Alabama arrived, and the men were able to get “some nice cakes & Candy. . . suag & coffey…” That sutler returned to the regiment on January 2, 1863, and the soldiers “hastened up to his wagons & bought a number of sugar cakes & ginger cakes which all hands pitched into, & I ate a good many before getting up. Our mess... invested $3 each in cakes principally & some apples."[8]

   While sutlers were forbidden to sell liquor, some did. A soldier in the 5^th Alabama noted in mid-January 1864 that they now had two sutlers in camp, “and one of them has gotten half the regiment drunk today.”[9] The hospital steward of the 4^th Virginia Infantry noted that the Provost Marshall had confiscated one sutler’s post when a search yielded twenty gallons of liquor hidden in sacks of rice and corn. The liquor was sent to the hospital for their use.[10]

Ralph H. McKim, 2^nd Virginia Cavalry, wrote that while on the Shenandoah Valley Campaign in 1864, he had to “rebuke the sutlers for selling their merchandise on the Lord’s Day.”[11] One member of the 17th Virginia Infantry recalled after the war that the regimental sutler once cleared $6,000 in one day.[12]

   Some sutlers served as banks to soldiers. Ted Barclay, 4^th Virginia Infantry, wrote home that “Mr. Trenton, the sutler of the 27^th [Virginia] Reg.,” had lent him $20 in September 1862.[13] Sutlers could also help transport boxes for soldiers – probably for a fee. A member of the 26^th Virginia noted in January 1863 that his regimental sutler had brought his “old blank trunk” from Richmond to the regiment’s camp.[14] Other sutlers could be generous. Chaplain William E. Wiatt was able to get one sutler to donate $2.00 “for the Fred[ericksburg] sufferers.”[15]

   Where did sutlers get their wares that they sold to the soldiers? Usually, they came from merchants in Richmond. Chas. Bayne & Co ran an advertisement in August 1861, telling the public that they carried an assortment of cigars and manufactured tobacco, with “Special attention paid to orders from Sutlers and Merchants who are supplying the army.”[16] G.B. Stacy advertised that he was selling “The Confederate Mattress” to those soldiers opposed to sleeping on the hard floor.[17] Lee and Durham were selling not only tobacco, but soap, sugar, tea, raisins, matches, Mustard, paper, pencils, pens, and hair and tooth brushes.[18] Spense and Garey were selling waterproof items, like coats, blankets, leggings, haversacks and knapsacks.[19] L.D. Brigg’s Bakery sold Crackers, cakes, Gingerbread, and Spicenuts.[20] Johnson and White advertised that they were selling York River Oysters, in cans, or by the firkin or barrel.[21]

   Wagons were used to transport the wares close to the camps. At times, the sutlers would be set up close to their regiments. In November 1861, a correspondent for a Richmond newspaper noted that at Manassas, several “Board shanties roughly thrown together” were being used as sutler shops.[22]

   This article primarily deals with sutlers connected to the Army of Northern Virginia. Was the experience the same in the Army of Tennessee? 

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[1] Lord, Civil War Sutlers and Their Wares, 90.

[2] Lord, Civil War Sutlers and Their Wares, 131.

[3] Confederate Regulations (1862), 22-3.

[4] Lord, Civil War Sutlers and Their Wares, 95.

[5] Hubbs, Voices from Company D, 56.

[6] Parks, “War Diary of Captain R. E. Park,” SHSP 26:9.

[7] Parks, “Diary of Capt. R. E. Park,” SHSH 26:26.

[8] Carter, Welcome the Hour of Conflict, 107; Ivy W. Duggan Diary, UGA, 73; Ronald, ed. The Stilwell Letters, 21, 22; Hubbs, Voices from Company D, 123, 131.

[9] Hubbs, Voices from Company D, 139.

[10] Roper, Repairing the “March of Mars,” 419.

[11] McKin, A Soldier’s Recollection, 237.

[12] Glasgow, Northern Virginia’s Own, 111.

[13] Barclay, Ted Barclay, Liberty Hall Volunteers, 107.

[14] Fleet, Green Mount, 194.

[15] Wiatt, Confederate Chaplain, 21.

[16] Richmond Enquirer, August 20, 1861.

[17] Richmond Dispatch, November 15, 1861.

[18] Richmond Dispatch, November 26, 1861, January 11, 1862.

[19] Richmond Dispatch, January 1, 1862.

[20] Richmond Dispatch, January 10, 1862.

[21] Richmond Dispatch, January 17, 1862.

[22] Richmond Dispatch, November 1, 1861.

The 3rd Georgia Infantry Commandeer Breckinridge’s Train

   In reading through Jefferson Davis’s papers, there is an interesting discussion regarding a train. It is April 1865. Davis and most of the Confederate cabinet have moved from Greensboro to Charlotte. John C. Breckinridge, Secretary of War, had caught up with Davis in Greensboro. As the group makes its way across the piedmont of North Carolina, Breckinridge is called away to meet with Joseph E. Johnston as Johnston is meeting with William T. Sherman at the Bennett farm outside Durham.

John C. Breckinridge (LOC)

   Davis, who had reached Charlotte on April 18, was anxious for Breckinridge to rejoin him. While Federal cavalry had wrecked most of the railroad around Greensboro and Salisbury, it was still possible to get trains almost to Salisbury. Breckinridge telegraphs Davis from Salisbury on April 20: “We have had great difficulty in reaching this place. The train from Charlotte which was to have met us here had not arrived. No doubt seized by stragglers to convey them to that point. I have telegraphed the commanding officer at Charlotte to send a locomotive and one car without delay. The impressed train should be met before reaching the depot and the ringleaders severely dealt with.” Davis responds: “Train will start for you at midnight with guard.”[1]

   Now, the rest of the story…

   In 1916, W. Frank Marsh was in Charlotte, reading a historical marker that described the last meeting of the Confederate cabinet in the city. Marsh, a member of the 3^rd Georgia infantry, had made it all the way through the war, surrendering at Appomattox Court House. “We were not able to secure transportation back home, so many of us started to walk through Virginia and North Carolina, half starved and some of us almost barefooted. We reached a point past China Grove [Rowan County] coming into Charlotte, some two hundred of us, hungry and sad and a motley lot all bent upon getting back into the country where we had our homes. We came upon a train destined for China Grove to bring back General Breckinridge from there to the conference of the Confederate Congress in Charlotte [the Confederate Congress never met in Charlotte, only the Cabinet], but we took possession of that train and demanded that the conductor take us to Charlotte. He refused and said he was under orders to get General Breckinridge and take him to Charlotte as fast as possible. We insisted and took charge of the train with the result that we told the conductor he could detach the engine and tender and go to China Grove to get the general, who would have to ride upon the woodpile in the tender.”

   “We remained in charge of the cars until the engine came back from China Grove with the General riding in the tender and I guess he was mad, but we hooked onto the cars and were brought in toward Charlotte. Finally, the conductor announced we were in Charlotte, and we all got out of the train only to find that we were not in Charlotte but in a bull pen some half a mile or more from the town and all held prisoners. The home guards had been ordered out in Charlotte and they had us in charge, while they took away our three officers and locked them up in Charlotte for failing to keep the soldiers in subjection instead of letting them confiscate the train.”

   “The next morning we were all released and going into Charlotte found that they had released our officers. Something to eat in those times looked bigger to our eyes than a gold brick. Well, we went down to the railroad station and there we found a train of cars with an engine attached and steam up, ready to go somewhere.”

   “We all rushed on, but the doors were locked and we couldn’t get in, so a lot of us climbed onto the roofs and this broke in the old timber. We found that it was Jeff Davis’ special loaded with Confederate gold and silver, with many kegs of coins aboard and when Jeff Davis found us so determined to get to Georgia he ordered a train made up and we were carried to Chester, S.C., which was as far as the train could go as the bridge had been burned. Those were stirring times and no mistake.”[2]

   There is much to process between these two accounts – trains still running in North Carolina in April 1865, telegraphs still operating, the passage of Lee’s paroled men through North Carolina after Appomattox, a glimpse of the remnants of the Confederate treasury, along with the charming magnanimity of Davis, it is just nice to flesh out the fragments of two communications between Davis and Breckinridge.

  

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[1] OR, Vol. 47, pt. 3, 814. See also Davis letters, Vol. 11, 553.

[2] The Charlotte Observer, October 20, 1916.

Jefferson Davis v. Stonewall Jackson

   Confederate historiography is rife with accounts of Jefferson Davis’s legendary support of certain commanders, like Braxton Bragg, Leonidas Polk, and Lucius B. Northrop, along with politician Judah P. Benjamin, and his equally legendary feuds with others, like Joseph E. Johnston. Even with Johnston, the fault was more his than that of Davis, as in his correspondence, the President, often exhibits a great deal of grace and aplomb.

   But Davis was not, at least early on, an enthusiast of Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. That might come as a shock, considering that many still celebrate Lee-Jackson Day across the South. Often, Lee is number one, with Jackson a close second in admiration of military skill.

   It appears that Davis and Jackson had never met prior to the spring of 1862. Davis was an 1828 United States Military Academy graduate. During his West Point years, he is described as frequently challenging the academy’s discipline, which includes being involved in the famous Eggnog Riot of Christmas 1826.[1] While serving in the regular army, Davis was court-martialed for insubordination in 1835.[2] Davis resigned from the U.S. Army shortly thereafter. He then became a cotton planter and politician, serving in the U.S. House from 1845-1846. During the Mexican-American War, Davis raised a regiment, for which he served as colonel, and fought at Monterrey and Buena Vista. He then served in the U.S. Senate from 1847 to 1851, as Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, and then again in the U.S. Senate from 1857 to 1861.

   Jackson was not a politician, nor a planter. He did gain entrance to the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1846, 17^th out of 59^th students. Jackson was also in the Mexican-American War, serving as a second lieutenant in Company K, 1^st United States Artillery. His unit saw action at the Siege of Veracruz, and the battles of Contreras, Chapultepec, and Mexico City. After Mexico, Jackson saw action in Florida battling the Seminoles. Jackson also resigned from the U.S. Army, taking a position of professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Instructor of Artillery at the Virginia Military institute.

   Davis, being so intimate with the going-ons of the War Department, would have seen Jackson’s name in the reports and telegraphs that arrived in Richmond after the start of the war. Colonel Thomas J. Jackson took command of the garrison at Harpers Ferry in late April 1861. Robert E. Lee was critical of Jackson for occupying Maryland Heights, undoubtedly relaying the fears of others. Jackson wanted Confederate forces to take the offensive at once. Jackson would next clash with Joseph E. Johnston. While Jackson commanded over 7,000 men at Harper’s Ferry, he had a commission only in Virginia. Johnston, after Virginia joined the Confederacy, was a brigadier general in the Confederate army. When Johnson arrived to assume command of the post at Harper’s Ferry, no one had notified Jackson, who refused to relinquish command. Eventually, Johnston found an endorsement with Lee’s signature on it, and Jackson acquiesced. Jackson then assumed command of all Virginia regiments at Harpers Ferry.[3] Promotion to brigadier general came on June 17, 1861. Jackson went on to become the first icon of the South, earning the sobriquet of Stonewall Jackson at the battle of First Manassas in July 1861. A promotion to major general came in November 1861.

   It was Jackson who came up with the plan for the Romney Campaign. Jackson asked for reinforcements for the campaign and received W.W. Loring’s division. Finding few Federals in Romney, Jackson withdrew his brigade back to Winchester, leaving Loring at Romney. Loring has been described as incompetent and not having the ability to control his already demoralized soldiers. Loring’s officers believed that Jackson’s men were living high (and warm) in Winchester while they suffered through one of the coldest winters on record at Romney. Loring signed and forwarded a petition from eleven of his officers to Richmond asking that Jackson’s orders be overridden and they be allowed to withdraw from Romney. Others wrote to their Congressmen, and with Loring’s approval, Brig. Gen. William B. Taliaferro went to Richmond to plead their case. All of this happened without using the proper chain of command, as Loring believed Jackson would not endorse and forward the letters. Davis sided with Loring and ordered the Secretary of War to telegraph Jackson, ordering him to move Loring’s men. Jackson complied with the orders, then telegraphed, “With such interference in my command I cannot expect to be of much service in the field.” He requested to be assigned back to his old teaching job or allowed to resign.[4]

   Davis considered the Romney Campaign, and Jackson, “utterly incompetent.” It was only through the work of Joseph E. Johnston that the ruffled feathers of Jackson were smoothed and his resignation returned to him.[5] Jackson preferred charges against Loring, charges that Johnston endorsed and forwarded, but the matter was dropped in Richmond. A few days later, Loring was promoted to major general at Davis’s request and sent to the Western Theater.

   A couple of months later, Jackson commanded all the troops in the Shenandoah Valley, with orders from Johnston to prevent Banks from reinforcing McClellan on the Peninsula. The next squabble came with Richard Ewell. Ewell was angry over Jackson’s secrecy, so angry, that Ewell sent one of his brigadier generals, Richard Taylor, to meet with Davis. Taylor just happened to be Davis’s brother-in-law (Davis’s first wife). It was Ewell and Taylor’s request that an officer be sent to the Valley, an officer who outranked Jackson and who could take command. Davis agreed and wanted to send either James Longstreet or Gustavus W. Smith. Davis agreed to send Longstreet as soon as possible and Taylor returned to Ewell with the news. Lee stepped in, and as one historian put it, prevented Davis from “making a truly colossal blunder.” Over the next few weeks, Jackson, with Lee’s encouragement “carried out one of the more brilliant campaigns of military history.”[6]

   The first meeting of Davis and Jackson is thought to have occurred on July 2, 1862, at Lee’s Headquarters near Malvern Hill. Lee was meeting with several of his generals when Davis arrived unannounced. Introductions were made. Dr. Hunter McGuire was an observer at the event, and it was McGuire who informed Jackson who Davis was, although he probably already knew. Woodward writes that Jackson’s “feelings toward Davis, however, were none too cordial, for he had not forgotten the Romney campaign and Davis’s intervention in Loring’s favor during the affair.” Hunter McGuire wrote that Jackson “stood as if a corporal on guard, his head erect, his little fingers touching the seams on his pants, and looked at Davis.” It was Lee who broke the awkward silence. “Why President, don’t you know General Jackson? This is our “Stonewall Jackson.” Davis bowed stiffly, and Jackson saluted. Lee and Davis soon adjourned into another room to talk. Davis and Jackson spoke later that day. Jackson was alone among Lee’s generals to continue to pursue McClellan.[7]

   Davis, Lee, Jackson, and others met in Richmond on July 13, devising the strategy of pursuing John Pope and his army in Northern Virginia. Jackson’s brilliant Second Manassas campaign still did not seem to inspire trust with Davis. When the army was reorganized after the Maryland Campaign, the rank of lieutenant general was created. Davis told Lee that “You have two officers now commanding several divisions and may require more. Please send to me as soon as possible the names of such as you prefer for Lt. General.” Lee could request promotions for Longstreet and Jackson, or Lee could recommend someone else, bypassing Jackson. Woodward believed that Davis was giving Lee “a convenient opportunity for reducing Jackson’s responsibilities.”[8] Lee responded with: “My opinion of the merits of General Jackson have been greatly enhanced during this expedition. He is true, honest, and brave; has a single eye to the good of the service, and spares no exertion to accomplish his object.”[9]

Did Davis, during the war, ever come around to being a supporter of Jackson? Perhaps. Davis was ill during the Chancellorsville campaign. However, like many others, he was concerned over Jackson’s wounding. Varinia Davis wrote that one of the Davis servants (slaves) was sent to the railroad depot where the latest news about Jackson’s health was reported on the arriving trains.[10] It was Davis who sent the first (new) national flag to rest on the casket of Jackson as it arrived in Richmond. In a letter to Lee on May 11, Davis described the event as “a great national calamity.”[11] In the funeral procession, Davis followed near the hearse in a carriage. Later that day, when someone came to the White House to discuss business with Davis, Davis “remained silent for a while and then said, ‘You must excuse me. I am still staggering from a dreadful blow. I cannot think.”[12]

   Is it possible to read more into the attitude of Jackson in meeting with Davis at Malvern Hill in July 1862? Maybe. Jackon was “stiff” around many people. Did Jackson know of Ewell and Taylor’s mission to get him replaced? Maybe. Did Jackson smart from the interference of Loring and his officers after the Romey campaign? Yes. Jackson did resign over the event. A larger question: why did David dislike Jackson so much? Was it disdain because Jackson was not of the social class of Davis and Lee? That is just something to consider.

[1] Cooper, Jefferson Daivs, 33.

[2] Davis, Jefferson Davis, 68-69.

[3] Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, 234-44.

[4] Woodworth, Davis & Lee, 87-88.

[5] Tanner, Stonewall in the Valley, 83, from the diary of Thomas Bragg.

[6] Woodworth, Davis & Lee, 121-22; Parrish, Richard Taylor, 153.

[7] Woodworth, Davis & Lee, 171.

[8] Woodworth, Davis & Lee, 202.

[9] OR, 19, pt.2:643-4.

[10] Davis, Jefferson Davis, 2:382-83.

[11] OR 25, pt. 1:791.

[12] Davis, Jefferson Davis, 2:382-83.