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to-morrow. I haven’t the slightest idea what they will be. I believe hehasn’t any more sense than my horse.”
Seeing his frame of mind, and he being a guest in my house, I said little.Just after breakfast, next morning, a courier arrived with a terse order toembark his troops on the railroad trains and move to Glordonsville at once,where he would receive further orders. This brought on a new explosionof wrath. “ Didn’t I tell you he was a fool, aud doesn’t this prove it ? Why,I just came through G-ordonsville day before yesterday.”
However, he obeyed the order; and when he reached Glordonsville hefound Jackson there, and his little Yalley army coming after him; a few dayslater McClellan was astounded to learn that Jackson was on his right flankon the Chickahominy. Shortly after the seven days’ battle around Rich-mond, I met Whiting again, and he then said: “ I didn’t know Jackson whenI was at your house. I have found out now what his plans were, and theywere worthy of a Napoleon . But I still think he ought to have told me hisplans; for if he had died McClellan would have captured Richmond . Iwouldn’t have known what he was driving at, and might have made a messof it. But I take back all I said about his being a fool .”
From the date of Jackson ’s arrival at Staunton till the battle of PortRepublic was thirty-five days. He marched from Staunton to McDowell, 40miles, from McDowell to Front Royal, about 110, from Front Royal to Win-chester, 20 miles, Winchester to Port Republic, 75 miles, a total of 245 miles,fighting in the meantime 4 desperate battles, and winning them all.
On the 17th of June, leaving only his cavalry, under Brigadier-General B.H. Robertson, aud Chew’s battery, and the little force I was enlisting in thevalley (which was now no longer threatened by the enemy), Jackson movedall his troops south-east, and on the 25th arrived at Ashland, seventeenmiles from Richmond . This withdrawal from the valley was so skillfullymanaged that his absence from the scene of his late triumphs was unsus-pected at Washington. On the contrary, something like a panic prevailedthere, and the Government was afraid to permit McDowell to unite his forceswith McClellan’s lest it should uncover and expose the capital to Jackson ’ssupposed movement on it.
Jackson ’s military operations were always unexpected and mysterious. Inmy personal intercourse with him in the early part of the war, before he hadbecome famous, he often said there were two things never to be lost sight ofby a military commander: “Always mystify, mislead, and surprise theenemy, if possible; and when you strike and overcome him, never let upin the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow; for an armyrouted, if hotly pursued, becomes panic-stricken, and can then be destroyedby half their number. The other rule is, never fight against heavy odds, ifby any possible manoeuvring you can hurl your own force on only a part,and that the weakest part, of your enemy and crush it. Such tactics willwin every time, and a small army may thus destroy a large one in detail, andrepeated victory will make it invincible.”
His celerity of movement was a simple matter. He never broke down his
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