The turning point in the fortunes of the young Confederacy had been passed, during the absence of the Ashby brigade, and with the fall of “Stonewall” Jackson her star began to wane.
The news of his death had reached the brigade while in the wildest part of its mountain campaign, and it clouded the spirits of the whole command; many of the men having such implicit faith in him that his death was to them the dreary sign which told that all their hopes were dead, like their hero, and buried in his grave; and from that time their march took the character of a funeral procession.
The following touching poem was written by Capt. J. Mort. Kilgour, a day or two before the return to camp:
THE DEATH OF GEN. THOMAS J. JACKSON.
“Give me the death of those,
Who for their country die,
And oh! be mine, like their repose,
When cold and low they lie.
Their loveliest mother earth,
Enshrines the fallen brave,