Can you describe— McClellan’s position on the Chickahominy river? The charge of Jackson’s men at “Old Cold Harbor”? The battle of Malvern Hill? The second battle of Manassas? The capture of Harper’s Ferry? The battle of Antietam?
CHAPTER IX.
A Lieutenant-General.
While our hero was in the lower Valley, on the 11th of October, 1862, the Confederate Government bestowed upon him the rank of Lieutenant-General, next to the highest grade in the service. General Lee’s army was now divided into two great corps, one of which was given to Jackson, the other to Longstreet. These generals have been called the “two hands” of Lee.
On the 18th of October, General Jackson’s corps was sent forward to destroy the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. This they did in the most complete way. Burning all the bridges and ripping up the cross-ties, they finished their work by setting fire to the ties and throwing the iron rails upon the heaps of blazing logs.
After the work was done, Jackson rode over the whole distance, thirty miles, to see that the destruction was complete.
Towards the end of October, Jackson moved his corps near the Blue Ridge mountains to watch the movements of McClellan, who was again crossing the Potomac with a vast army of one hundred and forty thousand men.
General James Longstreet.
But McClellan’s movements were so slow that he was removed from his command, and General Burnside was put in his place.
The latter general resolved to try a new way to Richmond, and moved his army towards Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock river. General Lee at once marched to that town to meet him. General Jackson was called from the Valley to the help of Lee, and reached that general’s camp on the 1st of December. The Southern army numbered in all about sixty-five thousand men. Of these, there were in Jackson’s corps twenty-five thousand.