Hooker would never have embarked his great army on the Potomac at Aquia, and carried them back where they had once been under Gen. McClellan, and Richmond was not in danger, and Longstreet's expedition to Suffolk not in accordance with grand strategy; and but for Lee's audacity, and Stonewall Jackson's swift movements and vigorous blows at Chancellorsville, the Confederacy would have been there shattered into fragments, and all by one false movement to Suffolk.
"Fortune loves a daring suitor."
Lee threw down the iron glove, and the daring suitor won! It was the most remarkable victory of the war, but by the absence of those divisions, and the death of Stonewall Jackson, the large fruits of the victory were lost.
CHAPTER XIII.
Leave Petersburg for Jackson, Miss.—Visit Home—My Division Composed of the Brigades of Gens. Maxey, Evans, and McNair—Extraordinary Correspondence between Gen. Johnston and President Davis—Movements to Attack Grant at Vicksburg—Fall of Vicksburg—Retreat to Jackson—Siege of Jackson—Visit Home—Negro Troops Surround the House—Narrow Escape—Vandalism—Johnston Takes Command of the Army of Tennessee—Polk in Command of Army of Mississippi—A Court of Inquiry That Was Not Held—My Division at Meridian—President Davis—Jackson Burned—Sherman's Advance on Meridian—Ordered to Mobile—Polk Crossing Tombigbee River—He Is Slow to Move—Go to Demopolis—Mr. Fournier—Sent to Lauderdale—Tuscaloosa—Montevallo—Reach Rome—Fight at Rome—Join Gen. Johnston at Cassville.
On Wednesday, June 3, 1863, I started in accordance with orders from Petersburg to report to Gen. J. E. Johnston in Mississippi. I arrived in Jackson on the 10th. Next day reported for duty; but as I had not been home since I joined the army, and the service was not pressing, got permission to visit my family. I went by stage to Yazoo City, and by chance met my neighbor, F. A. Metcalf, there, and together we crossed the Yazoo bottoms. Riding horseback, sixty-five miles the last day, I reached my home on Deer Creek at 11 P.M., and found my mother, sister, and little daughter, aged nearly eight years, all well. I remained at home Monday, the 15th, and started back on the 16th. Before I reached home Mr. Bowie, my agent, had gone to Georgia with seventy-eight of my negro servants, leaving twenty-five here to cultivate a corn crop. I joined my division, composed of the brigades of Gens. Maxey, McNair, and Evans, on the 24th, encamped at Mrs. Carraway's, in Madison County, near Livingston; put Gen. Evans in arrest by order of Gen. Johnston. I was in camp the 25th and the two days following.
JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON.
Before proceeding any further in reference to military matters in Mississippi, I will give some rich correspondence that took place between Gen. Johnston and President Davis and which I knew nothing about until months after it occurred. Here it is. (See page 195, War Records, Serial 36.)