Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 25.djvu/112

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108 Southern Historical Society Papers.

murred a little, saying it had not been very long since I had seen him, and that there was nothing more to be done for him. He said: " I wish you to go back and see him and tell him I sent you." So I rode back to the Yerby House, saw General Gregg and gave him the message. When I left his bedside and had gotten into the hall of the house, I met General Jackson, who must have ridden close behind me to have arrived there so soon. He stopped me, asked about General Gregg, and went into the room to see him.

No one else was in the room, and what passed between the two officers will never be known. I waited for him and rode back to camp with him. Not a word was spoken on that ride by either of us. After we reached the camp, occurred the brief conversation I have quoted, as to the horrors of war.

HIS RELIGIOUS LIBERALITY.

A very remarkable illustration of Jackson's religious liberality was shown just before the battle of Chancellorsville. We had been ordered to send to the rear all surplus baggage, and to illustrate how rigidly this was done only one tent, and that a small one, was allowed for the headquarters of the corps. It was intended to make the campaign of 1863 a very active one. "We must make this campaign," said Jackson, "an exceedingly active one. Only thus can a weaker country cope with a stronger. It must make up in activity what it lacks in strength, and a defensive campaign can only be made successful by taking the aggressive at the proper time. Don't wait for the adversary to become fully prepared, but strike him the first blow." When all the tents, among other surplus baggage, were taken away, a Roman Catholic priest of one of the Louisiana regiments sent in his resignation because he could not perform the duties of his office without the privacy of a tent. Jackson asked

me about Father ; I told him he was one of the most useful

men in time of battle that we had; that I would miss his services very much. He ordered that this Roman Catholic priest should retain his tent, and he was the only man in the corps who had that privilege.

We now approach the close of Jackson's career. Wonderful career! Wonderful in many respects, and to some minds more won- derful in that it took him only two years to make his place in his- tory. Caesar spent eight years in his first series of victories, and some two years more in filling out the measure of his great reputa-