"Why General Ewell wished to deceive us," he replied: "General Ewell did not mean to deceive us, he was deceived himself. He never knows what Jackson is going to do."
Jackson was anxious to be reinforced and move down the Valley again, but General Lee wrote him, "I would be glad for you to make that move, and will give you needed reinforcements; but you must first come down here and help me drive these people from before Richmond."
Reinforcements were sent Jackson, and pains taken to let the enemy know, and Jackson so completely deceived them as to his plans that at the time he was thundering on McClellan's flank before Richmond, they were entrenching at Strasburg, some two hundred miles away, against an expected attack from him.
I remember that on this march we were in profound ignorance as to our destination. At Charlottesville we expected to move into Madison County, at Gordonsville we expected to move towards Washington, at Louisa we expected to move on to Fredericksbnrg, at Hanover Junction we expected to move up the railway to meet McDowell's Column, and it was only on the afternoon of June 26th, when we heard A. P. Hill's guns at Mechanicsville, that we fully realized where we were going.
DISCLOSED BY A PREACHER.
I remember that at Gordonsville, Rev. Dr. Ewing, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, with whom Jackson passed the night, told me as a profound secret, not to be breathed, that we would move at early dawn the next morning on Culpeper, and intimated that he "had gotten his information from headquarters."
We did not move at "early dawn"—the men used to say that "Old Stonewall" always moved at "early dawn" except when he started the evening before"—but instead of moving on Culpeper, we moved on Louisa.
At Frederick's Hall Depot, General Jackson had his headquarters near the beautiful home of Mr. Nat Harris. Mrs. Harris sent to invite the general to take breakfast with her the next morning, and he replied: "If I can, I will be glad to do so." Being asked what hour would suit him, he said: "Let not
