Any communication which you may have to make previous to the 1st of June, please direct to this place.
I am, Colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
To Colonel Francis Smith, Supt. Va. M. Institute,
Lexington, Rockbridge County, Virginia.
A true copy from the original.
My Dear General—I will now endeavor to comply with your request (contained in your favor of the 12th instant), to give you the facts relating to the wounding of General T. J. Jackson.
As the details of the battle are familiar to you, I will begin with General Jackson's movements after the battle was over and all seemed quiet—the enemy having disappeared from our immediate front, and all firing having consequently ceased. General Jackson took advantage of this lull in the storm to relieve Rodes' troops, who had been fighting, steadily advancing and making repeated charges from the time the fight began, and hence ordered General Hill to the front to relieve Rodes with his fresh troops—directing the change to be made as quickly as possible.[1] We were now within about half a mile of the open fields near Chancellorsville, where the enemy was supposed to be strongly entrenched. While this change was being made, General Jackson manifested great impatience to get Hill's troops into line and ready to move as promptly as possible; and to this end, sent every member of his staff with orders to General Hill and other general officers to hurry up the movement. From the orders sent to General Stuart, it was evident that his intention was to storm the enemy's works at Chancellorsville as soon as the lines were formed and before the enemy had recovered from the shock and confusion of the previous fighting, and to place the left of his army between Hooker and the river. While the orders were being issued, General Jackson sat on his horse just in front of the line, on the pike. From this point he sent me with an order to General Hill. I galloped back and met General Hill in about fifty yards, riding along the pike towards General Jackson. I turned and rode with him to his line, and he stopped a few feet in front of it. I rode immediately on to General Jackson, who was then in sight and only a few paces in front of General Hill, just in the position where I left him. As I reached him he sent off the only staff officer present to General Hill, with
- ↑ Rodes' division occupied the front line in the advance, while the division commanded by Brigadier-General Colston followed in a second line, with A. P. Hill's division in the rear of the whole. In assailing the enemy, Rodes' and Colston's divisions mingled together, and hence it became necessary to call up the third line when fresh troops were required.—J. A. E
