would, if he tamely submitted to the Secretary’s extraordinary action, be shaken to its foundations.  Johnston, still smarting under Mr. Davis’s rejection of his strategical views, felt this as acutely as did Jackson.  “The discipline of the army,” he wrote to the Secretary of War, “cannot be maintained under such circumstances.  The direct tendency of such orders is to insulate the commanding general from his troops, to diminish his moral as well as his official control, and to harass him with the constant fear that his most matured plans may be marred by orders from his Government which it is impossible for him to anticipate."* (* O.R. volume 5 pages 1057 and 1058.)

To Jackson he wrote advising the withdrawal of his resignation:  “Under ordinary circumstances a due sense of one’s own dignity, as well as care for professional character and official rights, would demand such a course as yours, but the character of this war, the great energy exhibited by the Government of the United States, the danger in which our very existence as an independent people lies, requires sacrifices from us all who have been educated as soldiers.

“I receive the information of the order of which you have such cause to complain from your letter.  Is not that as great an official wrong to me as the order itself to you?  Let us dispassionately reason with the Government on this subject of command, and if we fail to influence its practice, then ask to be relieved from positions the authority of which is exercised by the War Department, while the responsibilities are left to us.

“I have taken the liberty to detain your letter to make this appeal to your patriotism, not merely from common feelings of personal regard, but from the official opinion which makes me regard you as necessary to the service of the country in your present position."* (* O.R. volume 5 pages 1059 and 1060.)

But Johnston, when he wrote, was not aware of the remonstrance of Loring’s officers.  His protest, in his letter to the Secretary of War, deprecated the action of the department in ignoring the authority of the military chiefs; it had no reference to the graver evil of yielding to the representations of irresponsible subordinates.  Considering the circumstances, as he believed them to exist, his advice was doubtless prudent.  But it found Jackson in no compromising mood.

“Sacrifices!” he exclaimed; “have I not made them?  What is my life here but a daily sacrifice?  Nor shall I ever withhold sacrifices for my country, where they will avail anything.  I intend to serve here, anywhere, in any way I can, even if it be as a private soldier.  But if this method of making war is to prevail, the country is ruined.  My duty to Virginia requires that I shall utter my protest against it in the most energetic form in my power, and that is to resign.  The authorities at Richmond must be taught a lesson, or the next victims of their meddling will be Johnston and Lee.”