At 1 A.M. on Monday morning, Jackson, accompanied by a single orderly, rode to confer with Lee, near Richmond.

June 28.

He was provided with a pass, which Major Dabney had been instructed to procure from General Whiting, the next in command, authorising him to impress horses; and he had resorted to other expedients to blind his friends.  The lady of the house which he had made his headquarters at Frederickshall had sent to ask if the general would breakfast with her next morning.  He replied that he would be glad to do so if he were there at breakfast time; and upon her inquiry as to the time that would be most convenient, he said:  “Have it at your usual time, and send for me when it is ready.”  When Mrs. Harris sent for him, Jim, his coloured servant, replied to the message:  “Sh! you don’t ‘spec’ to find the general here at this hour, do you?  He left here ’bout midnight, and I ‘spec’ by this time he’s whippin’ Banks in the Valley.”

During the journey his determination to preserve his incognito was the cause of some embarrassment.  A few miles from his quarters he was halted by a sentry.  It was in vain that he represented that he was an officer on duty, carrying dispatches.  The sentry, one of the Stonewall Brigade, was inexorable, and quoted Jackson’s own orders.  The utmost that he would concede was that the commander of the picket should be called.  When this officer came he recognised his general.  Jackson bound them both to secrecy, and praising the soldier for his obedience, continued his ride.  Some hours later his horse broke down.  Proceeding to a plantation near the road, he told his orderly to request that a couple of horses might be supplied for an officer on important duty.  It was still dark, and the indignant proprietor, so unceremoniously disturbed by two unknown soldiers, who declined to give their names, refused all aid.  After some parley Jackson and his orderly, finding argument wasted, proceeded to the stables, selected the two best horses, shifted the saddles, and left their own chargers as a temporary exchange.

At three o’clock in the afternoon, after passing rapidly through Richmond, he reached the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief.  It is unfortunate that no record of the meeting that took place has been preserved.  There were present, besides Lee and Jackson, the three officers whose divisions were to be employed in the attack upon the Federals, Longstreet, A.P.  Hill, and D.H.  Hill.  The names of the two former are associated with almost every Confederate victory won upon the soil of Virginia.  They were trusted by their great leader, and they were idolised by their men.  Like others, they made mistakes; the one was sometimes slow, the other careless; neither gave the slightest sign that they were capable of independent command, and both were at times impatient of control.  But, taking them all in all, they were gallant soldiers, brave to a fault, vigorous in attack, and undaunted by adverse fortune.  Longstreet, sturdy and sedate, his “old war-horse” as Lee affectionately called him, bore on his broad shoulders the weight of twenty years’ service in the old army.  Hill’s slight figure and delicate features, instinct with life and energy, were a marked contrast to the heavier frame and rugged lineaments of his older colleague.