“This precaution, I venture to think, is absolutely indispensable to an orderly and combined advance over any ground whatever, and, so far as my knowledge goes, was seldom omitted, except when haste was imperative, in the Army of Northern Virginia.  Practical experience taught us that no movement should be permitted until every officer was acquainted with the object in view, and had received his instructions.  I may add that brigade and regimental commanders were most particular to secure their flanks and to keep contact with other troops by means of patrols; and, also, that in thick woods it was found to be of very great advantage if a few trustworthy men were detailed as orderlies to the regimental commander, for by this means he could most easily control the advance of his skirmishers and of his line of battle.

“N.H.  Harris,
General, late Army of Northern Virginia.”

NOTE 3.

Before the campaign of 1864, the theatre of which embraced the region between the Rappahannock and Petersburg, including the Wilderness, corps of sharp-shooters, each 180 strong, were organised in many of the brigades of Lee’s army.  These “light” troops undertook the outpost, advanced, flank, and rear guard duties.  The men were carefully selected; they were trained judges of distance, skilful and enterprising on patrol, and first-rate marksmen, and their rifles were often fitted with telescopic sights.  In order to increase their confidence in each other they were subdivided into groups of fours, which messed and slept together, and were never separated in action.  These corps did excellent service during the campaign of 1864.

CHAPTER 2.25.  THE SOLDIER AND THE MAN.* (* Copyright 1898 by Longmans, Green, & Co.)

To the mourning of a sore-stricken nation Stonewall Jackson was carried to his rest.  As the hearse passed to the Capitol, and the guns which had so lately proclaimed the victory of Chancellorsville thundered forth their requiem to the hero of the fight, the streets of Richmond were thronged with a silent and weeping multitude.  In the Hall of Representatives, surrounded by a guard of infantry, the body lay in state; and thither, in their thousands, from the President to the maimed soldier, from the generals of the Valley army to wondering children, borne in their mothers’ arms, the people came to look their last upon the illustrious dead.  The open coffin, placed before the Speaker’s chair, was draped in the Confederate standard; the State colours were furled along, the galleries; and the expression on the face, firm and resolute, as if the spirit of battle still lingered in the lifeless clay, was that of a great conqueror, wise in council, mighty in the strife.  But as the evening drew on the darkened chamber, hung with deep mourning, and resounding to the clash of arms, lost its sombre and martial aspect.  Garlands of soft spring flowers, the tribute of the women of Virginia, rose high above the bier, and white pyramids of lilies, the emblems of purity and meekness, recalled the blameless life of the Christian soldier.