Books: With Lee in Virginia; A Story Of The American Civil War

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Several shots were fired at the party as they made their way across
to the end of the field, where the tall stalks of maize were still
standing, though the corn had been gathered weeks before. As
soon as they reached the shelter they separated, each crawling
through the maize until they arrived within fifty yards of the house.
There were, as the sheriff had said, many stumps still standing, and
each ensconced himself behind one of those, and began to reply to
the fire that the defenders had kept up whenever they saw a
movement among the corn stalks.

At such a distance the shutters were but of slight advantage to the
defenders of the house; for the assailants were all good shots, and
the loopholes afforded excellent targets at such a distance. After
a few shots had been fired from the house the fire of the defenders
ceased, the men within not daring to protrude the rifles through the
loopholes, as every such appearance was instantly followed by a
couple of shots from the corn patch.

"Give me one of those axes," the sheriff said. "Now, Withers, do
you make a rush with me to the door. Get your rifle loaded before
you start, and have your revolver handy in your belt. Now, Captain
Wingfield, do you and the other two keep a sharp lookout at the
loopholes, and see that they don't get a shot at us as we run. Now,
Withers," and the sheriff ran forward. Two rifles were protruded
through the loopholes. Vincent and his companions fired at once.
One of the rifles gave a sharp jerk and disappeared, the other was
fired, and Withers dropped his axe, but still ran forward. Tho
sheriff began an onslaught at the door, his companion's right arm
being useless. A minute later the sharp crack of rifles was heard in
the rear, and the sheriff and two men rushed in that direction,
while Vincent and the other lay watching the door. Scarcely had
the sheriff's party disappeared round the house than the door was
thrown open, and Pearson ran out at full speed. Vincent leaped to
his feet.

"Surrender," he said, "or you are a dead man."

Jonas paused for a moment with a loud imprecation, and then
leveling a revolver, fired. Vincent felt a moment's pain in the
cheek, but before he could level his rifle his companion fired, and
Pearson fell forward dead. A minute later the sheriff and his party
ran round.

"Have you got him?" ho asked.

"He will give no more trouble, sheriff," the young man who fired
said. "I fancy I had him plum between the eyes. How about the
others?"

"Dick Matheson is killed; he got two bullets in his body. The other
man is badly wounded. There are no signs of old Porter."

They now advanced to the door, which stood open. As the sheriff
entered there was a sharp report, and he fell back shot through the
heart. The rest made a rush forward. Another shot was fired, but
this missed them, and before it could be repeated they had wrested
the pistol from the hand of Matheson's wife. She was firmly
secured, and they then entered the kitchen, where, crouched upon
the floor, lay some seven or eight negro men and women in an
agony of terror. Vincent's question, "Dinah, where are you?" was
answered by a scream of delight; and Dinah, who had been
covering her child with her body, leaped to her feet.

"It's all right, Dinah," Vincent said; "but stay here, we haven't
finished this business yet."

"I fancy the old man's upstairs," one of the men said. "It was his
rifle, I reckon, that disappeared when we fired."

It was as he expected. Porter was found dead behind the loophole,
a bullet having passed through his brain. The deputy-sheriff, who
was with the party, now took the command. A cart and horse were
found in an out-building; in these the wounded man, who was one
of those who had taken part in the abduction of Dinah, was placed,
together with the female prisoner and the dead body of the sheriff.
The negroes were told to follow; and the horses having been
fetched the party mounted and rode off to the next village, five
miles on their way back. Here they halted for the night, and the
next day went on to Marion Courthouse, Vincent hiring a cart for
the conveyance of Dinah and the other women. It was settled that
Vincent's attendance at the trial of the two prisoners would not be
necessary, as the man would be tried for armed resistance to the
law, and the woman for murdering the sheriff. The facts could be
proved by other witnesses, and as there could be no doubt about
obtaining convictions, it would be unnecessary to try the charge
against the man for kidnaping. Next day, accordingly, Vincent
started with Dinah and Dan for Richmond. Two months afterward
he saw in the paper that Jane Matheson had been sentenced to
imprisonment for life, the man to fourteen years.

CHAPTER XVII. CHANCELLORSVILLE.

THE NEWS of the fight between the sheriff's posse and the band
at Lynch's Creek was telegraphed to the Richmond papers by their
local agent upon the day after it occurred. The report said that
Captain Wingfield, a young officer who had frequently
distinguished himself, had followed the traces of a gang, one of
whom was a notorious criminal who had evaded the pursuit of the
law and escaped from that section fifteen years ago, and had,
under an assumed name, been acting as overseer at Mrs.
Wingfleld's estate of the Orangery. These men had carried off a
negress belonging to Mrs. Wingfleld, and had taken her down
South. Captain Wingfleld, having obtained the asistance of the
sheriff with a posse of determined men, rode to the place which
served as headquarters for the gang. Upon being summoned to
surrender the men opened a fire upon the sheriff and his posse. A
sharp fight ensued, in which the sheriff was killed and one of his
men wounded; while the four members of the gang were either
killed or taken prisoners. It was reported that a person occupying a
position as a planter in the neighborhood of Richmond is
connected with this gang.

The reporter had obtained his news from Vincent, who had
purposely refrained from mentioning the names of those who had
fallen. He had already had a conversation with the wounded
prisoner. The latter had declared that he had simply acted in the
affair as he had been paid to do by the man ho knew in Richmond
as Pearson, who told him that he wanted him to aid in carrying off
a slave woman, who was really his property, but had been
fraudulently taken from him. He had heard him say that there was
another interested in the affair, who had his own reasons for
getting the woman out of the way, and had paid handsomely for
the job. Who that other was Pearson had never mentioned.

Vincent saw that he had no absolute evidence against Jackson, and
therefore purposely suppressed the fact that Pearson was among
the killed in hopes that the paragraph would so alarm Jackson that
he would at once decamp. His anticipations were entirely justified;
for upon the day of his return to Richmond he saw a notice in the
paper that the Cedars, with its field hands, houses, and all
belonging to it, was for sale. He proceeded at once to the estate
agent, and learned from him that Jackson had come in two days
before and had informed him that sudden and important business
had called him away, and that he was starting at once for New
York, where his presence was urgently required, and that he should
attempt to get through the lines immediately. He had asked him
what he thought the property and slaves would fetch. Being
acquainted with the estate, he had given him a rough estimate, and
had, upon Jackson's giving him full power to sell, advanced him
two.thirds of the sum. Jackson had apparently started at once;
indeed, he had told him that he should take the next train as far
North as he could get.

Vincent received the news with great satisfaction. He had little
doubt that Jackson had really made down to the South, and that he
would try to cross the lines there, his statement that he intended to
go direct North being merely intended to throw his pursuers off his
track should a warrant be issued against him. However, it
mattered little which way Jackson had gone, so that he had left the
State.

There was little chance of his ever returning; for even when he
learned that his confederate in the business had been killed in the
fight, he could not be certain that the prisoner who had been taken
was not aware of the share he had in the business.

A fortnight later Vincent went down into Georgia and brought
back Lucy Kingston for a visit to his mother. She had already
received a letter from her father in reply to one she had written
after reaching her aunt's protection, saying how delighted he was
to hear that she had crossed the lines, for that he had suffered the
greatest anxiety concerning her, and had continually reproached
himself for not sending her away sooner. He said that he was
much pleased with her engagement to Captain Wingfield, whom
he did not know personally, but of whom he heard the most
favorable reports from various Virginian gentlemen to whom he
had spoken since the receipt of her letter.

Lucy remained at Richmond until the beginning of March, when
Vincent took her home to Georgia again, and a week after his
return rejoined the army on the Rappahaunock. Every effort had
been made by the Confederate authorities to raise the army of
General Lee to a point that would enable him to cope with the
tremendous force the enemy were collecting for the ensuing
campaign. The drain of men was now telling terribly, and Lee had
at the utmost 40,000 to oppose the 160,000 collected under
General Hooker.

The first fight of the campaign had already taken place when
Vincent rejoined the army. A body of 3,000 Federal cavalry had
crossed the river on the 17th of March at Kelley's Ford, but had
been met by General Fitz Lee with about 800 cavalry, and after a
long and stubborn conflict had been driven back with heavy loss
across the river. It was not until the middle of April that the enemy
began to move in earnest. Every ford was watched by Stuart's
cavalry, and the frequent attempts made by the Federal horse to
push across to obtain information were always defeated.

On the 27th of April General Hooker's preparations were complete.
His plan of action was that 20,000 men should cross the river near
the old battlefield of Fredericksburg, and thus lead the
Confederates to believe that this was the point of attack. The main
body were, however, to cross at Kelley's Ford, many miles higher
up the river, and to march down toward Fredericksburg. The other
force was then to recross, march up the river, cross at Kelley's
Ford, and follow and join the main army. At the same time the
Federal cavalry, which was very numerous and well-organized,
was, under General Stoneman, to strike down through the country
toward Richmond, and thus cut the Confederate communication
with their capital, and so prevent Longstreet's division, which was
lying near Richmond, from rejoining Lee.

The passage of the river was effected at the two fords without
resistance on the 29th of April, and upon the same day the cavalry
column marched south. General Lee directed a portion of his
cavalry under General Fitz Lee to harass and delay this column as
much as possible. Although he had with him but a few hundred
men, he succeeded in doing good service in cutting off detached
bodies of the enemy, capturing many officers and men, and so
demoralizing the invaders that, after pushing on as far as the James
River, Stoneman had to retreat in great haste across the Rapidan
River.

Hooker having crossed the river, marched on to Chancellorsville,
where he set to to entrench himself, having sent word to General
Sedgwick, who commanded the force that had crossed near
Fredericksburg, to recross, push round, and join as soon as
possible. Chancellorsville was a large brick mansion standing in
the midst of fields surrounded by extensive forests. The country
was known as the Wilderness. Within a range of many miles there
were only a few scattered houses, and dense thickets and
pine-woods covered the whole country. Two narrow roads passed
through the woods, crossing each other at Chancellorsville; two
other roads led to the fords known as Ely's Ford and the United
States Ford. As soon as he reached Chancellorsville Hooker set
his troops to work cutting down trees and throwing up earthworks
for infantry and redoubts for artillery, erecting a double line of
defenses. On these he mounted upward of a hundred pieces of
artillery, commanding the narrow roads by which an enemy must
approach, for the thickets were in many places so - dense as to
render it impossible for troops to force their way through them.

When Sedgwick crossed the river, Lee drew up his army to oppose
him; but finding that no more troops crossed, and that Sedgwick
did not advance, he soon came to the conclusion that this was not
the point at which the enemy intended to attack, and in twenty-four
hours one of Stuart's horsemen brought the news that Hooker had
crossed the Rappahannock at Kelley's Ford and the Rapi Ian at
Ely's Ford. Lee at once left one division to face General Sedgwick,
and ordered the three others to join General Anderson, who with
8,000 men had fallen back before Hooker's advance, and taken his
post at Tabernacle Church, about halfway between Fredericksburg
and Tabernacle. Lee himself rode forward at once and joined
Anderson.

Jackson led the force from Fredericksburg, and pressed the enemy
back toward Chancellorsville until he approached the tremendous
lines of fortifications, and then fell back to communicate with Lee.
That night a council of war was held, and it was agreed that an
attack upon the front of the enemy's position was absolutely
impossible. Hooker himself was so positive that his position was
impregnable that he issued a general order of congratulation to his
troops, saying that "the enemy must now ingloriously fly or give us
battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits him."

Jackson then suggested that he should work right round the
Wilderness in front of the enemy's position, march down until well
on its flank, and attack it there, where they would be unprepared
for an assault. The movement was one of extraordinary peril. Lee
would be left with but one division in face of an immensely
superior force; Jackson would have to perform an arduous march
exposed to an attack by the whole force of the enemy; and both
might be destroyed separately without being able to render the
slightest assistance to each other. At daybreak on the 2d of May
Jackson mustered his troops for the advance He had in the course
of the night caught a severe cold. In the hasty march he had left his
blankets behind him. One of his staff threw a heavy cape over him
as he lay on the wet ground. During the night Jackson woke, and
thinking that the young officer might himself be suffering from the
want of his cape, rose quietly, spread the cape over him, and lay
down without it. The consequence was a severe cold, which
terminated in an attack of pneumonia that, occurring at a time
when he was enfeebled by his wounds, resulted in his death. If he
had not thrown that cape over the officer it is probable that he
would have survived his wounds.

At daybreak the column commenced its march. It had to traverse a
narrow and unfrequented road through dense thickets, occasionally
crossing ground in sight of the enemy, and at the end to attack a
tremendous position held by immensely superior forces. Stuart
with his cavalry moved on the flank of the column whenever the
ground was open, so as to conceal the march of the infantry from
the enemy. As the rear of the column passed a spot called the
Furnace, the enemy suddenly advanced and cut off the 23d
Georgia, who were in the rear of the column, and captured the
whole regiment with the exception of a score of men. At this point
the road turned almost directly away from Chancellorsville, and
the enemy believed that the column was in full retreat, and had not
the least idea of its real object.

So hour after hour the troops pressed on until they reached the
turnpike road passing east and west through Chancellorsville,
which now lay exactly between them and the point that they had
left in the morning. Jackson's design was to advance upon this line
of road, to extend his troops to the left and then to swing round,
cut the enemy's retreat to the fords, and capture them all. Hooker
had already been joined by two of Sedgwick's army corps, and had
now six army corps at Chancelloraville, while Jackson's force
consisted of 22,000 men. Lee remained with 13,000 at
Tabernacle. The latter general had not been attacked, but had
continued to make demonstrations against the Federal left,
occupying their attention and preventing them from discovering
how large a portion of his force had left him.

It was at five o'clock in the evening that Jackson's troops, having
gained their position, advanced to the attack. In front of them lay
Howard's division of the Federals, intrenched in strong earthworks
covered by felld trees; but the enemy were altogether unsuspicious
of danger, and it was not until with tumultuous cheers the
Confederates dashed through the trees and attacked the
entrenchment that they had any suspicion of their presence. They
ran to their arms, but it was too late. The Confederates rushed
through the obstacles, climbed the earthworks, and carried those in
front of them, capturing 700 prisoners and five guns. The rest of
the Federal troops here, throwing away muskets and guns, fled in
wild confusion. Steadily the Confederates pressed on, driving the
enemy before them, and capturing position after position, until the
whole right wing of the Federal army was routed and disorganized.
For three hours the Confederates continued their march without a
check; but owing to the denseness of the wood, and the necessity
of keeping the troops in line, the advance was slow, and night fell
before the movement could be completed. One more hour of
daylight and the whole Federal army would have been cut off and
captured, but by eight o'clock the darkness in the forest was so
complete that all movement had to be stopped.

Half an hour later one of the saddest incidents of the war took
place. General Jackson with a few of his staff wont forward to
reconnoiter. As he returned toward his lines, his troops in the dark
mistook them for a reconnoitering party of the enemy and fired,
killing or wounding the whole of them, General Jackson receiving
three balls. The enemy, who were but a hundred yards distant, at
once opened a tremendous fire with grape toward the spot, and it
was some time before Jackson could be carried off the field. The
news that their beloved general was wounded was for some time
kept from the troops; but a whisper gradually spread, and the grief
of his soldiers was unbounded, for rather would they have suffered
a disastrous defeat than that Stonewall Jackson should have fallen.

General Stuart assumed the command, General Hill, who was
second in command, having, with many other officers, been
wounded by the tremendous storm of grape and canister that the
Federals poured through the wood when they anticipated an
attack. At daybreak the troops again moved forward in three lines,
Stuart placing his thirty guns on a slight ridge, where they could
sweep the lines of the Federal defenses. Three times the position
was won and lost; but the Confederates fought with such fury and
resolution, shouting each time they charged the Federal ranks
"Remember Jackson," that the enemy gradually gave way, and by
ten o'clock Chancelloraville itself was taken, the Federals being
driven back into the forest between the houses and the river.

Lee had early in the morning begun to advance from his side to the
attack, but just as he was moving forward the news came that
Sedgwick had recrossed at Fredericksburg, captured a portion of
the Confederate force there, and was advancing to join Hooker.
He at once sent two of his three little divisions to join the
Confederates who were opposing Sedgwick's advance, while with
the three or four thousand men remaining to him, he all day made
feigned attacks upon the enemy's position, occupying their
attention there, and preventing them from sending reinforcements
to the troops engaged with Stuart. At night he himself hurried
away, took the command of the troops opposed to Sedgwick,
attacked him vigorously at daybreak, and drove him with heavy
loss back across the river. The next day he marched back with his
force to join in the final attack upon the Federals; but when the
troops of Stuart and Lee moved forward they encountered no
opposition. Hooker had begun to carry his troops across the river
on the night he was hurled back out of Chancellorsville, and the
rest of his troops had crossed on the two following nights.

General Hooker issued a pompous order to his troop. after getting
across the river, to the effect that the movement had met with the
complete success he had anticipated from it; but the truth soon
leaked out. General Sedgwick's force had lost 6,000 men,
Hooker's own command fully 20,000 more; but splendid as the
success was, it was dearly purchased by the Confederates at the
price of the life of Stonewall Jackson. His arm was amputated the
day after the battle; he lived for a week, and died not so much
from the effect of his wounds as from the pneumonia, the result of
his exposure to the heavy dew on the night preceding his march
through the Wilderness.

During the two days' fighting Vincent Wingfield had discharged
his duties upon General Stuart's staff. On the first day the work
had been slight, for General Stuart, with the cannon, remained in
the rear, while Jackson's infantry attacked and carried the Federal
retrenchments. Upon the second day, however, when Stuart
assumed the command, Vincent's duties had been onerous and
dangerous in the extreme. He was constantly carrying orders from
one part of the field to the other, amid such a shower of shot and
shell that it seemed marvelous that any one could exist within it.
To his great grief Wildfire was killed under him, but he himself
escaped without a scratch. When he came afterward to try to
describe the battle to those at home he could give no account of it.

"To me," he said, "it was simply a chaos of noise and confusion.
Of what was going on I knew nothing. The din was appalling.
The roar of the shells, the hum of grape and canister, the whistle of
bullets, the shouts of the men, formed a mighty roar that seemed
to render thinking impossible. Showers of leaves fell incessantly,
great boughs of trees were shorn away, and trees themselves
sometimes came crashing down as a trunk was struck full by a
shell. The undergrowth had caught fire, and the thick smoke,
mingled with that of the battle, rendered it difficult to see or to
breathe. I had but one thought, that of making my way through the
trees, of finding the corps to which I was sent, of delivering my
message, and finding the general again. No, I don't think I had
much thought of danger, the whole thing was somehow so
tremendous that one had no thought whatever for one's self. It was
a sort of terrible dream, in which one was possessed of the single
idea to get to a certain place. It was not till at last we swept across
the open ground down to the house, that I seemed to take any
distinct notice of what was going on around me. Then, for the first
time, the exulting shouts of the men, and the long lines advancing
at the double, woke me up to the fact that we had gained one of the
most wonderful victories in history, and had driven an army of
four or five times our own strength from a position that they
believed they had made impregnable."

The defeat of Hooker for a time put a stop to any further advance
against Richmond from the North. The Federal troops, whose
term of service was up, returned home, and it was months before
all the efforts of the authorities of Washington could place the
army in a condition to make a renewed advance. But the
Confederates had also suffered heavily. A third of the force with
which Jackson had attacked had fallen, and their loss could not be
replaced, as the Confederates were forced to send every one they
could raise to the assistance of the armies in the West, where
Generals Banks and Grant were carrying on operations with great
success against them. The important town of Vicksburg, which
commanded the navigation of the Mississippi, was besieged, and
after a resistance lasting for some months, surrendered, with its
garrison of 25,000 men, on the 3d of July, and the Federal
gunboats
were thus able to penetrate by the Mississippi and its confluents
into the heart of the Confederacy.

Shortly after the battle of Chancellorsville, Vincent was appointed
to the command of a squadron of cavalry that was detached from
Stuart's force and sent down to Richmond to guard the capital from
any raids by bodies of Federal cavalry. It had been two or three
times menaced by flying bodies of horsemen, and during the
cavalry advance before the battle of Chancellorsville small parties
had penetrated to within three miles of the city, cutting all the
telegraph wires, pulling up rails, and causing the greatest terror.
Vincent was not sorry for the change. It took him away from the
great theater of the war, but after Chancellorsville he felt no eager
desire to take part in future battles. His duties would keep him
near his home, and would give ample scope for the display of
watchfulness, dash, and energy. Consequently he took no part in
the campaign that commenced in the first week in June.

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