…of Virginia, August 1862
"Following the Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1863 the Army of Northern Virginia went into winter quarters along the south bank of the Rappahannock River. Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's headquarters was at the Moss Neck Plantation eleven miles southeast of Fredericksburg. General Robert E. Lee and Major General J.E.B. Stuart made camp near Hamilton Crossing within 8 miles of Moss Neck and about four miles south of Fredericksburg. The proximity of these headquarters allowed frequent contact between the staffs during the winter of 1862-1863.[1]
From the civil war journal of Jedediah Hotchkiss, Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's topographic engineer, we find in the entry of March 4th 1863:
"We talked of the battles of Groveton Heights, etc. He [Stuart] said Gen. Jackson was entitled to all the credit for the movement round the enemy and Gen. Lee had very reluctantly consented to it."[2]
This entry was made following one of Hotchkiss' visits to the headquarters of Major General J.E.B. Stuart to collect some maps from Captain William W. Blackford, an engineer on Stuart's staff. A "pleasant visit" had casually turned to a discussion of the startling events of the previous August. This was during the same time that General Jackson had engaged Colonel Charles J. Faulkner to research and write reports of all Jackson's movements and battles from June 1862 through the Fredericksburg campaign.[3] This work required Colonel Faulkner to interview many of the brigade and division commanders of the Army of Northern Virginia, those within Jackson's own command as well as Stuart's cavalry and Lieutenant General James Longstreet's Corps. As shown in Hotchkiss' Journal, it was common for staff members to share their experiences and reactions to the great times they were living…"
Main page
link
Amicalement
Armand
