Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/370

 3fi4 Southern EistoricaJ Society Papers.

Potomac to the North Carolina line — the call is heard and there rush to arms at the first tap of the drum— not Hessian or Milesian mer- cenaries, not a band of negro-traders coolly calculating how much they could make out of a " Southern Confederacy" — but the very fiower of our Virginia manhood, as true patriots as the world ever saw, worthy sons of sires of '76.

And they did "make a fight" which illustrates some of the brightest pages oi Ajnei-ican history, and of which men at the North as well as men at the South are even now beginning to be proud. Aye I and the day will come when the story of the partisan will rot into oblivion, and "the men who wore the gray," alike with "the men who wore the blue," will have even justice at the bar of impartial history.

The "Stonewall Brigade" at Chancellorsville.

BY GENERAL WILLIAM TERRY.

It has recently come to my knowledge that Captain Landon, in a memorial address at Raleigh, North Carolina, made the statement that in the battle of Chancellorsville, in May, 1863, a certain famous brigade behaved in a most cowardly manner, and refused to advance when ordered to do so. I have no defence to make for that brigade, nor do I know them.

Captain Landon did not name the brigade to which he referred, but I am informed that he stated afterwards that he referred to the "Stonewall Brigade."

This is a total mistake, and does the grossest injustice to as brave a body of men as ever carried a musket.

So far as the part taken by that brigade in that engagement is con- cerned, I am entirely familiar with it, as I commanded the Fourth Vir- ginia infantry, one of its regiments, and therefore know, from personal observation, what I write. I need not go over the history of General Jackson's flank movement and its brilliant results. This is familiar to all intelligent readers. It is sufficient to say that night-fall found Jackson covering the old plank road and facing east toward the Chan- cellorsville House. In the night, after Jackson had been wounded, the " .Stonewall Brigade" was moved forward and placed in line of battle in the woods on the left of the plank road. As I never saw