Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 19.djvu/314

 308 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Jackson like a stone wall rally behind the Virginians.' This is the way the name Stonewall originated.

"Jackson always insisted in talking to me that the name belonged to the brigade and not to him.

" After he was wounded at Chancellorsville, and when I spoke to him of the death of General Paxton, and the remarkable behavior of the Stonewall brigade on the field the day before, he said : ' The men who belonged to that brigade will some day be proud to say to their children, ' I was one of the Stonewall brigade.'

HE FOUND HER BOY FOR HER.

"To show Jackson's great kindness and consideration for even poor and ignorant people, I remember an incident which happened in the Valley of Virginia while the troops were marching up the Valley turnpike.

" As Jackson rode along with his staff he was accosted by a poor, plain country woman to know if he was ' Mr. Jackson ' and if the troops in the road were his 'company.' She had brought two or three pair of stockings and some little provisions for her son, who, she told General Jackson, was in his 'company.' The army then probably consisted of thirty thousand men. It was of course made up of divisions, brigades, and regiments, and a great many com- panies, but this woman only knew that her son 'John' belonged to Jackson's 'company,' and she expressed a great deal of surprise when General Jackson told her that he didn't know her boy.

'What,' she said, 'don't you know John ? He has been

with you a year, and I brought him these socks and something to eat.' She began to cry bitterly.

"Some members of the staff were disposed to laugh, but Jackson stopped them ; got down from his horse and tried to explain to the woman how it was impossible that he should know her son, a simple private in the ranks, but she persisted he must know him, and she must see him, and that she had spent a great deal of time in fixing these things for him. He asked her what county the boy came from. He sent for Colonel Pendleton and asked him what companies were in his army from that county. He then sent three or four couriers to each one of the companies from that county, and found the boy and brought him to the woman, who gave him the presents she had for him. Probably he spent an hour altogether in doing this deed of real charity.