| This is what the Park service has as the Route Jackson took, and the
location where he was wounded and then later removed from his horse and
lowered to the ground. This seems to be roughly what 9th Virginia
Cavalryman David Kyle has claimed what happened on that evening, which
was disputed as soon as he published, and conflicts with every other
eyewitness report. Historian Stephen Sears makes a much better
case for Jackson to have been riding forward along the Orange Plank Road
instead, using numerous eyewitness reports, including that of Jackson's
own staff.
Sears doesn't specifically place the site of Jackson's wounding, but
I see no reason to reject the rock's location, although any location
between the rock and the Mountain road is quite possible. No one
actually saw Jackson get hit, as horses and riders were falling and
bolting in all directions by the sudden volleys of friendly fire.
Coincidentally, I had just come from the Slaughter Pen Farm at
Fredericksburg, where the same regiment, the 18th North Carolina, a half
year earlier had
been engaged in hand to hand combat with Yankee troops along the railway
line right behind the tall tree mentioned in that blog posting.
Three Medals of Honor were won by Union troops assaulting, and briefly
breaking, that Confederate line. |
| I had briefly planned to photograph the Jackson monument, and then
Hurry against failing daylight to the Wilderness, and do a quick bash
through of that battlefield before I lost my light, but then I ran into
this great retired couple in the woods along the old mountain
road. I didn't think I had a shot of them, but I found them just
off to the side of one monument pic, so I've put that up.
They have been exploring Civil War sites together for a little over 6
months. He has been involved with the Park service as a volunteer for
quite a bit longer, but his partner just recently got into the
exploration as a way for the two of them to get outdoors and keep fit
(note the walking sticks.)
She is a big Stonewall Jackson fan, as well as U.S. Grant, so we
traded stories about places to visit, like Gettysburg for the table that
served as an operating table where Jackson had his shattered arm
amputated, and Guinea station, which has the blanket that covered
Jackson as he recuperated, and then died, as well as the clock that was
on the wall while he was there.
We searched together for the Stonewall monuments, which were some
distance from where we were, and no signs pointed the way from where we
were.
We talked about various places, and then Cold Harbor, and when I
mentioned that it was a place where I could feel the death, her eyes
went wide, and she described to me how she felt there too. Cold
Harbor, as viewed from the Union lines, is a place where one can't help
but feel the awesome presences of the past. When I mentioned I had
been there at dusk, with no one else in the park, she told me stories of
other places where she had sense things, without realizing what had occurred
there.
So, I told her my ghost story.
A year ago, before beginning my current exploration of the Civil War,
Kim and I spent a dreary rainy day power washing a deck at a house on
the outskirts of Washington DC. The back yard ran up against a
road cut and embankment, a virtual cull de sac. While working,
several time I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a man in gray standing
in the garden, maybe 20 or 30 feet away, but when I turned to
look, he vanished. Not like he disappeared, but like he wasn't
there in the first place, it had just been a trick of my eye.
Hey, my eyes play tricks on me all the time, it's no big deal.
On the way home, hours later, Kim rode beside me in silence,
thinking. Then she asked me "Did you see a man in gray in the
backyard?"
Chills.
"Yes," I answered, and we compared notes on what we saw, or
didn't see. We both had the same experience. A man in gray,
who looked like a Confederate soldier, who vanished when you looked at
him.
Well, neither Kim nor I believe in ghosts. So I have no idea
what it was. And if it is a ghost trying to contact me from the
hereafter, well he's barking up the wrong tree. Sorry buddy,
you're dead. Get over it.
I don't know if you're looking for peace, or revenge, or justice or
whatever, you're dead already. I'm not gonna be running around
sorting things out for some guy in the after life who can't get his life
together without help. Or unlife. Whatever.
Anyhow, I spent so much time sharing stories with these two that I
had to forget heading to the Wilderness, and went to Fairview instead, a
critical part of the Chancellorsville battlefield that I had missed
before. The couple knew where it was, and gave me perfect
directions to it, and then I finished things off after dark by dodging
some deer and going to the Jackson/Lee bivouac area at night just to
catch the ambience.
Ok, next time I'll put up some pics of Fairview, the focal point of
the assault after Jackson's wounding.
|
