Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Brigadier General Thomas J. Jackson to Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, October 1, 1861

CAMP NEAR FAIRFAX COURT-HOUSE, Oct. 1st.

Yesterday I rode down to the station, and while there President Davis, very unexpectedly to me, arrived in a single car; the remaining part of the train, I suppose, stopped at the Junction to unload. He looked quite thin. His reception was a hearty cheer from the troops. He took his seat in an ambulance-like carriage, and as he passed on his way to the Court-House the air rang with the soldiers' welcoming cheers. He was soon met by a troop of horse, and a horse for himself. Leaving his carriage and mounting his horse, he proceeded on his way, escorted by the cavalry, about four thousand of the First Corps (General Beauregard). The troops belonged to Generals Longstreet, D. R. Jones, and Philip St. George Cocke. It was quite an imposing pageant. . . .

Yesterday I saw President Davis review. He took up his quarters with General Beauregard, where, in company with Colonels Preston, Harmon, and Echols, I called upon him this morning at about half-past ten o'clock. He looks thin, but does not seem to be as feeble as yesterday. His voice and manners are very mild. I saw no exhibition of that fire which I had supposed him to possess. The President introduced the subject of the condition of my section of the State, but did not even so much as intimate that he designed sending me there. I told him, when he spoke of my native region, that I felt a very deep interest in it. He spoke hopefully of that section, and highly of General Lee.

SOURCE: Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson), p. 194-5

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