Sunday, March 9, 2014

Colonel Thomas J. Jackson to Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, June 22, 1861

HEADQUARTERS FIRST VIRGINIA. BRIGADE,
CAMP STEPHENS, June 22d.

My darling esposita, I am at present about four miles north of Martinsburg, and on the road leading to Williamsport, Maryland. General Johnston ordered me to Martinsburg on last Wednesday, and there appeared to be a prospect for a battle on Thursday, but the enemy withdrew from our side of the river. Our troops are very anxious for an engagement, but this is the second time the enemy have retreated before our advance. However, we may have an engagement any day. Rumor reports the Federal troops as concentrating near Shepherdstown, on the Maryland side of the Potomac. A great number of families have left their homes. By order of General Johnston I have destroyed a large number of locomotives and cars on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. . . . I have just learned that the enemy are again crossing into Virginia at Williamsport, and I am making the necessary arrangements for advancing to meet them.

SOURCE: Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson), p. 162-3

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