The departments and all places of business are still closed
in honor of Gen. Jackson, whose funeral will take place to-day. The remains
will be placed in state at the Capitol, where the people will be permitted to
see him. The grief is universal, and the victory involving such a loss is
regarded as a calamity.
The day is bright and excessively hot; and so was yesterday.
Many letters are coming in from the counties in which the
enemy's cavalry replenished their horses. It appears that the government has
sent out agents to collect the worn-down horses left by the enemy; and this is
bitterly objected to by the farmers. It is the corn-planting season, and
without horses, they say, they can raise no crops. Some of these writers are
almost menacing in their remarks, and intimate that they are about as harshly
used, in this war, by one side as the other.
To-day I observed the clerks coming out of the departments
with chagrin and mortification. Seventy-five per cent. of them ought to be in
the army, for they are young able-bodied men. This applies also to the chiefs of
bureaus.
The funeral was very solemn and imposing, because the
mourning was sincere and heartfelt. There was no vain ostentation. The pall
bearers were generals. The President followed near the hearse in a carriage,
looking thin and frail in health. The heads of departments, two and two,
followed on foot — Benjamin and Seddon first — at the head of the column of young
clerks (who ought to be in the field), the State authorities, municipal
authorities, and thousands of soldiers and citizens. The war-horse was led by
the general's servant, and flags and black feathers abounded.
Arrived at the Capitol, the whole multitude passed the bier,
and gazed upon the hero's face, seen through a glass in the coffin.
Just previous to the melancholy ceremony, a very large body of
prisoners (I think 3500) arrived, and were marched through Main Street, to the
grated buildings allotted them. But these attracted slight attention, — Jackson,
the great hero, was the absorbing thought. Yet there are other Jacksons in the
army, who will win victories, — no one doubts it.
The following is Gen. Lee's order to the array after the
intelligence of Gen. Jackson's death:
“Headquarters Army Northern Va.,
“May
11th, 1863.
“general
Orders No. 61.
“With deep grief the Commanding General
announces to the army the death of Lieut.-Gen. T. J. Jackson, who expired on
the 10th inst., at 3½ P.M. The daring, skill, and energy of this great and good
soldier, by the decree of an all-wise Providence, are now lost to us. But while
we mourn his death, we feel that his spirit still lives, and will inspire the
whole army with his indomitable courage and unshaken confidence in God as our
hope and our strength. Let his name be a watchword to his corps, who have
followed him to victory on so many fields. Let officers and soldiers emulate his
invincible determination to do everything in the defense of our beloved
country.
“R. E. Lee, General.”
The
Letter of Gen. Lee to Gen. Jackson.
The letter written by Gen. Lee to Gen.
Jackson before the death of the latter is as follows:
“CHANCELLORVILLE,
May 4th.
“General:
—
“I have just received your note
informing me that you were wounded. I cannot express my regret at the
occurrence. Could I have dictated events, I should have chosen for the good of the
country to have been disabled in your stead.
“I congratulate you upon the victory
which is due to your skill and energy.
“Most
truly yours,
“R. E. Lee.
“To
Gen. T. J. Jackson.”
“The nation's agony,” as it is termed in a Washington paper,
in an appeal for 500,000 more men, now demands a prompt response from the
people. And yet that paper, under the eye and in the interest of the Federal
Government, would make it appear that “the Army of the Potomac” has sustained
no considerable! disaster. What, then, constitutes the “nation's agony”? Is it the
imminency of war with England? It may be, judging from the debates in
Parliament, relating to the liberties the United States have been taking with
British commerce. But what do they mean by the “nation?” They have
nothing resembling a homogeneous race in the North, and nearly a moiety of the
people are Germans and Irish. How ridiculous it would have been even for a Galba
to call his people the Roman nation! An idiot may produce a conflagration,
but he can never rise to the dignity of a high-minded man. Yet that word “Nation”
may raise a million Yankee troops. It is a “new thing.”
The Northern papers say Charleston is to be assailed again
immediately; that large reinforcements are going to Hooker, and that they
captured six or eight thousand prisoners in their flight on the
Rappahannock. All these fictions are understood and appreciated here; but they
may answer a purpose in the North, by deceiving the people again into the
belief that Richmond will certainly fall the next time an advance is made. And
really, where we see such extravagant statements in the Federal journals, after
a great battle, we are much rejoiced, because we know them to be unfounded, and
we are led to believe our victory was even greater than we supposed it to be.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 321-3
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