August 5th.
And so you think the papers ought to say more about your
husband! My brigade is not a brigade of newspaper correspondents. I know that
the First Brigade was the first to meet and pass our retreating forces — to
push on with no other aid than the smiles of God; to boldly take its position
with the artillery that was under my command — to arrest the victorious foe in
his onward progress — to hold him in check until reinforcements arrived — and
finally to charge bayonets, and, thus advancing, pierce the enemy's centre. I
am well satisfied with what it did, and so are my generals, Johnston and
Beauregard. It is not to be expected that I should receive the credit that
Generals Beauregard and Johnston would, because I was under them; but I am
thankful to my ever-kind Heavenly Father that He makes me content to await His
own good time and pleasure for commendation — knowing that all things work
together for my good. If my brigade can always play so important and useful a
part as it did in the last battle, I trust I shall ever be most grateful. As
you think the papers do not notice me enough, I send a specimen, which you will
see from the upper part of the paper is a leader. My darling, never distrust
our God, who doeth all things well. In due time He will make manifest all His
pleasure, which is all His people should desire. You must not be concerned at
seeing other parts of the army lauded, and my brigade not mentioned. “Truth is
mighty and will prevail.” When the official reports are published, if not
before, I expect to see justice done this noble body of patriots. My command
consists of the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Twenty-seventh, and Thirty-third
regiments of Virginia Volunteers, commanded respectively by Colonels James W.
Allen, James F. Preston, Kenton Harper, W. W. Gordon, and A. C. Cummings; and,
in addition, we have Colonel Pendleton's Battery. My staff-officers are
Lieutenant-colonel Francis B. Jones, acting adjutant-general; Lieutenant-colonel
J. W. Massie, aide; Lieutenant A. S. Pendleton, ordnance officer; Captain John
A. Harman, quartermaster; and Captain W.
J. Hawkes, commissary.
SOURCE: Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of
General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson), p. 179-81
