Major-General Thomas J. Jackson to Margaret Junkin Preston

Bunker Hill, Berkeley Co., Va.

[Undated. After October 3, 1862]

My Dear Maggie, — In haste I drop you a line in answer to your letter of October 3d. I regret not having a position to which with propriety Mr. E. can be assigned. The best opening that I see for him is to secure an appointment as an ordnance officer. There are to be seventy appointed, after being examined by a Board upon their qualifications. Mr. E.'s brother is among the number. It appears to me that he ought to pass upon examination, by giving attention to the subject. I am much obliged to you for your kindness.

I deeply sympathize with you all in the death of dear Willy. He was in my first Sabbath school class, where I became attached to him when he was a little boy. I had expected to have him as one of my aides-de-camp, but God in His providence has ordered otherwise. Remember me very kindly to Colonel Preston and all the family.

Affectionately your brother,

T. J. Jackson.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 152

Major-General Thomas J. Jackson to Colonel John T. L. Preston, July 22, 1862

Headquarters, Valley District,

July 22d, 1862.

Dear Colonel Preston, — Your letter, and the touching poetical production of Maggie have been handed me by Cadet Morrison. I have known your son Willy long, and hope that an opportunity will offer for showing my appreciation of his great worth. Accept my thanks for your kindness in advancing funds to Cadet Morrison. Please settle it as you suggest, and keep the bond until you hear from me upon the subject; unless you should meet with an opportunity of handing it to Mrs. Jackson; but do not send it to her. I congratulate you upon Frank's return home. Remember me very kindly to all enquiring friends. Please say to Dr. White that I wish him to pay my stipends last due, from the money I sent him by you. I think he acknowledged the receipt of the funds, but said no thing about the stipends, and I fear that he did not feel authorized to pay himself from the funds placed in his hands?

Very truly your friend,

T. J. Jackson.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 151-2

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: September 11, 1862

My husband has today returned without the dear remains of Willy.  . . . “Slain in battle — Slain in battle” — he continually reiterates.  . . . He could not know certainly which was Willy's grave; had the one he supposed to be, opened; alas! for our poor humanity! when he opened the blanket in which the body was wrapped, he could not distinguish a feature of his boy on the despoiled face — he tore open the shirt, and there where I had written it was W. C. Preston! He thought to bring a lock of his hair, — it crumbled to the touch! It was impossible to have him removed, so he carefully marked the spot, and left the removal to be accomplished another time.

Such pictures of horror as Mr. P. gives! Unnumbered dead Federal soldiers covering the battle field; one hundred in one gully, uncovered, and rotting in the sun ; they were strewn all along the roadside. And dead horses everywhere, by the hundred. Hospitals crowded to excess, and loathsome beyond expression in many instances. How fearful is war! I cannot put down the details he gave me, they are too horrid.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 148-50

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: Monday Night, September 8, 1862

A note today from Mr. P. at Gordonsville, written Thursday evening; not a word had he yet heard of dear Willy's death; he would probably hear nothing, until he reached the place and was shown his grave! We are enduring the painful suspense of waiting for the coming home of his father with the sad remains; it will be a torturing thing. He may come tonight.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 148

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: September 4 1862

The worst has happened — our fearful suspense is over: Willy, the gentle, tender-hearted, brave boy, lies in a soldier's grave on the Plains of Manassas! This has been a day of weeping and of woe to this household. I did not know how I loved the dear boy. My heart is wrung with grief to think that his sweet face, his genial smile, his sympathetic heart are gone. My eyes ache with weeping. But what is the loss to me, compared to the loss to his Father, his sisters, his brothers! Oh! his precious stricken Father! God support him to bear the blow! The carriage has returned, bringing me a note from Mr. P. saying he had heard there was faint hope. Alas! the beloved son has been five days in his grave. My poor husband! Oh! if he were only here, to groan out his anguish on my bosom. I can't write more.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 147

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: September 3, 1862

Yesterday asked the price of a calico dress; “Fifteen dollars and sixty cents!” Tea is $20. per lb. A merchant told me he gave $50. for a pound of sewing silk! The other day our sister, Mrs. Cocke,^[1] purchased 5 gallons of whiskey, for which, by way of favor, she only paid $50.! It is selling for $15. per gallon. Very coarse unbleached cotton (ten cent cotton) I was asked 75 cts. for yesterday. Eight dollars a pair for servants' coarse shoes. Mr. P. paid $11. for a pair for Willy. These prices will do to wonder over after a while.

10 o'clock P. M. Little did I think, when I wrote the above, that such sorrow would overtake this family so soon! News came this afternoon of the late fearful fight on Manassas Plains, and of Willy Preston^[2] being mortally wounded — in the opinion of the surgeons! His Father was not at home, and did not hear the news for some time. Oh! the anguish of the father-heart! This evening he has gone to Staunton; will travel all night in order to take the cars tomorrow morning. I am afraid to go to bed, lest I be roused by some messenger of evil tidings, or (terrible to dread) the possible arrival of the dear boy — dead! Father in Heaven! Be merciful to us, and spare us this bitterness!

_______________

^[1] Elizabeth Randolph Preston Cocke, sister of John Thomas Lewis Preston and the wife of William Armistead Cocke

^[2] William C. Preston, son of John Thomas Lewis Preston and his first wife Sarah Lyle Caruthers.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 146-7

Jackson’s Staff Officers.

Of those who served on the staff of General Jackson in the several staff departments and at various times, four fell in battle: Capt. James Keith Boswell, engineer officer, Fauquier County, fell at Chancellorsville; Col. Edward Willis, 12th Georgia Infantry, Savannah, Ga., fell at Cold Harbor; Lieut. Col. A. S. Pendleton, A. A. G., Lexington, Va., fell at Fisher’s Hill; Col. Stapleton Crutchfield, chief of artillery of the Virginia Military Institute, fell on retreat from Petersburg.

At the beginning of the war, when Jackson went to Harper’s Ferry, there came to his aid from the V. M. I. Col. J. T. L. Preston, Prof. James Massie, Col. Alfred Jackson, Col. Stapleton Crutchfield.

To these were added Maj. John Harman, chief quartermaster; Maj. W. Hawkes, chief commissary; Dr. Hunter McGuire, medical director; Capt. George Junkin, A. D. C.; Maj. Jed. Hotchkiss, topographical engineer.

And the following came from time to time: Major Bier, ordnance; Capt. J. M. Garnett, ordnance; Col. William Allan; Colonel Snead, assistant inspector general; Maj. H. K. Douglas, inspector general; Capt. W. Wilbourne, chief of signal officers; Maj. D. B. Bridgforth, provost marshal; Maj. R. L. Dabney, A. A. S.; Lieut. Col. C. J. Falkner, A. A. S.; Capt. J. P. Smith, A. D. C., now the sole surviving member of the staff.

SOURCE: Confederate Veteran, Volume 28, No. 2, February 1920, p. 48

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: July 2, 1862

. . . People think that the reason Jackson is so successful is because he prays so much. One of his staff told Mr. P. not long ago, that amid the strife of battle he had sometimes seen him for a moment with uplifted hands in the act of prayer. When Mr. P. was his Adjutant-General, he says Jackson was in the habit of withdrawing frequently during the day, when it was practicable, as Mr. P. believes, for prayer.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 145

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: June 24, 1862

Rose before 5 o'clock this morning, and had a pleasant ride on horseback with my husband before breakfast. It gave me back my earlier days for the time, to find myself cantering as of old over the hills. Rode a fine horse of Mr. Ruffner's of Harrisonburg, sent here to keep it from being seized by the Federals. (Bro. Eben bought some indigo today, at $6.00 per lb.)

Mr. P. came home from the farm tonight, saying that everybody out there had heard distinct cannonading during the day. I note it to see if it shall turn out that there has been fighting within any audible distance today.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 144-5

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: June 6, 1862

Had a letter from Mr. P. yesterday. He was at Harrisonburg, having been obliged to fly from Winchester on foot, sleeping on the bare ground. At Strausburg, 18 miles distant, he found an ambulance, in which he went to Harrisonburg. It was hard to leave poor Frank in his helpless condition, among strangers, and within Federal lines; the Federal army expected to take possession Sunday morning, so that he is now a prisoner: and we will not know anything about him. His Father had only been with him a day and a half. But he was improving when he left him, and he had every attention from the kind family in whose house he was. Still he is utterly cut off from his friends, and if he should die we will not know it! These are some of the experiences of this war.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 144

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: June 4, 1862

No letter from Mr. P. today; no mail from Winchester.  . . . Of three of the boys who used to live at my Father's, one is a cripple for life; another is a prisoner of war ; a third lies in a nameless grave, if indeed he ever had burial; and the most distinguished General — certainly the one about whom the whole Confederacy has the most enthusiasm, is our brother-inlaw Jackson, the inmate for years of my Father's house. What strange upheavings and separations this direful war has made!

. . . By way of recording the straits to which wartimes have reduced matters, let me note that today I made my George a jacket out of a worn out old gingham apron! And pants out of an old coat, by piecing the sleeves together. For weeks I have been wearing a pair of slippers which I made myself. Anna's little children were all barefoot the other day, not because she would willingly have them so, but because shoes cannot be bought.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 143-4

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: May 28, 1862 – After Dark

Phil returned with the carriage; Mr. P. went on to Winchester in an ambulance. Phil heard a gentleman say to him, just as he was stepping into the ambulance, that he was just from Winchester, and Frank was not so ill as he might expect to find him. This is some alleviation of the suspense. Heard today of a son of Dr. Breckenridge's being killed at Shiloh; also, a cousin of Mr. P. being desperately wounded. Two dead soldiers passed through Lexington today. Last week eight dead bodies passed through. We are getting so used to these things, that they cease to excite any attention. Jackson has gained a great success, and the papers ring with eulogiums on “old Stonewall” as they delight to call him. We have heard today of five Lexington boys being wounded at Winchester; Frank P. the only one seriously so.

Miss Magdalen Reid tells me that in buying groceries to begin housekeeping, she paid 45 cents for brown sugar, $1 per lb. for coffee, and $4.50 for tea! The coarsest domestic cotton I ever saw — such as very few servants would be willing to wear, I can only get for 75 cents per yard. Calico, when it can be had at all, is the same price. These records will be interesting for reference hereafter.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 142

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: May 27, 1862

As we rose from the dinner table today, I asked Mr. Preston if he was going to ride out to the farm this afternoon. “No,” he said, “I will read a while, and then go down street and hear the news.” He had scarcely done speaking, when he was summoned to the door, to “hear the news,” the sad news, that in a fight just over, at Winchester, Frank Preston [the second son of the family] had been “severely wounded.” In about two hours, the carriage was ready, and Mr. P. on his way to Staunton. Prof. Nelson went with him, as his brother-in-law is slightly wounded. How he will find poor Frank, God only knows: he said he would be thankful to find him alive, and seemed little disposed to be hopeful about him: he has an arm broken, and a ball in his side. Oh! this horrid, unnatural war! Had a letter today from W. F. J. — he says his time is absorbed in trying to comfort the afflicted. Must write to the distressed G. family; R. was brought home dead a few days ago. May God be gracious, and spare my husband the anguish of seeing his son cut off in the first flush of his opening manhood!

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 141

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: May 17, 1862

With what different feelings do I make a record in this little note book today, from last Saturday! Last night my husband, almost without any warning, (none, except that we heard Jackson had relieved the corps from farther duty, and they were soon to return), stepped in upon us just as tea was over. What a welcome we gave him! I do thank God for his mercy in having fulfilled my petitions, as I would fain hope, in restoring to me safe my precious husband. He was not in the battle at McDowell, though they marched 40 miles in one day in order to come up in time. The fight was just over, but he was left in charge of the battle field, helped to bury the dead, and saw the wounded borne off the field; the Southerners lost some 60 or 70 killed, and some 280 wounded; about 340 he certainly thinks in all. What the Federal loss was he could not tell. The Confederates buried about 40 of them, and the country people around say that multitudes of wagon-loads of dead and wounded were carried away. As the Confederates pursued, they came upon many graves just filled up, but how many were in them of course they could not tell. It seemed awfully unfeeling to hear Mr. P. say that they took off the dead men's shoes before burying them, and in one instance a soldier applied to him for leave to wear them. He stopped one soldier who was cutting buttons off a dead Federal's coat. (Buttons are a scarce article in the Confederacy!) The corps of cadets could not get the permission of the Board of Visitors to continue in the service, or they would have gone on with Jackson's army, as he desired them to do. This accounts for their return.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 140-1

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: May 15, 1862

Have had various notes from Mr. P. since Saturday. Was extremely relieved to find that he was not in the fight; that there were only 50 killed and 250 wounded, instead of 300 killed, as first reported. It is not true that Major Ross was killed. The pursuit of the Federal forces has been kept up for several days. Tonight, a letter from Mr. P. says they halted on Monday, to rest the army half a day, and hear a sermon from Dr. Dabney, a thanksgiving for the victory. This evening we hear the report that Jackson is retreating – the Federal force having been reinforced with fresh troops. Mr. P. says a battle seems imminent; he is not on Jackson's staff, but marching with the corps of cadets. News of the burning of the steam iron-clad ship, Merrimac. What a sacrifice! But I record here nothing of public news, beyond what touches myself. It is not my purpose to do more.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 139-40

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: May 10, 1862

Oh! this heart-crushing suspense! No news from the scene of battle, except the report that Major Ross is among the killed. Thursday, the day of the battle at Buffalo Gap, cannonading was distinctly heard here; our servants noticed it and spoke of it during the day. Today, they insist that they heard it distinctly again. Oh! my husband! Could I but know he was safe! I wonder at myself that I do not loose my senses. My God! help me to stay my heart on thee!

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 139

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: May 1, 1862

A dreary dismal day of rain, and my feelings are in accordance with the weather. At midnight last night Mr. P. was summoned to the Institute by a dispatch received from Jackson, requiring the corps of cadets to march at once to his support in an expected battle. Before three o'clock he returned, saying he too was to go early in the morning. Although something of the kind has been continually dreaded, it was a shock to me — and such a grief! He is gone — to be exposed certainly to the chances of a stern battle; there is no mail communication between Jackson's position and this, so I can't hear from him, and must be content with rumors, which are torturing, because generally so exaggerated.

After he left me, I shut myself in his study, and blotted the leaves of his Bible with my tears, while I read on my knees the 91st Psalm, and besought God to realize to him all the promises contained in that Psalm. Then, with my finger on the Saviour’s promise, “Ask and it shall be given you,” etc., I plead his fulfilment of it to me in my precious husband's behalf; and I think I felt a relief in laying my aching heart on the bosom of the Redeemer. “Be not afraid, only believe! God has been so good to us in the past, let us trust him for the future” — my Beloved said to me as he held me in his arms at parting. With God's help I will try and act upon his counsel. Am I not limiting my heavenly Father's power when I feel that my husband is less safe on the battle field than at home? Wherever he is, the Almighty arms are around him; this being so, why should I be afraid? “Why art thou so fearful, oh, thou of little faith!”

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 138-9

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: April 22, 1862

I dare to feel something like happiness today. Last night Mr. P. returned, to my inexpressible relief and joy. Thank God for this mercy! The Inspector-generalship was a post which did not suit Mr. Preston at all, so he has declined it, and for the present accepts no place with Jackson. He brings word that Jackson is making a stand 20 miles east of Harrisonburg, at Swift-Run Gap. Mr. P. was in a little artillery skirmish while with the army, and after learning from Jackson that he did not anticipate any battle speedily, left him. Afterwards, hearing that the U. S. troops were advancing, and that there was a possibility of an engagement, he turned back, offered his services as a volunteer aid, and determined to remain until the fight was over. It soon became clear, however, that no fight was to come off just now, according to Jackson's opinion; perhaps no general engagement at all. So Mr. P. turned his face homeward again. I will try not to darken my present relief, by the thought that he may soon have to be separated from me, and I not be able to hear from him, or hold any communication with him; for Fremont and Rosencrantz are both west of us, each about 30 or 40 miles, and may advance against Lexington at any time.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 137-8

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: April 14, 1862

For two or three days George has been improving, but he is still too weak to sit up. His Father, however, considered it safe to leave home this morning for Jackson's camp, near Mt. Jackson, a day's ride beyond Staunton. Whether he will return to the service remains to be seen. I do not conceive that the indications of Providence point him to go, and I have perhaps gone beyond a wife's privilege in my strenuous use of arguments to induce him to think so too. Oh! if we might only be permitted to withdraw ourselves from this turmoil of horrid strife — if it were only to a log cabin on some mountain side! But I mean to indulge in no moaning in these bald pages; nor to write down any opinions; merely to essay a very brief record of such facts as I am personally concerned with, for future reference.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 137

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: April 10, 1862

Ground white with snow; no mails still: Mr. P. consents to postpone his going to the army, till there is a more decided change in George (an ill child). How this unnatural war affects everything! Mr. P. asks me for some old pants of Willy's or Randolph's, for a boy at the farm. I tell him that on them I am relying wholly to clothe John and George this summer.

For months we have had no service at night in any church in town, owing to the scarcity of candles, or rather to save lights and fuel. Common brown sugar, too dark to use in coffee, sells here now for 25 cents per lb. Salt is 50 cents per quart in Richmond. I jot down things like these, to show how the war is affecting us. A bit of silver is never seen. We are afraid of all sorts of notes. Mr. P. is trying to put what means he has left, from the wreck of his handsome fortune, in land, as the only safe investment; he bought a farm (which he does not want, and doesn't know how to get cultivated) the other day from Dr. Leyburn, so as to have something tangible for his money. While watching beside my child, I have managed to read, “Twelve Years of a Soldier's Life in India,” a most interesting book. What a brave, noble fellow Hodson was! But in its best, most exciting aspects, how unattractive (to me at least) is a soldier's life!

I think continually of Father and Julia, and long to hear from them. Thank God they are not suffering the apprehension — the undefined fear — the constant dread — which I am never free from. We hesitate about engaging in anything. Is it worth while to have garden made? We may be flying before an advancing Federal army before many weeks. Mrs. Cocke writes imploring us to come down to Oakland, bag and baggage; but to fly (in case of the occupation of the Valley) would be to give up everything to certain destruction. The disposition of people here seems to be

— very universally, to hold on to their homes. I shall do so, unless Mr. P. constrains me to go away.

One thing surprises me very much in the progress of this war; and I think it is a matter of general surprise — the entire quietness and subordination of the negroes. We have slept all winter with the doors of our house, outside and inside, all unlocked; indeed the back door has not even a hasp on it, and stands open. I have shut it frequently at midnight (when accident called me down stairs), to keep the dogs out; and some $600 worth of silver, most of it in an unlocked closet, is in the dining room. Would I get my Northern friends to believe this? It is more remarkable, this quietness and sense of security, because there are no men left in the town, except the old men and boys. I note this thing, by the way, as an unexpected phase of these war times. There is not, and never has been, a particle of fear of anything like insurrectionary movements. I am sure I have none.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 135-7