Calamity at Chancellorsville

by Mathew W Lively

  An 1864 sketch by William Washington of Jackson being removed from the field. The artist never completed the intended painting.

  Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

  * * *

  Looking around, the two signal men noticed the presence of an unfamiliar solitary rider standing nearby. Pointing toward the Confederate line, Wynn directed the soldier to go back and “see what troops those are.” Without saying a word, the mysterious rider trotted off in the direction of the Rebel lines.16

  “They certainly must be our troops,” Wilbourn said to Jackson, who silently nodded his head in agreement. “General, are you hurt much?” the signal officer inquired.

  “I fear my arm is broken,” Jackson replied.

  “Where are you struck?” Wilbourn asked, while glancing at the general’s sleeves. Jackson estimated his wound to be “about half-way between the elbow and shoulder.”

  “Try to work your fingers,” Wilbourn suggested. “If you can move your fingers at all, the arm is not broken.”

  Looking down at his left hand, Jackson tried to move the digits. “Yes, it is broken,” he remarked. “I can’t work my fingers.”17

  Growing more concerned, Wilbourn then asked whether he was hurt anywhere else.

  “Yes,” he answered, “[a] slight wound in the right hand.” Commenting further that his left arm was “very painful,” Jackson requested that the young officer see how much it was bleeding. When Wilbourn gently grasped the arm he could feel warm blood flowing down the sleeve of the india rubber raincoat Jackson was wearing. Noticing the general was becoming perceptibly weaker, he said, “I will have to rip your sleeve to get at your wound.”

  “Well you had better take me down too,” Jackson replied. Realizing the general was too weak to ride back to the line and unsure whether they would be fired upon again as they approached, Wilbourn quickly decided the best course of action was to get Jackson down and out of sight of the troops. He dismounted as the wounded general began leaning to the left and toward him.

  “Hold on, Captain,” Jackson said. “You had better take me on the other side.”

  Engraving of the wounded Jackson after being removed from his horse.

  Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

  * * *

  As Wilbourn straightened Jackson in the saddle, the general suddenly became faint. “No, go ahead,” he said, before collapsing back into the arms of his signal officer. Jackson’s feet were still in the stirrups, so Wynn quickly removed the general’s right foot before running to the other side of Little Sorrel to remove the left. With Wilbourn holding Jackson’s upper body and Wynn his legs, the two men carried the general through the woods toward the main road. They stopped in the brush along the edge of the Plank Road and laid Jackson on the ground under a small tree. Using his thighs as a pillow, Wilbourn softly leaned the general’s head into his lap and ordered Wynn to first find an ambulance and then Maj. Hunter H. McGuire, the corps medical director. He cautioned the private to keep secret from the troops the fact that Jackson had been wounded.

  For the moment, Wilbourn and Jackson were alone. Not sure whether the general was still conscious, the young officer spoke up. “General, it is most remarkable that any of us escaped.”

  “Yes,” Jackson replied. “It is providential.”18

  1 “The Death of Stonewall Jackson,” Daily Richmond Whig, October 7, 1865.

  2 Richard E. Wilbourn to Robert Dabney, December 12, 1863; Joseph G. Morrison to Spier Whitaker, June 27, 1900, VHS; Richard E. Wilbourn to Jubal A. Early, March 3, 1873, Jubal Anderson Early Papers, vol. 6, LC; Richard E. Wilbourn to Charles Faulkner, May 1863; Philip A. Bruce, ed., History of Virginia, 6 vols. (Chicago, IL, 1924), vol. 5, 286; Kyle, “Jackson’s Guide When Shot,” 308. All members of Jackson’s escort are documented by others as being on the reconnaissance except for Kyle and Smith. These individuals self-report their presence and are not mentioned in other accounts. In two separate accounts, a Jackson courier with the last name of “Shearer” or “Sherrer” is also mentioned as being in the vicinity during the event, but his exact identity is unknown.

  3 Daily Richmond Whig, October 7, 1865.

  4 Benjamin W. Leigh to wife, May 12, 1863, in Dabney-Jackson Collection, box 1, LVA; Palmer, “Another Account of It,” 232. On an undated map William Palmer drew for Hamlin, he also listed a courier with the last name “Kirkpatrick” as being present and killed during the event. See ACHC, Harvard University.

  5 Richard E. Wilbourn to Robert Dabney, December 12, 1863.

  6 OR 25, pt. 1, 916.

  7 Ibid.; Moorman, “Narrative of Events,” 113; James H. Lane to A. C. Hamlin, August 31, 1892.

  8 Ibid.; James H. Lane to Marcellus Moorman, April 22, 1898.

  9 OR 25, pt. 1, 922; Spier Whitaker, “The Wounding of Jackson,” in Walter Clark, ed., Histories of Regiments from North Carolina, vol. 5, 97-98; William L. Hollis to Hunter H. McGuire, May 16, 1896, Thomas J. Jackson Collection, MOC; Moorman, “Narrative of Events,” 114; Marcellus Moorman to Hunter McGuire, April 8, 1898.

  10 McLaurin, “Eighteenth Regiment,” 38.

  11 Whitaker, “Wounding of Jackson,” 98; Thomas H. Sutton, “Additional Sketch. Eighteenth Regiment,” in Walter Clark, ed., Histories of Regiments from North Carolina, vol. 2, 72-73.

  12 Benjamin W. Leigh to wife, May 12, 1863; Palmer, “Another Account of It,” 233; Taylor to CV magazine, January 13, 1904.

  13 Hotchkiss, Make Me a Map of the Valley, 139-140; Randolph, “General Jackson’s Mortal Wound,” 334; Richard E. Wilbourn to Jubal A. Early, March 3, 1873; H. L. Potter, The National Tribune, October 18, 1888; J. S. Thompson, The National Tribune, February 14, 1889. Hotchkiss states the bullets that struck Boswell passed through the chest but did not penetrate the clothes on his back. He insists the bullets were smoothbore musket balls, which thereby prove that the group was shot by Confederate troops as they were returning to the lines. See Jedediah Hotchkiss to Hunter H. McGuire, October 8, 1898, Hotchkiss Collection, reel 15, LC.

  14 Taylor to CV magazine, January 13, 1904.

  15 Joseph G. Morrison to Spier Whitaker, June 27, 1900; Morrison, “Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville,” 230; [Joseph G. Morrison], “Wounding of Lieutenant-General T. J. Jackson,” in The Land We Love (July 1866), 182. The author of The Land We Love account is anonymous, but in his CV article of 1905, Joseph Morrison admitted to being the writer.

  16 Richard E. Wilbourn to Charles Faulkner, May 1863; Richard E. Wilbourn to Robert Dabney, December 12, 1863; Richard E. Wilbourn to Jubal A. Early, March 3, 1873. In his book Stonewall Jackson: A Military Biography, John Esten Cooke dramatized the presence of the solitary rider, calling it a “singular circumstance” and commenting, “Who this silent personage was is left to conjecture” (p. 422). Joseph W. Revere, a former Union general, claimed to be the individual in his book Keel and Saddle, a Retrospect of Forty Years of Military and Naval Service (Boston, MA, 1872), 277. His claim was completely discounted by Jubal A. Early in his article, “Stonewall Jackson—The Story of His Being an Astrologer Refuted—An Eyewitness Describes How He Was Wounded,” in SHSP (1878), vol. 6, 261-282. Douglas Southall Freeman speculates the rider was courier David Kyle, in Lee’s Lieutenants, vol. 2, 569. Wilbourn maintained it was an insignificant event and that Cooke made it “appear more like a romance than reality.” See Richard E. Wilbourn to Jubal A. Early, February 19, 1873, Jubal Anderson Early Papers, vol. 6. LC.

  17 Richard E. Wilbourn to Charles Faulkner, May 1863; Richard E. Wilbourn to Robert Dabney, December 12, 1863.

  18 Richard E. Wilbourn to Charles Faulkner, May 1863; Richard E. Wilbourn to Robert Dabney, December 12, 1863.

  Chapter Six

  Don’t Trouble Yourself About Me

  Captain Richard Wilbourn was experiencing
the “saddest hour of my life” as he knelt in a gloomy Wilderness thicket with a possibly dying Stonewall Jackson in front of him. With only a small penknife, the young Mississippian carefully began cutting open the left sleeve of the general’s raincoat. Finding Jackson’s accoutrements in the way, Wilbourn removed the “field glasses and his haversack—containing some paper, envelopes, and two religious tracts . . . and put them on myself in order to preserve them.”

  “Captain,” Jackson said as Wilbourn continued cutting the sleeve, “I wish you would get me a skillful surgeon.”

  “I have sent for Doctor McGuire and also an ambulance,” Wilbourn assured him. “But as Doctor McGuire may be some distance off, I will get the nearest surgeon to be found, in case you need immediate attention.”1

  Through the moonlight, Wilbourn recognized the silhouette of A. P. Hill and a few of his regrouped staff riding down the road, and called out to Hill. The general, along with his aide Benjamin Leigh and signal officer Capt. Richard H. Adams, dismounted and walked over. After informing them that Jackson was wounded, Wilbourn asked Hill whether he had a surgeon with him.

  Jackson’s haversack and binoculars.

  The Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia Photography by Katherine Wetzel

  * * *

  “No,” Hill replied, “[b]ut I can get you one.” He instructed Leigh to find Brig. Gen. Dorsey Pender’s brigade, which was advancing up the Plank Road, and bring its surgeon. “General,” Hill said as he knelt down beside Jackson, “I am sorry to see you wounded and hope you are not badly hurt.”

  “My arm is broken,” Jackson replied.

  “Is it very painful?” Hill asked.

  “Very painful,” Jackson responded.2

  After learning that Jackson was also wounded in the right hand, Hill removed both of the general’s blood-filled gloves. Switching positions with Wilbourn, Hill then supported Jackson’s back and held the left elbow while the signal officer resumed cutting away the sleeve. Underneath the raincoat, Jackson was wearing his new wool dress coat and two shirts. Wilbourn remarked that he would have to cut away all of the sleeves to get at the wound.

  “That is right,” Jackson said. “Cut away everything.”3

  Once the arm was exposed, it became evident that a ball had passed through the extremity just beneath the shoulder. The area was very swollen but, fortunately, the increased pressure from the swelling had helped control the hemorrhage, so bleeding from the wound was now slight. Taking a handkerchief, Wilbourn tied it around the arm just above the wound, and used another one to fashion a sling. No one at the moment, including Jackson, realized that the entrance and exit wounds from a third ball existed in the general’s left forearm. After binding the arm, Wilbourn asked what he should do with the right hand.

  “Don’t mind that,” Jackson said. “It is of little consequence and not very painful.”4

  Meanwhile, Leigh had ridden back approximately 100 yards, where he met Pender leading his brigade up the road. He told the general of Jackson’s wounding and that he had been sent back to locate a surgeon. Pender immediately called for Assistant Surgeon Richard R. Barr of the 34th North Carolina, who “speedily appeared.” Barr informed Leigh there was no ambulance within a mile of the position, but he did have a litter team traveling with him. They were just about to head to the scene when Jackson’s aide-de-camp, Lt. James Smith, who had been directing communications farther to the rear, rode up and asked Leigh for Jackson’s whereabouts. Smith had been riding to the front earlier when he encountered Murray Taylor of Hill’s staff, who had informed him that Jackson was wounded. Smith, Leigh, and Barr rushed back to the thicket, leaving orders for the litter team to follow.5

  Jackson’s blood-stained handkerchief.

  VMI Museum, Lexington, Virginia

  * * *

  Arriving at the scene, Barr immediately examined Jackson’s wound. Although he had a tourniquet with him, the surgeon decided not to use it, as the bleeding was sufficiently under control. After Barr left to obtain more supplies, Jackson looked at Hill and whispered, “Is that man a skillful surgeon?”

  “I don’t know much about him,” Hill stated. “But he stands very high with his brigade.” Realizing the concern behind Jackson’s question, he quickly added, “He does not propose to do anything and is here only in readiness, in case anything should be required before Dr. McGuire arrives.”

  “Very good,” replied Jackson, satisfied. Joseph Morrison now arrived and, falling to the ground beside his brother-in-law, “expressed great sympathy” at his being wounded.6

  Captain Adams, who was carrying a canteen of water and a captured flask of whiskey, offered Jackson a drink of alcohol as a stimulant. Jackson refused at first, but after Wilbourn insisted it would help revive him, the general asked whether it could be mixed with water. Hill encouraged Jackson to drink the whiskey straight first and then follow it with water, which he did for several swallows. After Jackson finished, Wilbourn offered to pour some of the water canteen’s remaining contents over his wound.

  “Yes, if you please,” the general said. “Pour it so as to wet the cloth.” Jackson was a firm believer in hydropathy. The so-called “water cure,” developed by Vincenz Priessnitz in Austria in the 1820s, used cold water as a treatment for a variety of medical problems. Jackson had been introduced to the therapy in 1851 through an acquaintance whose father was a physician practicing hydropathy.7

  Suddenly, two Yankee soldiers, rifles in hand, emerged from the bushes fewer than 20 feet away. Seeing them, Hill ordered, “Take charge of those men.” Adams and a courier instantly called for them to surrender. The startled men dropped their muskets, commenting, “We were not aware that we were in your lines.”8

  Concerned this was an indication the enemy was advancing, Morrison stepped out onto the Plank Road and walked east for 20 yards before the sight of the enemy caused him to freeze in his tracks. Through the moonlight, he could see the outline of Union cannon unlimbering in the road fewer than 100 yards away. He returned to the group and anxiously related that the Yankees were nearby and closing.

  With Jackson injured, Hill, his senior divisional commander, needed to leave and assume command of the corps. He rose to his feet and told Jackson that he would try to keep the wounding a secret from the troops. Leaving Leigh to assist with Jackson’s care, Hill and the rest of his staff mounted their horses and galloped back up the road.

  Those in the group around Jackson were now in a precarious situation. They remained between the lines and, before long, fighting was sure to resume in the area. Instead of continuing to wait for an ambulance, they decided it would be best to get Jackson away from the area to prevent his possible capture. Morrison suggested they pick the general up in their arms and carry him off.

  “No,” Jackson offered, “If you will help me up, I can walk.”9

  Leaning on Leigh’s left shoulder, Jackson unsteadily made his way through the bushes and onto the Plank Road, rapidly filling with Confederate troops rushing forward to meet the Union advance. Although Jackson was undoubtedly in pain, Leigh related later that he was “calm and did not utter a groan.”

  To conceal the general from the men rushing forward, they walked along the edge of the road, with Wilbourn screening the group by leading horses between them and the open road. Despite their best efforts, passing men could still see a wounded man, surrounded by officers, being led from the field. Several curious soldiers inquired as to the identity of the wounded person, and each time he was questioned Wilbourn responded that it was only a wounded friend. “When asked, just say it is a Confederate officer,” Jackson instructed him after repeated inquiries.

  Unsatisfied by this evasive response, Sgt.Tom Fogg of the 55th Virginia maneuvered around the horses to get a better look. “Great God!” he exclaimed. “That is General Jackson!” Wilbourn told Fogg he was mistaken, it was simply a Confederate officer. With a puzzled look on his face, the sergeant walked off without saying another word.10

  Rema
ins of the stretcher believed to be the one used to remove Jackson from the field.

  Gettysburg National Military Park

  * * *

  After traveling a short distance on the road, the group finally met Barr’s litter team and stopped momentarily to lay Jackson on the canvas stretcher. With Smith and one litter bearer at the front two corners and Morrison and another bearer at the back two, the men lifted the stretcher to their shoulders and began moving rapidly toward the rear. They had preceded only a few steps when the Union battery Morrison had seen on the Plank Road suddenly opened fire, raking the pathway with what Wilbourn described as “terrific fire of grape, shell, and canister.”

  The horses Wilbourn was leading jerked loose and ran wild. Soldiers rushing to the front dove to the ground or jumped into the woods to escape the barrage. “Riderless and panic stricken horses were running here and there,” Wilbourn observed, “and missiles of every caliber and description were falling in every direction, and for a while, everything seemed to be in confusion.”11

  A piece of shrapnel tore into the right shoulder of Pvt. John J. Johnson of the 22nd Virginia, the litter bearer carrying the front corner across from Jimmy Smith. The injury caused Johnson to drop the stretcher from his left shoulder, but a quick-acting Leigh caught the handle before the litter could tilt enough to roll Jackson off. After hurriedly lowering the stretcher to the ground, the other litter bearer ran for cover in the woods, leaving Smith, Morrison, and Leigh to throw their bodies next to Jackson’s to shield him from the cannon fire.12

  Lying on the ground beside Jackson, the three courageous officers watched sparks fly from the road as shrapnel ricocheted off small rocks around them. Smith thought his own life was going to end there, writing later: “It was my solemn expectation to die by the side of him whose side I had been proud to ride on day of battle.” Realizing the situation, Jackson attempted to rise so all could move to the shelter of the woods. “It will cost you your life sir, if you get up,” Smith shouted as he pulled Jackson back down. “Wait a minute.”13