tion. Napoleon, teaching the lesson of indifference to danger to the boys he gathered around him, after the fatal Russian campaign, said: The cannon balls have been flying around our legs for twenty years.". Hannibal's career occupied about fifteen years. No other great commander in the world's history has in so short a time won so great a fame as Jackson. Two years, crowded with weighty deeds, now draw to a close, and Chancellorsville witnesses, perhaps, the most important single incident of his life as a soldier. The whole story has been too often told. Hooker, in command of what was called by the North, "the finest army on the planet," crossed the Rappahannock and marched to Chancellorsville. He had 123,000 soldiers, Lee less than 58,000. Notwithstanding, Hooker was frightened at his own temerity in coming within striking distance of Lee and Jackson, and he at once set his whole army to work to throw up entrenchments and make abatis of the most formidable character. Lee and Jackson had to meet the present difficulty without the aid of a large portion of their army, absent with Longstreet. Lee and Jackson! How well I remember their meeting before this battle, and their confiding conference! How these two men loved and trusted each other! Where in all history shall we find a parallel to their mutual faith and love and confidence? I can find none. Said Jackson: "Lee is a phenomenon. I would follow him blindfold."

And Lee said to an aide de camp of Jackson's, who reported that Hooker had crossed the river, "Go back and tell General Jackson that he knows as well as I what to do." After they arrived in front of Hooker our movements are described in a hitherto unpublished letter of General Lee's. That great commander, after saying that he decided not to attack in front, writes as follows: "I stated to General Jackson that we must attack on our left as soon as practicable," and he adds, "in consequence of a report from General Fitz. Lee, describing the position of the Federal army and the roads which he held with his cavalry leading to its rear, General Jackson, after some inquiry concerning the roads leading to the Furnace, undertook to throw his command entirely in Hooker's rear, which he accomplished with equal skill and boldness." General Jackson believed the fighting qualities of the Army of Northern Virginia equal to the task of ending the war. During the winter preceding Chancellorsville, in the course of a conversation at Moss Neck, he said: "We must do more than defeat their armies; we must des

troy them.' He went into this campaign filled with this stern purpose; ready to stretch to the utmost every energy of his genius, and push to its limit all his faith in his men in order to destroy a great army of the enemy. I know that this was his purpose, for after the battle, when still well enough to talk he told me that he had intended, after breaking into Hooker's rear, to take and fortify a suitable position, cutting him off from the river and so hold him, until between himself and General Lee the great Federal host should be broken to pieces. He had no fear. It was then that I heard him "We sometimes fail to drive them from position; they always fail to drive us.

say:

Never can I forget the eagerness and intensity of Jackson on that march to Hooker's rear. His face was pale, his eyes flashing. Out from his thin, compressed lips came the terse command: "Press forward, press forward." In his eagerness, as he rode, he leaned over on the neck of his horse as if in that way the march might be hurried. 'See that the column is kept closed and that there is no straggling," he more than once ordered, and Press on, press on, was repeated again and again. Every man in the ranks knew that we were engaged in some great flank movement, and they eagerly responded and pressed on at a rapid gait. Fitz Lee met us and told Jackson he could show him the whole of Hooker's army if he went with him to the top of a hill near by. They went together and Jackson carefully inspected through his glasses the Federal command. He was so wrapped up in his plans, that on his return he passed Fitz Lee without saluting or even thanking him, and when he reached the column, he ordered one aide to go forward and tell General Rodes, who was in the lead, to cross the Plank Road and go straight on to the Turnpike, and another aide to go to the rear of the column and see that it was kept closed up, and all along the line he repeatedly said: "Press on; press right on."

The fiercest energy possessed the man, and the fire of battle fell strong upon him. When he arrived at the Plank Road he sent this, his last message, to Lee:

"The enemy has made a soon as practicable to attack. will bless us with success."

stand at Chancellorsville. I hope as I trust that an ever kind Providence

And as this message went to Lee, there was flashing along the wires, giving brief joy to the Federal Capital, Hooker's message: 66 The enemy must either ingloriously fly, or come out from behind

his defences and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits him."

Contrast the two, Jackson's modest, confident, hopeful, relying on his cause and his God. Hooker's frightened, boastful, arrogant, vain-glorious. The two messages are characteristic of the two men and the two people.

But this battle has been so often described in its minutest detail that I forbear to tax your patience. I forbear for another reason. While I can write about it, I cannot speak of it to old soldiers without more emotion than I care to show. The result of that great battle the wide world knows. Except for the unsurpassed, the wonderful campaign of 1864, this is perhaps the finest illustration of General Lee's genius for war, and yet, in writing to Jackson he says: "I have just received your note informing me that you are wounded. I cannot express my regret at its occurrence. Could I have directed events, I would have chosen, for the good of the country, to have been disabled in your stead. I congratulate you on the victory, which is due to your skill and energy."

See the noble spirit of our great commander! Not further removed is pole from pole than is any mean jealousy, or thought of self, in his great soul. He at heart obeyed the hard command. that "In honor ye prefer one another." This note displays his greatness, yet it is also history, in that we know on his testimony that Jackson shared with him the glory of that battle. These great soldiers loved and trusted one another, and in death they are not divided. How sacred is the soil of Lexington! for here they rest side by side.

The story of Jackson's death is so familiar to you all that, though intimately associated with its scenes, I will not narrate it. I will only declare that he met this great enemy as he had met all others, calmly and steadily, expecting, as always, to conquer, but now trusting, not in his own strength-not as heretofore in the prowess of mortal arms, nor in the splendid fibre of mortal courage, but in the unseen strength upon which he always relied-the strength that never failed himand so, foreseeing the rest that awaited him on the other side, he crossed over the river.

"My hand is on my mouth and my mouth is in the dust."

Already I have told you much that you already knew. In this, I beg you to observe, I have but fulfilled my promise. My apology is that we are in Lexington, and that we stand by the grave of Jackson.

Under such circumstances, love does not seek new stories to tell, new incidents to relate. Just to its own heart or to some sympathizing ear, it goes over the old scenes, recalls the old memories, tenderly dwells upon and tells them over and over again. Says farewell, and comes back again and stands silent in the presence of the dead. And so, I finish what I had to say, and bid farewell to Stonewall Jackson. And yet, all is not said, for here in Lexington, even in the presence of his mighty shade, our hearts bow down and we are awed by another presence, for the towering form beside him is that of Robert Lee.

Thought and feeling and power of expression are paralyzed. I cannot help you now with words, to tell all that is in your hearts.

Time fails, and I trust to your memories to recall a group more familiar, in whose presence perhaps we would not be so oppressed, and yet a list of names that ought to be dear to Lexington. I think that in the wide, wide world no town of equal size has had so long a list of glorious dead; so many around whose memories a halo of glory gathers. Reverently I salute them all.

And so I leave the grave of my general and my friend, knowing that for centuries men will come to Lexington as a Mecca, and to this grave as a Shrine, and wonderingly talk of this man and his mighty deeds. I know that time will only add to his great fame. I know that his name will be honored and revered forever, just as I know that the beautiful river, flowing near by, will sing an unceasing requiem to his memory-just as I know that the proud mountains, like some vast chain of sentinels, will keep eternal watch over his honored grave.

[From the Richmond (Va.) Dispatch, Dec. 12, 1897.]

THE RICHMOND AMBULANCE CORPS.

List of Members of This Useful Organization for 1861-1865.

When the late war first broke out a number of Richmond's wellknown citizens formed themselves into a committee and charged themselves with the duty of supplying the needs of the Confederate wounded. Their services in this respect are still gratefully remembered by many a surviving Confederate veteran who received the benefit of their unstinted and kindly ministrations in time of dire distress. The committee, which was limited to about fifty members, was composed for the most part of citizens exempt from military duty. Afterward, as the exigency of the war period demanded, many of them went into active service, while others not only furnished substitutes, but continued their membership in the committee till the end came on that fatal 9th of April, 1865. at Appomattox Courthouse.

Nearly the first thing done when the committee organized was to form its members into a military company, to serve in case of emergency, of which John Dooley was chosen captain; Philip J. Wright, first lieutenant, and John J. Wilson, second lieutenant. The services of the committee extended through the battles of Gettysburg, Sharpsburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, the seven days' fights around Richmond, including Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Frayser's Farm, and, in fact, most of the engagements in which the Army of Northern Virginia participated. The committee served without pay, and was always ready to buy for the wounded, with their own funds, any delicacy that could not otherwise be procured for the use of the objects of their solicitude. But a few, comparatively, survive the lapse of years intervening since the great contest ended. Appended is a partial list, so far as can be recalled, of this famous and useful organization. Those who live deserve, as they receive, the gratitude of all surviving veterans, while the good deeds of those passed away are wreathed in memory that blooms sweetly and blossoms in the dust: