JUST ANOTHER WAR STORY

The 28^th September marks a number of political assassinations, to wit, in 48 BC, King Ptolemy of Egypt ordered the killing of Pompey the Great, after he landed in Egypt, seeking refuge from Caesar; in 935 AD Boleslaus murdered Wenceslas (Boleslaus I of Bohemia, killed his brother Wenceslas I, who was canonized as a saint due to his martyr's death, as well as several purported miracles that occurred after his death. Wenceslaus is the patron saint of the Czech people and the Czech Republic. His feast day is the 28th September); and, on 28 September, 995, Boleslaus II (son of the above) and his confederate Vršovci stormed Libice in southern Bohemia and massacred the Slavník dynasty. This clan had been the main rival of Přemyslid power in Bohemia. Boleslaus' brutal triumph ensured the unity of Bohemia under a single ruler. Boleslaus II was known as Boleslaus the Pious, whilst his father, Boleslaus I, was known as Boleslaus the Cruel. I guess there is something about a massacre that elevates one to piety. These middle European problems do have their dramatic side.

Letcher

It was 150 years ago, in 1861, that the Civil War in the United States began. Citizens in the border States (along the Mason-Dixon Line) had to make a choice.  The then Governor of Virginia, John Letcher, was prominent in the peace convention that met in Washington DC on the 8^th February 1861 in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending Civil War. He actively discouraged secession, but was just as active in supporting the ordinance passed by Virginia on the 17 April 1861, five days after hostilities had begun. He was after all, a southern gentleman. He was born in Lexington, Virginia, attended educational institutions in Ashland Virginia and graduated from the Washington Academy in Lexington.  He was a lawyer, journalist and politician. He was, to begin with, an abolitionist, but he was a southern politician and soon repudiated his anti-slavery stand. He was Governor of Virginia from 1860 to 1864, and survived the war. I mention him because he comes up in a letter sent by Captain Elisha Franklin Paxton on the 28^th September 1861, to his wife Elizabeth Hannah Paxton (née White).  He was with his company camped near Fairfax Court House in Virginia, some 19 miles from Washington DC. The letter reads:

Fairfax CH

 

The letter reads: 

Camp near Fairfax C. H., September 28, 1861: I will close a delightful Sunday evening in answering your last letter, received a few days since. I heartily sympathize with you, Love, and our dear little Matthew in your wish for my return. My absence does not press more heavily upon your heart than upon my own. But we must not suffer ourselves to grieve over the necessity which compels our separation. We must bear it in patience, in the hope that when I return we shall love each other all the better for it. I have had the offer from Gov. Letcher of a Commission as Major. I was much flattered by the compliment, but declined it, as I would be assigned to duty at Norfolk. Feeling that I was more pleasantly situated and could render more efficient service here, I preferred to remain. I was very much tempted to accept it, from the consideration that it would probably afford me an opportunity of passing by home on my way; but I thought this should not make me deviate from what my Judgment approved as my proper course. I replied that I would accept the appointment if assigned to duty in this brigade, but would not leave it for the sake of promotion. The weather begins to feel like frost, and hereafter we shall, I fear, find a soldier’s life rather uncomfortable. Sleeping in the open air or thin tents was comfortable a few weeks since; but when the frost begins to fall freely, and the night air becomes more chilly, lying upon the ground and looking at the stars will not be so pleasant. Then we shall think in earnest of home, warm fires, and soft beds. I think I shall get used to it. I have seen many ups and downs and begin to fancy that I can bear almost anything. In November I suppose we shall find comfortable winter quarters somewhere, or shall build log cabins and stay here. I went down to see Mat some days since, but did not find him. Jim Holly came this evening and tells me he has the pair of pants which you sent me, and that Waltz will bring some more things for me. You need not get the overcoat; my coat for the present answers a very good purpose, and if I find hereafter that I need an overcoat, I will send to Richmond for it. And now, Love, as I have taxed my eye about enough, I will bid you good-bye. I trust that you will make yourself contented. I shall be all the happier knowing that you are so. Give a kiss to our dear little boys for me; for yourself accept a fond husband’s best love.

Paxton was born on 4^th March, 1828, in Rockbridge County, Virginia. His grandfather has fought in the American Revolution.  He too, attended Washington College in Lexington, then went on to Yale University in New Haven Connecticut, followed by the University of Virginia Law School in Charlottesville in 1849, graduating top of his class. Paxton was described as "five feet ten inches high, heavily built and of great bodily strength", a physique that inspired his childhood nickname, "Bull". He was known not to drink alcohol. At the start of the Civil War in 1861, he chose to follow his home state and the Confederate cause. He was married with four children. He entered the Confederate Army on the 18^th April (a day after the Virginia Ordinance of Secession) as a first Lieutenant of the Rockbridge Rifles, part of Col. James F. Preston’s 4^th Virginia Infantry Regiment. This regiment fought on July 21^st in the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) in Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson's First Brigade of the Army of the Shenandoah, soon to be known as the Stonewall Brigade. Paxton was wounded in an arm during this battle and his actions won him praise from his comrades. After recovering, Paxton was elected major of the 27^th Virginia Infantry on October 14, 1861, but was not re-elected to the position the following spring because of his "heavy-handedness and a lack of tact". On May 30, 1862, Paxton was appointed aide-de-camp to Jackson's staff, and participated in the Valley Campaign of the Shenandoah Valley and the Seven Days Battles, both in Virginia.   By August 4, 1862, Paxton was made Jackson's assistant quartermaster, and fought in the Northern Virginia Campaign. Paxton was appointed assistant adjutant general (chief of staff) on Jackson's staff on August 15, and took part in the Second Battle of Bull Run on August 28–30, and then in the Maryland Campaign and the Battle of Antietam on September 17.

On November 1, 1862, Paxton was promoted from major to brigadier genera l and assigned command of the Stonewall Brigade. It was a move that did not sit well with the men he passed over, officers with more experience as well as seniority. Paxton was the choice of Jackson and the posting was made directly by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.. Although Jackson rarely deviated from protocol for promotions, his justification for selecting Paxton was that none of the subordinate commanders in the Stonewall Brigade was the "best qualified" for the position because "I did not regard any of them as competent as another." Paxton assumed command of the brigade on November 15.

During the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, Paxton and his brigade in the division of Brig. Gen. William B. Taliaferro were on the right of the Confederate defense when Union Maj. Gen. George G. Meade’s division made a brief (and unsupported) successful attack, but Paxton's men counterattacked and drove the Federals off.

Jackson

By the spring of 1863, Bull Paxton, who a member of his staff described as a "rather profane and godless man" found new solace in religion, possibly because of his association with the religious Stonewall Jackson. He started carrying a pocket Bible and on the night before the Battle of Chancellorsville, he admitted a premonition of his death and prepared himself for it. On the second day of battle, the brigade was part Jackson's audacious flanking movement around Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s's army. Paxton and his brigade were stationed to guard Germanna Junction on May 2, and that night his men were ordered to the front line.

After Jackson was wounded, command of the Second Corp went briefly to Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill, but when he too was hit, cavalry commander Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart was given command. On May 3 Paxton led his men through densely wooded terrain towards the Union position. He was on foot at the head of his brigade when he was shot through his chest, killing him within an hour. Lt. Randolph Barton of Paxton's staff wrote that Paxton fell only two feet away from him. "I placed my arm under him, when he muttered, 'Tie up my arm', and died. He was not shot in the arm, but through the heart." Later that day army commander Gen. Robert E. Lee sent a wire to the authorities in the Confederate capitol of Richmond, saying:

Lee

Hill

The enemy was dislodged from all his positions around Chancellorsville and driven back towards the Rappahannock, over which he is now retreating. We have to thank Almighty God for a great victory. I regret to state that Gen'l Paxton was killed, Gen'l Jackson severely and Gen'l [Heth] and D. H. Hill slightly wounded.

Paxton was initially buried at Guinea Station, Virginia, a short distance from where Jackson lay dying. He was later brought back to Lexington, and was re-buried there in Stonewall Jackson Cemetery, within a few feet of his former commander. He was 35 year old. Between April 1861 and November 1862, in just over 18 months, he had risen from Lieutenant to Brigadier General. The following may well have been the last letter to his wife, sent six days before his death. There is a distinct difference in tone from the letter sent on that delightful Sunday evening the 28^th September 1861.

No date, first page of letter being lost. Probably April 27, 1863. We had a snow here on Saturday night which continued yesterday morning and is now about gone. The roads are now in pretty good condition, and if the enemy wish to make the attack, there is, I think, no reason now for deferring it on account of the roads. But, darling, there is no telling when it will be. The future, ever a mystery, is more mysterious now than ever before. Our destiny is in the hands of God, infinite in his justice, goodness and mercy; and I feel that in such time as he may appoint he will give us the blessings of independence and peace. We are a wicked people, and the chastisement which we have suffered has not humbled and improved us as it ought. We have a just cause, but we do not deserve success if those who are here spend this time in blasphemy and wickedness, and those who are at home devote their energies to avarice and extortion. Fasting and prayer by such a people is blasphemy, and, if answered at all, will be by an infliction of God's wrath, not a dispensation of his mercy.  The future, as you say, darling, is dark enough. Though sound in health and strength, I feel that life to many of us hangs upon a slender thread. Whenever God wills it that mine pass from me, I feel that I can say in calm resignation, "Into thy hands I commend my spirit." In this feeling I am prepared to go forward in the discharge of my duty, striving to make every act and thought of my life conform to his law, and trusting with implicit faith in the salvation, promised through Christ. How I wish that I were better than I feel that I am; that when I close my eyes to-night I might feel certain that every thought, act and feeling of to-morrow would have its motive in love for God and its object in his glory! Well, so it is. Why is it we cannot feel sure that the sins of the past are never to be repeated? May God give me strength to be what I ought to be -- to do what I ought to do! And now, darling, good-bye. When we meet again, I hope you will have a better husband -- that your prayer and mine may be answered.

Paxton mentions snow in April. It must have been a cold late spring in 1863. 

LETTER FROM HENRY K. DOUGLAS TO MRS. PAXTON

May 4, 1863.

Henry Kyd Douglas

Madam: As the senior officer of Gen'l Paxton's staff, and a person with whom he was probably more intimate than with any one in the brigade, I deem it my duty, although a painful one, to notify you of the circumstances of his death. He fell yesterday morning while bravely leading his brigade into action, and lived only about an hour after receiving his wound. As soon as he was struck he lifted his hand to his breast-pocket. In that pocket I knew he kept his Bible and the picture of his wife, and his thoughts were at that moment of heaven and his home. Beloved and esteemed by officers and men, his loss is deeply mourned, and the brigade mingle their tears with those of his family relations. I have for some time thought that the General expected the first battle in which he led his brigade would be his last, and I had observed, and am satisfied from various conversations with him, that he was preparing his mind and soul for the occasion. It is a consolation to know that while he nobly did his duty in the field and camp without regard to personal consequences, he had been convinced that there was a home beyond this earth where the good would receive an eternal reward. For that home he had richly prepared himself, and, I confidently hope, is there now. Almost the last time I saw him, and just before the brigade moved forward into the fight, he was sitting behind his line of troops, and, amidst the din of artillery and the noise of shell bursting around him, he was calmly reading his Bible and there preparing himself like a Christian soldier for the contest. Dr. Cox, A. D. C., has already departed with his body for home.

Young Henry K. Douglas, promoted  to Brigade Assistant Inspector General,  was 24 years old when he wrote to Mrs. Paxton about her husband He managed to survived the war and lived to see in the 20th Century. He practiced law at Hagerstown, corresponded and wrote for the press about the War, and was active in veterans' affairs. He wrote his memoirs, I Rode With Stonewall (first published 1940). He led initiative for the re-burial of Confederates from the Antietam Battlefield to Hagerstown in 1877. He later ran for office in the Maryland Senate and U.S. Congress, but was unsuccessful. He was appointed Major General and was Adjutant General of Maryland 1892-96, and attorney to the Washington County Commission.Douglas is considered a somewhat unreliable historical source, both by his contemporaries and modern historians, as he tended to exaggerate his own significance and probably invented facts about his wartime experience. He has been considered a "suspect" in the loss of Gen Hill's copy of Special Order 191 near Frederick, though there is no proof that he had a role. Again another story. Col Henry K Douglas Drive in Hagerstown is named for him. How many of us have such unreliable war stories.  

Immediately after the war he was held as a witness at the trial of the Lincoln conspirators, having known some of them. That is clearly another story.