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Offering a single page, ALS, 8 x 10, April 28, 1862, Headquarters 3rd Brigade near Harrisonburg. Our writer signs “C” and is believed to be Charles Horton, to "Dear Father." Fine content on Stonewall
Jackson and the Peninsula Campaign.
“I write you hastily as the Paymaster is just leaving for Washington and has promised to take on my money. I enclose you one hundred & fifty ($150) dollars which please place to my credit...All is quiet along here now. [Stonewall] Jackson is some ten miles off ready to run...His army is broken & demoralized. Our movements depend on the events before Yorktown. I should like much a small (when folded) & gold map of Virginia & the Southern States – Would you send me one.”
CHARLES HORTON (1836-1906) rose to the rank of Brevet Major and Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Volunteers, though at this time he was still a First Lieutenant. His portrayal of Jackson and his army as demoralized is laughable in hindsight, given what is to come in his Valley campaign. Though Jackson was retreating from the Valley around this time, by June Jackson’s 17,000 men marched 646 miles in 48 days, engaging three Union armies (52,000 men), preventing them from reinforcing the Union offensive against Richmond, and allowing Jackson to reinforce Lee in time to defend Richmond and repulse the Peninsula Campaign. Thus, this letter is a key window into the over confidence of the Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley arrayed against Jackson.
Toning. In good condition.
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