Calamity at Chancellorsville Read online

  McGuire thought Jackson was stable enough for the move to Guiney Station the next morning, and informed the general that he planned on accompanying him. In response, Jackson said he “very much” wanted McGuire with him, but that it was not fair to the rest of the army. He knew it must have been difficult for McGuire to operate on a friend, and he thanked him for his care, but he could not permit him to come along: “You belong to the corps, Doctor, and not to me.”29

  Sandie Pendleton, however, was not about to stand by and let someone else care for Jackson, particularly when he knew the general preferred McGuire. He quietly left to inform General Lee of the situation. Later that night, Pendleton returned with an order written in Lee’s own hand directing McGuire to turn his corps duties over to Black and to stay with the general as long as necessary. “General Lee has always been very kind to me,” Jackson said after being told of the order. “I thank him.”30

  1 “Sketch of the Life of Hunter Holmes McGuire,” Hotchkiss Collection, reel 39, LC; Hunter H. McGuire, “Dr. McGuire Narrative,” Dabney-Jackson Collection, box 2, LVA; McGuire, “Reminiscences of the Famous Leader,” 301.

  2 McGuire, “Reminiscences of the Famous Leader,” 303-304; McGuire, “Dr. McGuire Narrative”; Jackson, Life and Letters, 177-178.

  3 McGuire, “Reminiscences of the Famous Leader,” 303-304; McGuire, “Dr. McGuire Narrative.”

  4 McGuire, “Reminiscences of the Famous Leader,” 303-304.

  5 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; Smith, “Lt. Smith Narrative.”

  6 Smith, “Lt. Smith Narrative”; McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; Benjamin W. Leigh to wife, May 12, 1863.

  7 Howell, “Ambulance Driver.”

  8 Hunter H. McGuire, “Death of Stonewall Jackson,” in SHSP (1886), vol. 14, 156; McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson.”

  9 Black started the war as regimental surgeon of the 4th Virginia. In December 1862, he was appointed by McGuire to be the surgeon in charge of the newly created field hospital of the Second Corps. Despite his direct involvement in Jackson’s surgery and care, Black does not mention the event in his surviving letters. See Glenn L. McMullen, ed., A Surgeon with Stonewall Jackson: The Civil War Letters of Dr. Harvey Black (Baltimore, MD, 1995).

  10 Ibid., 2.

  11 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson.” In A Manual of Military Surgery for the Use of Surgeons in the Confederate States Army (Columbia, SC, 1864), author J. Julian Chisolm wrote: “[I]n gunshot fracture of the long bones remove, without fail, and as soon after the accident as possible, all fragments of bone” (368). Despite using unsterile techniques and lacking antibiotics, the Civil War mortality rate following amputation of the upper one-third of the arm—the surgery Jackson received—was only 13.6 percent. See George A. Otis, Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (Washington, D.C., 1876), pt. 2, vol. 2, 698.

  12 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; Smith, “Lt. Smith Narrative.” Dabney and subsequent authors listed Black as monitoring the pulse and Coleman giving the anesthetic, but Smith’s narrative clearly states: “chloroform administered by Dr. Black, Coleman watched pulse, McGuire amputated and Walls took up arteries.” Given Black’s position and experience, he most likely performed the delicate job of administering the anesthetic. J. William Walls was the regimental surgeon of the 5th Virginia and was a faculty member of the Winchester Medical College prior to the Civil War. For a brief biographical sketch, see Transactions of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland (Baltimore, MD, 1881), 35-36. Robert T. Coleman was the chief surgeon of Isaac Trimble’s division in the Second Corps. For a brief biographical sketch, see William B. Atkinson, A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary American Physicians and Surgeons (Philadelphia, PA, 1880), 286-287.

  13 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; Hunter H. McGuire, “Last Wound of the Late Gen. Jackson (Stonewall)—The Amputation of the Arm—His Last Moments and Death,” Richmond Medical Journal (1866), vol. 1, 403-412; Smith, “Lt. Smith Narrative.”

  14 McGuire would later write in letter dated March 7, 1870, that he believed the wounds in the left arm were also made by round balls fired from a smooth-bore musket. See “How Stonewall Jackson Died,” De Bow’s Review (May/June 1870), vol. 8, 477-478.

  15 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; Smith, “Lt. Smith Narrative.”

  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, February 19, 1873.

  17 Joseph G. Morrison to Spier Whitaker, June 27, 1900; James P. Smith to Jedediah Hotchkiss, April 30, 1886, Jed Hotchkiss Papers, VHS; Smith, “Lt. Smith Narrative”; McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson.”

  18 Smith, “Stonewall Jackson’s Last Battle,” 213.

  19 Henderson, Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War, vol. 2, 380-381.

  20 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; McGuire, “Last Wound of the Late Gen. Jackson (Stonewall),” 407. Mustard is a rubefacient, or skin irritant, that does not cause blistering, and was used to create a reaction of warmth in the same fashion as mild irritant creams are used today.

  21 Lacy, “Narrative.”

  22 Susan P. Lee, Memoirs of William Nelson Pendleton (Philadelphia, PA, 1893), 271.

  23 Lacy, “Narrative.”

  24 Ibid. John S. Apperson also saw the arm on the ground as he walked over to the tent shortly after the surgery. In his diary on May 3, 1863, he wrote: “All was quiet and outside the tent lay the amputated arm wrapped up.” See W. G. Bean, “Stonewall Jackson’s Jolly Chaplain, Beverly Tucker Lacy,” in West Virginia History (January 1968), 89. Much speculation has occurred over the years concerning the exact location of Jackson’s arm. Archeological excavation of the marker site by the National Park Service in 1998 failed to discover any evidence of the arm. There is no doubt Lacy buried the arm in the cemetery, but Smith apparently placed the marker to indicate only the approximate location of its burial. See Appendix I for a more thorough discussion.

  25 Smith, “Lt. Smith Narrative.”

  26 Jackson, Life and Letters, 462.

  27 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; Samuel E. Lewis, “General T. J. Jackson (Stonewall) and his Medical Director, Hunter McGuire, M.D., at Winchester, May 1862,” in The Southern Practitioner (October 1902), vol. 24, 553-564; OR, Series II, vol. 4, 44-46, 784.

  28 Smith, “Lt. Smith Narrative”; McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson”; McGuire, “Last Wound of the Late Gen. Jackson,” 407-408.

  29 McGuire, “Last Hours of Stonewall Jackson.”

  30 Ibid.; McGuire, “Last Wound of the Late Gen. Jackson,” 408.

  Chapter Eight

  An Old Familiar Face

  Stonewall Jackson slept well through the first full night following the amputation of his arm and awoke early on Monday morning May 4, 1863, ready for his long journey—27 miles—to Guiney Station. The plans were for him to stay at the comfortable home of Thomas Coleman Chandler, a “Christian gentleman” by Jackson’s description, who owned and operated a 700-acre plantation called Fairfield that was located near the railroad station. Jackson had met the Chandler family the previous December when he and the Second Corps had camped on the grounds of the estate prior to the battle of Fredericksburg. During that time, the Chandlers offered Jackson the use of their large house as his headquarters, but the general politely refused, saying “he never wished to fare better than his soldiers.” He remained instead in a tent within sight of the house and even declined to accept the special meals Mrs. Chandler repeatedly sent for his enjoyment.1

  McGuire asked the officer in charge of the ambulance corps to provide “one of his most careful drivers” to handle the wagon for the ride to Guiney Station, and the detail was given to a 21-year-old Georgian named John J. Carson. After enlisting in the 12th Georgia Regiment at the start of the war, Carson had been wounded in 1861 and was serving on the
ambulance corps until he was well enough to return to the front line. A mattress was placed in the back of Carson’s ambulance to make the general’s ride more comfortable, and by 6:00 a.m. all was ready for the trip to Fairfield.2

  Under a small cavalry escort, the ambulance left Wilderness Tavern at a slow pace, with McGuire sitting in the wagon next to Jackson as Smith and Lacy rode alongside on horseback. A party of pioneers—the Civil War equivalent of modern-day combat engineers—traveled ahead of the ambulance. Led by Jed Hotchkiss, these men cleared the road of obstacles and asked other wagons along the way to move out of the road to make room for the ambulance. The callous teamsters they met along the road would initially refuse to make way for the ambulance until Hotchkiss told them it contained Jackson. Then, with hats in hand, the drivers would stand on the side of the road as the wagon passed, some weeping and others commenting, “I wish it was me, sir.”3

  The route to Guiney Station took them down the Brock Road past Todd’s Tavern and through the community of Spotsylvania Court House. The road was in “bad shape,” according to Carson, and when coming to a rough spot he could not avoid, he would alert McGuire, who “would place one hand on the general’s breast and the other on his back in order to steady him.” The weather was pleasant, though a bit warm, and a cheerful Jackson conversed freely and often during the trip. He commented that he felt “far more comfortable than he had a right to expect,” and McGuire thought at the time that all “promised well for his case.” Jackson hoped to rest at Fairfield for only a couple of days before proceeding by train to Ashland en route to his Lexington home, where he thought the “pure mountain air would soon heal his wounds.”4

  Along the way to Fairfield, Jackson discussed the battle of Chancellorsville and how his plans had been to take a position between the Federals and the river by cutting them off from the U.S. Ford and obliging them to attack him. “My men sometimes fail to drive the enemy from a position,” he offered, “but they always fail to drive us away.” He thought Hooker had devised an excellent strategy to defeat the Confederates, but had made a fatal mistake in sending away his cavalry: “It was that which enabled me to turn him, without his being aware of it, and to take him by his rear.”5

  Jackson spoke highly of Rodes—“he is a soldier”—and also praised the work of Col. Edward Willis of the 12th Georgia, Carson’s old unit. As further commentary on the bravery of his officers, Jackson expressed the opinion that men should be promoted on the field for gallantry; as such actions “would be the greatest incentives to gallantry in others.” He then spoke with deep regret of the deaths of Paxton and Boswell, believing they had been officers of great merit and promise.6

  At some point during the long, slow ride, Jackson suffered from a small bout of nausea and asked for a wet towel to be placed over his stomach. McGuire saw no harm in the request, so he had Carson stop the ambulance at a roadside stream to obtain some cool water. McGuire said the general “expressed great relief” from the moist cloth, and with the surgeon dampening “it once or twice for him when it became dry,” Jackson remained free of complaints for the remainder of the trip.

  An 1872 photograph of the front of the outbuilding at Fairfield.

  Author’s Collection

  * * *

  As word spread along the way that Jackson was coming down the road, residents ran out to see him. “Along the whole route,” McGuire wrote, “women rushed to the ambulance bringing all the poor delicacies they had and with tearful eyes, blessed him and prayed for his recovery.” Near Spotsylvania Court House, the group stopped to eat and met a baggage wagon that happened to have mail for the general. Jackson wanted to save it for later reading and asked Smith to put the letters in his pocket until they arrived at Fairfield.7

  The Chandler residence was a large, brick house with several outbuildings surrounded by fruit trees, vegetables gardens, and flowering shrubs. One hundred and fifty yards behind the main dwelling, a single track of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad stretched to Guiney Station, a quarter of a mile south of the homestead. Thomas and Mary Chandler lived in the house along with their children, including an 11-year-old daughter, Lucy. An older son named Joseph was a physician who lived with his wife in a house near Fairfield.

  Present-day photograph of the right rear of outbuilding. Window to Jackson’s room is in the foreground.

  Author’s Collection

  * * *

  Mary Chandler and Lucy were sitting on the front porch of the house around 4:00 p.m. when a courier swiftly rode up to inform them that Jackson had been wounded and was on his way by ambulance to stay at their home. After assuring the courier she would do all she could to accommodate the general, Mrs. Chandler and two slaves went to work turning the first-floor parlor into a bedroom, as the other rooms in the house were already occupied by several wounded soldiers from the battle of Chancellorsville.

  When the ambulance was two miles from Fairfield, Tucker Lacy quickly rode ahead to check on the accommodations. Standing in the make-shift parlor bedroom, he noticed the coming and going of nurses attending the wounded and heard the trampling of feet in the rooms overhead.

  “I do not think this will suit,” the chaplain said to Mrs. Chandler. “There is too much noise.” Doctor McGuire, Lacy informed her, wanted Jackson to be undisturbed during his recovery, and there was clearly too much activity in the house. Mary Chandler promised to keep the place quiet; however, realizing that would be impossible, Lacy inquired whether the small, frame structure he had noticed to the left of the main house was occupied. She told him the building was practically empty, as the interior had just been whitewashed. Lacy asked to see the inside.8

  The one-and-a-half-story outbuilding consisted of several rooms on the ground floor that had been used as an office by Joseph Chandler when he first began practicing medicine. A small anteroom in the entry contained a staircase to the second floor and doors leading to three other rooms. The room to the back right of the entrance hall had a fireplace and a window that looked out onto the railroad track behind the plantation house. Inside the room, Lucy Chandler recalled, was a four-poster wooden bed of “the old-fashioned kind that you wind up with a rope.” The building was isolated from the rest of the house yet easily accessible, seemingly ideal for the general. Lacy asked Mrs. Chandler to have the place “fitted up to receive him.” Leaving her to complete the task, he mounted his horse and rode back to the meet the ambulance.9

  Mary Chandler quickly covered the bed with blankets and arranged furniture in the building to make the rooms more comfortable. On the fireplace mantel, she placed a Gothic-styled pendulum clock that Jackson would be able to see while lying in bed. A recent thunderstorm had cooled the outside temperature, so, as a final measure, she lit a small fire in the room to take the edge off the evening chill.

  It was close to 8:00 p.m. before the ambulance finally arrived at the Fairfield homestead. Waiting for them at the gate of a small wooden fence that separated the outbuilding from the front yard was the patriarch of the estate, Thomas C. Chandler. As Jackson was being removed from the ambulance, Chandler told the general he was glad to see him again, but sorry to hear he was wounded. Jackson thanked him for his hospitality andapologized for not being able to shake hands, as “one arm was gone and the right hand was wounded.”10

  Four-poster bed Jackson used at Fairfield.

  Author’s Collection

  * * *

  Jackson was carried by stretcher into the building and gently placed in bed. McGuire then gave specific instructions that no one was to enter the room without permission except himself, Smith, and Jackson’s servant Jim Lewis. Lacy, who was thereby denied unlimited access to the general, would later complain to an aide about the surgeon’s restrictions on Jackson’s conversations; the chaplain believed he could have talked to the general more “without injury to his wound.”11

  As the long day drew to a close, McGuire noted that the wearied Jackson drifted off to sleep, but not before drinking some tea
and eating bread “with evident relish.”

  Although Jackson had tolerated the ride to Fairfield “very well,” McGuire was concerned about the possibility of a secondary hemorrhage developing in the stump as a result of the rough travel, so the cautious surgeon “sat up with him the whole of this night.” In the end, Jackson slept peacefully and awoke Tuesday morning “safe” and “quite comfortable,” according to the physician.12

  That morning, May 5, Jimmy Smith sent a short telegram from Guiney Station to Virginia’s governor and Jackson’s friend, John Letcher:

  “Genl. Jackson is here. He has lost his left arm and is doing remarkably well. Let Mrs. J remain until further arrangements.”13

  Jed Hotchkiss also came by for a visit and found the general “cheerful.” Jackson was slightly annoyed by the cold he had caught the night before his wounding, but felt it was of no particular importance. When the cartographer asked for orders, Jackson instructed him to report to General Lee, as the commander was sure to need his services as the battle continued. As Hotchkiss left, Jackson expressed a desire to see more staff members and friends, but McGuire, believing the general still needed rest, advised against it.

  Lacy, however, was permitted in at 10:00 a.m. to pray with Jackson, using bible verses personally selected by the general. Jackson continued to express “faith and hope in his Redeemer” and believed he would fully recover from his wounds, as God still had work for him to do in defense of his country. When Lacy related that he had heard Hooker was entrenching north of Chancellorsville, Jackson replied, “That is bad, very bad.”14