Thy Will be Done

Every day, another Confederate memorial living on "borrowed time." Yesterday, a conservative publication "reproved" another such episode attempting to accrue support for a national sanction of J.E.B. Stuart High School in Falls Church, Virginia. Unfortunately, those who continue that 157 year agenda to purge every semblance of faith, honor, and Truth from America are continuing to succeed. While most of the rest don't know or care to know who J.E.B. Stuart even was.

"Seeing a brigade preparing to charge on his left. Gen. STUART and his staff dashed down the line to form troops to repel the charge. About this time the Yankees came thundering down upon the General and his small escort. Twelve shots were fired at the General at short range, the Yankees evidently recognizing his well-known person. The General wheeled upon them with the natural bravery which has always characterized him, and discharged six shots at his assailants. The last of the shots fired at him struck the General in the left side of the stomach. He did not fall, knowing he would be captured if he did, and, nerving himself in his seat, wheeled his horse's head and rode for the protection of his lines."

West Point graduate Stuart first served under his friend and kindred spirit Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. Union Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, said that the 31 year old Stuart was "the greatest cavalry officer ever foaled in America."

And in like fashion, was West Point graduate and Virginia Military Institute professor Stonewall Jackson, well studied in the tactics and the art of war, having visited fields of battle of the Napoleonic wars of Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, and England. However, he was even more familiar with the battles of the Bible, e.g., those incurred as Moses lead the children of Israel through the wilderness, Joshua's conquest of Canaan, the civil wars during the times of the Judges, the wars of Saul and David, the wars of the kings of Judah, the wars of the kings of Israel, and foremost, the Battle of Armageddon!

Jackson is arguably the greatest general in American history, ever snatching victory from situations full of peril, regardless of ever overwhelming odds! "Unlike" Grant by his own admission, "the vice of intemperance [drunkenness] had not a little to do with my decision to resign [from the military]." 

Unable to succeed in civilian life, Grant eventually reenlisted. Shortly after the fall of Fort Sumter, Lincoln offered Robert E. Lee the field command of all Union armies. An offer Grant was never to receive until a "desperate" Lincoln gave it in essentially the final year of the conflict. After Shiloh, the Northern press blamed Grant's drunkenness during battle for high casualties, and after Grant's Wilderness Campaign concluding with the assault on Cold Harbor (over 80,000 casualties⁴), North and South alike castigated him as "The Butcher."

However, Jackson and Stuart, even as they drove themselves and their men to the limit of "flesh and blood" endurance against hopeless odds, their men would follow them anywhere as the "Stonewall Brigade" song "Stonewall Jackson's Way" attests:

Silence! ground arms! kneel all! caps off!

Old "Blue Lights"³ going to pray.
Strangle the fool that dares to scoff!
Attention! it's his way.
Appealing from his native sod,
In forma pauperis to God,

And they had one more thing in common: Jackson biographer, Robert Lewis Dabney, writes "It was the fear of God which made him so fearless of all else." Yes, Jackson felt "as safe in battle as in bed" for he knew: "The LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S" (1Sa 17:47).


"Stonewall Jackson's Way"

Come, stack arms, men! Pile on the rails,
Stir up the camp-fire bright;
No matter if the canteen fails,
We'll make a rousing night!
Here Shenandoah brawls along,
And burly Blue-Ridge echoes strong,
To swell our brigade's rousing song
Of "Stonewall Jackson's way."

We see him now, -- the old slouched hat,
Cocked o'er his eye askew;
The shrewd, dry smile, - the speech so pat,
So calm, so blunt, so true.
The "Blue-Light Elder" his foe knows well.
Says he, "Says he, "That's Banks, -- he's fond of shell;
Lord save his soul! we'll give him ---;" well,"
In Stonewall Jackson's way.

Silence! ground arms! kneel all! caps off!
Old "Blue Lights" going to pray.
Strangle the fool that dares to scoff!
Attention! it's his way.
Appealing from his native sod,
In forma pauperis to God,
Say ""Lay bare Thine arm; stretch forth Thy rod!
Amen!" That's "Stonewall's way."

He's in the saddle now, Fall in!
Steady! the whole brigade!
Hill's at the ford, cut off, we'll win
His way out, ball and blade!
What matter if our shoes are worn?
What matter if our feet are torn?
Quick-step! we're with him before morn!
That's "Stonewall Jackson's way."

The sun's bright lances rout the mists
Of morning, and by George!
Here's Longstreet, struggling in the lists,
Hemmed in an ugly gorge.
Pope and his Yankees, whipped before,
"Bay'nets and grape!" hear Stonewall roar;
"Charge, Stuart! Pay off Ashby's score!"
In "Stonewall Jackson's way."

Ah! Maiden, wait and watch and yearn
For news of Jackson's band!
Ah! Widow, read, with eyes that burn,
That ring upon thy hand.
Ah! Wife, sew on, pray on, hope on;
Thy life shall not be all forlorn
The foe had better ne'er been born
That gets in "Stonewall's way."

(John Williamson Palmer, 1825-1906)


The Richmond Examiner, regarding the "Flower of Cavaliers": -- in "No incident of mortality, since the fall of the great JACKSON, has occasioned more painful regret than this. Major-Gen. J.E.B. STUART, the model of Virginian cavaliers and dashing chieftain, whose name was a terror to the enemy, and familiar as a household word in two continents, is dead, struck down by a bullet from the dastardly foe, and the whole Confederacy mourns him. He breathed out his gallant spirit resignedly, and in the full possession of all his remarkable faculties of mind and body, at twenty-two minutes to 8 o'clock, Thursday night. ...

About noon, President Davis... said: "General, now do you feel?" He replied, "Easy, put willing to die, if God and my country think I have fulfilled my destiny and done my duty." ... As evening wore on the paroxysms of pain increased, and mortification set in rapidly. Though suffering the greatest agony at times, the General was calm, and applied to the wound, with his own hand, the ice intended to relieve the pain.

During the evening he asked Dr. BREWER how long he thought he could live, and whether it was possible for him to survive through the night. The doctor, knowing he did not desire to be buoyed by false hopes, told him frankly that death -- the last enemy -- was rapidly approaching. The General nodded, and said, "I am resigned if it be God's will; but I would like to live to see my wife. But God's will be done." Several times he roused up and asked if she had come.

To the doctor, who sat holding his wrist and counting the fleeting, weakening pulse, he remarked, "Doctor, I suppose I am going fast now. It will soon be over. But God's will be done. I hope I have fulfilled my duty to my country and my duty to my God."

At 7 1/2 oclock it was evident to the physicians that death was setting its clammy seal upon the brave, open brow of the General, and told him so -- asked if he had any last message to give. The General, with mind perfectly clear and possessed, then made dispositions of his staff and personal effects. To Mrs. Gen. R.E. LEE he directed that the golden spurs [presented to Major-Gen. Stuart by the "Ladies of Baltimore"] be given as a dying memento of his love and esteem of her husband. To his staff officers he gave his horses... . Other mementoes he disposed of in a similar manner. To his young son, he left his glorious sword.

His worldly matters closed, the eternal interests of his soul engaged his mind. Turning to Rev. Mr. PETERKIN, ... he asked him to sing the hymn commencing,

"Rock of ages cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in thee," 

he joining in with all the voice his strength would permit. He then joined in prayer with the ministers. To the doctor he again said: "I am going fast now; I am resigned; God's will be done." And thus the dashing soldier "fell on sleep," and left behind the record of a noble life, and a simple trust in Christ — the prophecy of a blissful immortality, where charging squadrons and clashing sabers never disturbed the "rest that remaineth for the people of God.".

As Richmond mourned in the darkness, "songs in the night" were forever quenched, and men of honor fell silent, the night the Confederacy died.

Was a war between brethren God's will? I think not!

Six "things doth the LORD hate," And a seventh, "he that soweth discord among brethren" (cf. Proverbs 6:16-19).

Were Stuart and Jackson conformed to God's will? Of that, I have no uncertainty!

""And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son" (cf. Romans 8:27-29).


¹ By Unknown - Stuart, - in the public domain due to copyright expiring.

² By Unknown - Jackson, - in the public domain due to copyright expiring.

³"Blue Light": a brilliant light used to illumine the field of battle; alternately, a military commander whose God-fearing life burns as brightly as his namesake light.

⁴To end the war, Grant repeatedly attacked during the summer of 1864. His first campaign against Lee's Army of Northern Virginia became known as the Wilderness Campaign. Grant's Army of the Potomac, numbering approximately 120,000 men, advanced across the Rapidan River into a place in Virginia known as the Wilderness. It was called the Wilderness due to the large number of trees and dense ground cover in the area. Lee met Grant's army, in the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5 and 6, 1864. Despite having just one-half the number of men that the Union had available for the battle, the Confederates succeeded in blunting the Union advance.

Unlike other Union commanders before him, Grant refused to retreat. He ordered his men to flank Lee's army and advance to Spotsylvania Courthouse. The Army of Northern Virginia managed to intercept Grant's force, and the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse lasted from May 8 to May 19, 1864. Again, Lee's men stopped Grant's army. Grant, however, continued to advance, meeting Lee's men at the Battle of Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864. In a little over one hour, the Union Army suffered seven thousand casualties.

The Battle of Cold Harbor marked the end of Grant's campaign to defeat the Confederacy easily. During the month or so of fighting, the Union suffered almost sixty thousand casualties to the Confederate's twenty thousand. Despite the tremendous difference in the numbers of men killed and wounded, Grant had a large supply of troops in reserve, and the Union was able to recover from these high losses.

⁴Ohio History Central, Ohio History Connection, "Wilderness Campaign"
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