e ford two brigades of Sedgwick's division were sent to oppose
their passage.

General Long, in his life of Lee, finds excuse for Jackson in a story
that he was utterly exhausted, and that his staff let him sleep until
the sun was high. Apart from the unlikelihood that a man who seems to
have done without sleep whenever the enemy was in front should have
permitted himself to be overpowered at such a crisis, we have Colonel
Munford's evidence that the general was well in advance of his
columns at sunrise, and the regimental reports show that the troops
were roused at 2.30 A.M.

Jackson may well have been exhausted. He had certainly not spared
himself during the operations. On the night of the 27th, after the
battle of Gaines' Mill, he went over to Stuart's camp at midnight,
and a long conference took place. At 8.30 on the morning of the 29th
he visited Magruder, riding across Grapevine Bridge from McGehee's
House, and his start must have been an early one. In a letter to his
wife, dated near the White Oak Bridge, he says that in consequence of
the heavy rain he rose "about midnight" on the 30th. Yet his medical
director, although he noticed that the general fell asleep while he
was eating his supper the same evening, says that he never saw him
more active and energetic than during the engagement;* (* Letter from
Dr. Hunter McGuire to the author.) and Jackson himself, neither in
his report nor elsewhere, ever admitted that he was in any way to
blame.

It is difficult to conceive that his scrupulous regard for truth,
displayed in every action of his life, should have yielded in this
one instance to his pride. He was perfectly aware of the necessity of
aiding Longstreet; and if, owing to the obstacles enumerated in his
report, he thought the task impossible, his opinion, as that of a man
who as difficulties accumulated became the more determined to
overcome them, must be regarded with respect. The critics, it is
possible, have forgotten for the moment that the condition of the
troops is a factor of supreme importance in military operations.
General D.H. Hill has told us that "Jackson's own corps was worn out
by long and exhausting marches, and reduced in numbers by numerous
sanguinary battles; "* (* Battles and Leaders volume 2 page 389.) and
he records his conviction that pity for his troops had much to do
with the general's inaction. Hill would have probably come nearer the
truth if he had said that the tired regiment