Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to episode number 139 of our Civil War Podcast.

I'm Rich and I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast with this show we're going to continue with Stonewall Jackson's story which we're covering because we think it's really interesting and hope that you do too. But it's also going to lead us up to the spring and early summer of 1862 and Jackson's famous Valley campaign.

With the last episode we flew low and fast through the story of Thomas Jonathan Jackson's life and ended the show with the day in April 1861 when Jackson left Lexington with the contingent of 176 Virginia Military Institute cadets leading them to Richmond where the young men were to act as drill masters for the raw recruits volunteering to fight for the old dominion in the Civil War that had just begun.

Jackson and the VMI cadets arrived in Richmond on the night of April 22nd 1861 and several days later Thomas Jackson received an appointment as a colonel in Virginia State forces. The next day he was told that he was to take command at Harper's Ferry, a place of great strategic value at the northeast corner of the Shenandoah Valley where the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers converge in turbulent splendor.

As you guys will recall we've talked about Harper's Ferry before, most notably in connection with John Brown's raid on the place in 1859. But then in 1861 after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, a mob of Virginia volunteers and militia swarmed into Harper's Ferry on the evening of April 18th to drive off its 44 man federal garrison and take control of the place, which not only contained the important US armory or arms

of the manufacturing plant, but the town was also located on one of the Union's key railroad lines, not to mention that just across the way was the Chesapeake, Ohio Canal.

While many people considered Harper's Ferry to be the geographical key to the Shenandoah Valley, that distinction actually belonged to Winchester. Nevertheless, Harper's Ferry could lay claim to being the northernmost outpost in the Confederacy.

The towns in the war became a bit infatuated with the fact that Harper's Ferry was actually northwest of Washington, D.C. But any good field officer would immediately discern that Harper's Ferry was an almost impossible place to defend.

The town snuggled in a hollow formed by mountains on three sides and artillery placed on those surrounding heights could blast Harper's Ferry and everything in it to pieces.

At the start of the Civil War, Virginia authorities overlooked this vulnerability and said about garrisoning the place.

When Jackson arrived at Harper's Ferry, he found about 2,500 men assembled there, a mixture of green recruits who had volunteered for Virginia State Forces and excited local militia units from the nearby area that had shown up to take part in the fun.

All led by an assortment of brilliantly clad militia officers, including one major general and three brigadiers, despite the fact that organization didn't exist beyond 100 man companies.

Into this tangle of inexperience and pomposity came Colonel Jackson. Dressed in his plane, well-worn blue uniform jacket, with a faded cap tilted down over his eyes, he seemed to sorry substitute for the godly ornamented figures he was successful.

A newspaper correspondent spent a few minutes in Jackson's presence and concluded, quote,

quote,

the deposed officers had nearly all left for home or for Richmond in a high state of indignation.

In Bowdoin noted that soon enough, quote,

the presence of a mastermind was visible in the changed condition of the camp, perfect order ranked everywhere, instruction in the details of military duties occupied Jackson's whole time.

He was the easiest man in our army to get along with pleasantly, so long as one did his duty, but inexorable as fate in exacting the performance of it. End quote.

Jackson spent seven hours a day drilling his green troops and also found time for them to work, fortifying the rugged heights that surrounded Harper's fairy.

That newspaper correspondent Rich reference, just a moment ago, may have missed the mark in evaluating Thomas Jackson's leadership potential, but he hit the nail on the head when he noted that Jackson was a man of few words.

The newspaper man may have been the first, but wasn't the last observer during the war to remark upon Jackson's silence.

...