Hey everyone, thanks for downloading episode 141 of our Civil War podcast.

I'm Rich.

And I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast. In the last show after Stonewall Jackson was given an independent command of the newly formed Valley District, he set up his headquarters in Winchester, and then he embarked on two operations that met with mixed, if not outright dubious results.

First came the December 1861 outing to destroy Dam number five on the Potomac River in an attempt to cripple the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. But Jackson's success there was only temporary since the Federals had the damage repaired in a few days.

Then came the miserable expedition in January 1862 against Bath and Romney in the mountainous country northwest of Winchester, a campaign marred not only by brutal weather, but also by hard feelings between Stonewall and unhappy subordinates and between luring soldiers and the men of the Stonewall brigade.

After eventually receiving orders from Richmond to evacuate the newly seized Romney, Jackson had little to show to justify the expedition.

The suffering endured by men and animals in the harsh wintertime conditions and the unseemly bickering that erupted immediately afterward turned the campaign and its aftermath into a debacle.

For his part, Jackson was furious over what he believed had been a missed opportunity to capture all the Federals at Bath and he subsequently attempted to court marshal Colonel William Gillam for allowing the Yankees to escape.

As y'all recall, Gillam had been a fellow faculty member with Jackson at VMI before the war and then had led a brigade in the assault on Bath.

In January after the conclusion of the Bath Romney operation, Gillam had resigned from the service and returned to his teaching position at VMI so Jackson's charges against him weren't aggressively pursued by the Confederate War Department.

But that didn't prevent an upset Gillam from firing back at Stonewall's accusations. He placed the blame for the failure at Bath on Jackson, pointing out the general's questionable decision to use the militia instead of the Stonewall brigade.

In the attempt to cut off the Federals.

To be fair, it seems that both Gillam's feeble attack on Bath as well as Jackson's poor judgment in deploying the militia were at fault in allowing the Federals to escape the place.

In any case, Gillam's brigade had been a part of Lawrence's command and after the Bath Romney expedition nearly one-fifth of Lawrence's force was sick during January and February, which was a major factor in the battle.

The rift between Lawrence and Jackson and Lawrence's men and the soldiers of the Stonewall Brigade.

Lawrence troops came to despise Jackson's men, accusing the regiments of the Stonewall Brigade of receiving preferential treatment during the Winter campaign and its aftermath that resulted in greater discomfort for Lawrence troops.

The matter came to a head when Jackson ordered his Stonewall Brigade under the command of Richard Garnett to return to winter quarters at Winchester while instructing Lawrence's command to remain at Romney.

In late January, they're then transpired the unseemly episode with Lawrence's angry subordinates sending a petition to Richmond, giving vent to their discontent over as they saw it the rough and unfair handling of their troops by Jackson.

Lawrence forwarded the petition through proper channels, but he also went behind Jackson's back to lobby Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Secretary of War, G.D.P. Benjamin, to get his brigades withdrawn from Romney.

The result was that Davis, through Benjamin, wasted little time in ordering Jackson to pull Lawrence's men back to Winchester.

Stonewall was unhappy with such interference with his command, but he swiftly complied with the order, then however he tindered his resignation.

As he no doubt intended it would, Stonewall's resignation, sent through proper channels, had a significant shock effect on his superiors, both at Joe Johnston's headquarters and at the Confederate War Department.

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