The gift was
timely, for "Little Sorrel," the companion of so many marches, was
lost for some days after the passage of the Potomac; but the
Confederacy was near paying a heavy price for the "good grey mare."
When Jackson first mounted her a band struck up close by, and as she
reared the girth broke, throwing her rider to the ground.
Fortunately, though stunned and severely bruised, the general was
only temporarily disabled, and, if he appeared but little in public
during his stay in Frederick, his inaccessibility was not due to
broken bones. "Lee, Longstreet, and Jackson, and for a time Jeb
Stuart," writes a staff officer, "had their headquarters near one
another in Best's Grove. Hither in crowds came the good people of
Frederick, especially the ladies, as to a fair. General Jackson,
still suffering from his hurt, kept to his tent, busying himself with
maps and official papers, and declined to see visitors. Once,
however, when he had been called to General Lee's tent, two young
girls waylaid him, paralysed him with smiles and questions, and then
jumped into their carriage and drove off rapidly, leaving him there,
cap in hand, bowing, blushing, speechless. But once safe in his tent,
he was seen no more that day.
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