" A little later
the child was taken ill, and after his removal from Moss Neck he
heard that she had died. "The general," writes his aide-de-camp,
"wept freely when I brought him the sad news." Yet in the
administration of discipline Jackson was far sterner than General
Lee, or indeed than any other of the generals in Virginia. "Once on
the march, fearing lest his men might stray from the ranks and commit
acts of pillage, he had issued an order that the soldiers should not
enter private dwellings. Disregarding the order, a soldier entered a
house, and even used insulting language to the women of the family.
This was reported to Jackson, who had the man arrested, tried by
drum-head court-martial, and shot in twenty minutes."* (* Bright
Skies and Dark Shadows. Reverend H.M. Field, D.D. page 286.) He never
failed to confirm the sentences of death passed by courts-martial on
deserters. It was in vain that his oldest
friends, or even the chaplains, appealed for a mitigation of the
extreme penalty. "While he was in command at Winchester, in December
1861, a soldier who was charged with striking his captain was tried
by court-martial and sentenced to be shot. Knowing that the breach of
discipline had been attended with many extenuating circumstances,
some of us endeavoured to secure his pardon.
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