MY DIAS Ginurruu.:— I have the pleasure of you a commission of brigadier-general in the Army; and to feel you merit it. May your advancement increase your usefulness to the State.
Very truly, R. E. Um But it was in the battle of first Manassas (Bull Run) that Jackson won his new name and fame, and the ringing words of the gallant Bee: ((There stands Jackson like a stone wall,' changed the name of 'Thomas Jonathan' into the immortal 'Stonewall' Jackson. He was wounded in the hand but refused to leave the field, and while the surgeons were dressing his wounds President Davis rode on the field, and Jackson, pushing aside the surgeons, tossed his cadet cap in the air and exclaimed: °Hurrah for the President. Give me ten thousand men and I will be in Washington to-night!' In September he was made major-general, and was sent on 4 October to command the °Valley District* and enter in the early part of 1862 on that famous Walley Campaign,' which is now studied in military academies in Europe as illustrative of able strategy, rapid movements, and heroic fighting. In March he fell back
before Banks' army of 35,000 men, and Banks reported him sin full retreat from the valley' and started a column to cross the mountains and attack Johnston in flank as he was falling back from Manassas, when Jackson suddenly turned, marched 18 miles in the morning, and with 2,700 men fought at Kernstown, near Winchester, 8,000 of the enemy, and though, sustaining the only defeat that ever befell him he accomplished his purpose in recalling the column which was moving on Johnston's flank, quietly moved up the valley and took a strong position in Swift Run Gap from which he could easily defend himself or strike the enemy if he attempted to move on Staunton. Ewell's divi sion coming to take his place, he left this grim soldier to watch Banks, and moved so secretly that neither friend nor foe had divined his plans until he thrilled the Confederacy and sent terror to the North by the following laconic and Char acteristic dispatch: Valley District. May 9th, 1862.