“This
way, General Hood,” said the guide, gracefully saluting and
pointing northward, as the head of Longstreet’s column swung
toward the east. The guide, well mounted and wearing the uniform
of a Confederate cavalryman, sat at the forks of the road near the
little village of White Plains, in Faquir (sic) county, Virginia.
The
road which General Hood was taking leads to Thoroughfare Gap in Bull
Run Mountain, and is the only practicable approach to the field of
Manassas where Stonewall Jackson was then struggling with the army
of General Pope.”
These
are the opening paragraphs in a most intensely interesting pamphlet
recently written by Col. John Cussons, of Glen Allen, Va., in which
he relates, with accurate and thrilling detail, the arrest, speedy
trial by drum-head court martial and execution of Jack Sterry, the
Jessie Scout and federal spy, who by the most superb coolness and
daring, came so dangerously near defeating General Lee’s tactics
and procuring the defeat and ruin of Jackson’s corps at the
second battle of Manassas.
General
Lee had sent Jackson, by a detour of more than sixty miles, to the
rear of Pope’s army. Jackson seized Manassas Junction,
destroyed all of Pope’s supplies and was practically between
him and Washington City before Pope was aware of his presence. Jackson
was furiously assailed by Pope and McDowell and was fighting desperately
to hold his ground until he could be reinforced by Longstreet who
was rushing to his rescue.
Jackson’s
situation was desperate in the extreme. Pope was between him
and Richmond and he was between Pope and Washington. The long
lines of the federal army were closing in around his little army
that had marched and fought till it was fainting from exhaustion
and Longstreet still far away.
The
brigade to which I belonged was in Hood’s Division, which was
leading Longstreet’s corps, with General Hood riding at the
head of the column attended by his staff and Col. Cussons, commander
of the scouts. Cussons says it was 10 a.m. Aug. 28th,
1862. We were within fifteen miles of Jackson, with Bull Run
mountain between us. Thoroughfare Gap, the only available pass
through the mountain was seven miles ahead of us and McDowell on
the other side rushing to seize it before Hood could reach it. The
situation was desperate. If McDowell could seize and hold the
pass Longstreet would be cut off, Jackson would be crushed and the
whole tide of war would be changed.
It
was at this critical juncture that Hood encountered the handsome
and dashing young cavalryman at the forks of the road; the right
hand leading to Thoroughfare Gap and the left hand leading away somewhere
to the north that would have made it impossible for Longstreet to
join Jackson if Hood had been deceived by the bold and brilliant
young fellow who saluted and announced himself as a courier from
Jackson and informing Hood that McDowell had possession of the Gap
and that Jackson directed him to take the left hand and endeavor
to join him by way of Gum Springs from the north. But Hood
was too old a soldier to be caught, and right there begins the story
of the dramatic scene between Hood and Jack Sterry told in Col. Cusson’s
graphic and inimitable style. I wish everybody could read it
who appreciates and enjoys the romance of real history. I know
it to be literally true because I was present and witnessed the execution
of Jack Sterry, who in half an hour after he saluted General Hood,
was swinging from the limb of an oak tree that stood near the road.
Hood
took the right hand road, passed Thoroughfare Gap, joined Jackson
and Second Manassas with the route of Pope’s army went into
history. If you want to read a little unrecorded history in
one of the most tragic and fascinating episodes of war, send to Col.
John Cussons, Glen Allen, Va., for his little pamphlet because there
is another and previous chapter in the adventurous career of Jack
Sterry of which Col. Cussons has never heard and with which I happen
to be acquainted, and unless Jack Sterry’s companion is still
living in the north, I am the only living witness to what occurred,
except what little Senator Money remembers after my calling his attention
to it.
A
day or two before the first battle of Manassas and while Johnston’s
army was hurrying from the valley of the Shenandoah, through Ashby’s
Gap, to unite with Beauregard. I was in the little village
of Strasburg and got dinner in the house of a widow lady, a Mrs.
Eberle. My companions were H. D. (now Senator) Money, Dr.
Jas. S. Sanders and Lieutenant Albert G. Drake. I was then
six feet two inches in height and weighed about 135 pounds. My
beard had just begun to grow and I was dressed in the roundabout
gray of a private in the infantry. Two years later I was a
prisoner in the City of New York.
After
the battle of Gettysburg, when General Lee was preparing to retire,
Maj. Gen. Heath [Heth] sent me an order to remain there, as surgeon-in-chief
of the wounded of his division left on the ground, over 600 in number. Each
brigade in the division had, of course, its own corps of medical
officers, nurses and cooks. More than 5000 wounded Confederates
were left lying on the ground besides a large number more slightly
wounded who went to the rear with the army. My associates and
co-workers in Heath’s division were Dr. Southall of Virginia,
Dr. Emory of Tennessee, Dr. Green of North Carolina and Dr. Parker
of Mississippi. We remained on the field three weeks until
all of our wounded who had not died were distributed to different
federal hospitals, when our little party was sent to New York for
two or three weeks and afterwards confined for five months in Fort
McHenry near Baltimore.
One
day while in New York, a party of citizens called to take a look
at us. Among them was a very bitter south hating abolitionist
who tried to provoke me into a discussion of the Negro question. I
requested him to excuse me, reminding him that I was a prisoner and
that he and I could not settle that problem. Finally he became
so offensive that I fired a very hot shot at him. In the party
was a very fine looking officer, dressed in the uniform of major
in the United States army. I observed that he never spoke during
our conversation. The next day he called alone and said to
the officer in charge of us that he would like to speak to the “saucy
rebel” he had heard talking the day before. He asked
the officer to let him have charge of me for that day, promising
he would be responsible for me. He belonged to the regular
army and was a full blooded Irishman. He was a splendid fellow
and exceedingly kind to me, offered me money which I declined as
I then expected to be exchanged in a few days. He then took
me to his merchant and instructed him to let me have anything I wanted
in the way of clothing.
Through
his intercession I was given the liberty of the city without any
restraint except my promise to return to headquarters at night. This
explains why I was walking about the city without a guard. One
day I was strolling aimlessly along Broadway, cautious not to get
off very far for fear I would get lost, when a man stepped in front
of me, bowed gracefully and said “Good morning.” He
was at least six feet tall and would have weighed 180 pounds. He
was very erect with square shoulders and the carriage of a trained
soldier. He was elegantly dressed, his hair black and eyes
large, dark and penetrating, while a heavy black moustache drooped
gracefully around the corners of his mouth. His lower jaw was
rather broad and firmly set as he showed his white teeth and smiled
at me, he seemed to say “now I have you.” I was
uncomfortable, he saw it and was evidently amused. He said “I
think I know you.” I replied no sir, you do not, and
I certainly do not know you. He said “yes. I met
you once.” I asked where? He said “in the
Valley of Virginia.” I asked at what place? He
said “two years ago I took dinner with you in Strasburg at
the house of a widow lady, Mrs. Eberle, you had three friends with
you. While you were at dinner two cavalrymen came in and took
seats at the table. I sat directly in front of you on the
opposite side of the table and my companion sat next to you on your
right. You asked me what cavalry we belonged to and I told
you Ashby’s command. You then asked me a number of questions
about Ashby, where he was, the size of his command, etc.” Then
looking me straight in the eyes, he said, in a low, measured somewhat
incisive tone, “my friend who sat on your right was hung by
your people.” The announcement went through me like a
dagger of ice. I not only remember the two cavalrymen, in their
bright new unsoiled uniforms, and the conversation, but vividly recalled
the features of the man who stood before me and I distinctly recalled,
with a shiver, that the handsome young fellow who sat by my side
at dinner, was none other than the dashing and fearless Jack Sterry,
whom I had seen hanged at White Plains, but I had not the slightest
idea of admitting the truth of anything he said.
He
then told me that he saw me several months later at some other place,
but said he discovered that I did not recognize him and he did not
care to speak to me as he had realized that I was inclined to ask
embarrassing questions. Finally I said to him, well, I am
glad my people did not hang you. He said “yes, so am
I, but it was not their fault; they would have been mighty glad to
have done so. He said “I suppose you are a prisoner?” I
told him I was. He then said “well, you are doubtless
short of funds?” I told him I had none. He put
his hand in his pocket and said “I will be glad to help you
a little if you will accept it,” but I thanked him and declined. He
then shook hands and wished to know if he could serve me in any way. I
was the more astonished that he should have so promptly recognized
me because I had not shaved in two years, had gained flesh till I
weighed 165 pounds and had exchanged the dress of a private for the
uniform of a full surgeon with the rank of major on the collar.
During
the succeeding winters in Virginia, while enjoying the comforts of
warm clothing, furnished me by the generosity of the major, and which
could not be purchased in Richmond with gold, I often reflected that
an honest man seldom loses, in the long run, by speaking and defending
the truth. It was my candid statement of the facts that won
me the esteem and favor of an officer of the United States army and
procured my parole in the city of New York, but for which I would
never have met the comrade of Jack Sterry and would never have known
that the handsome young fellow I had seen executed at the forks of
the roads was the same man with whom I had dined a year before when
he was a federal spy in the disguise of a Confederate soldier.
_________________________________________________
Jack
Sterry, the Jessie Scout: An Incident of the Second Battle of Manassas
...
By John Cussons, (privately printed) 1907.