Lieutenant
General
Jubal Early, C.S.A.
At
Antietam, Brig. Gen. Jubal Early led a brigade under Stonewall Jackson
in the West Woods near the Dunker Church. He participated in the massacre
in the West Woods that brought the morning phase of that battle to an
end.
After crossing the Potomac again in 1864, Lieut. Gen. Early revisited the battlefield. "While at Sharpsburg on this occasion, I rode over the ground on which the battle of Sharpsburg or Antietam, as it is called by the enemy, was fought, and I was surprised to see how few traces of that great battle remained in the woods at the famous Dunkard or Tunker Church, where, from personal observation at the battle, I expected to find the trees terribly broken and battered, a stranger would find difficulty in identifying the marks of the bullets and shells."
Comparisons between Early and Stonewall Jackson were inevitable since he led units once commanded by Jackson through some of the same territory. Early was criticized for
not moving with the speed Jackson could muster. In his memoirs Early seems to counterbalance this with a listing of his accomplishments, "I had then made a march, over the circuitous route Charlottesville, Lynchburg and Salem, down the Valley and through the passes of the South Mountain, which, notwithstanding the delays in dealing with Hunter's, Sigel's, and Wallace's forces, is, for its length and rapidity I believe, without a parallel in this or any other modern war---"
Available online
Autobiographical
Sketch and Narrative of the War Between the States
Jubal Anderson Early, 1816-1894
Philadelphia, London: J.B. Lippincott
Co., 1912 (University of North Carolina/Library of Congress)
Another accomplishment that apparently pleased Early is revealed by staff Officer Major Henry Kyd Douglas, who had also been on Stonewall Jackson's staff. On the evening Of July 12, 1864, after deciding to withdraw from Washington, Gen. Early called his staff together. At this meeting, Early said in his falsetto drawl: "Major we haven't taken Washington, but we scared Abe Lincoln like hell!"
