, and to keep on that road until he received further
orders. These further orders he never received; and it was certainly
not his place to march to the Charles City road until Lee, who was
with Longstreet, sent him instructions to do so. "General Jackson,"
says Dr. McGuire, "demanded of his subordinates implicit, blind
obedience. He gave orders in his own peculiar, terse, rapid way, and
he did not permit them to be questioned. He obeyed his own superiors
in the same fashion. At White Oak Swamp he was looking for some
message from General Lee, but he received none, and therefore, as a
soldier, he had no right to leave the road which had been assigned to
him. About July 18, 1862, the night before we started to
Gordonsville, Crutchfield, Pendleton (assistant adjutant-general),
and myself were discussing the campaign just finished. We were
talking about the affair at Frayser's Farm, and wondering if it would
have been better for Jackson with part of his force to have moved to
Longstreet's aid. The general came in while the discussion was going
on, and curtly said: "If General Lee had wanted me he could have sent
for me." It looked the day after the battle, and it looks to me now,
that if General Lee had sent a staff officer, who could have ridden
the distance in forty minutes, to order Jackson with three divisions
to the cross roads, while D.H. Hill and the artillery watched
Franklin, we should certainly have crushed McClellan's army. If Lee
had wanted Jackson to give direct support to Longstreet, he could
have had him there in under three hours. The staff officer was not
sent, and the evidence is that General Lee believed Longstreet strong
enough to defeat the Federals without direct aid from Jackson."* (*
Letter to the author.) Such reasoning appears incontrovertible.
Jackson, be it remembered, had been directed to guard the left flank
of the army "until further orders." Had these words been omitted, and
he had been left free to follow his own judgment, it is possible that
he would have joined Huger on the Charles City road with three
divisions. But in all probability he felt himself tied down by the
phrase which Moltke so strongly reprobates. Despite Dr. McGuire's
statement Jackson knew well that disobedience to orders may sometimes
be condoned. It may be questioned whether he invariably demanded
"blind" obedience. "General," said an officer, "you blame me for
disobedience of orders, but in Mexico you did the same yoursel