had volunteered for twelve
months, and whose time had expired, demanded their discharge. On this
being refused, as the Conscription Act was now in force, they threw
down their arms, and refused to serve another day. Colonel Grigsby
referred to the General for instructions. Jackson's face, when the
circumstances were explained, set hard as flint. "Why," he said,
"does Colonel Grigsby refer to me to learn how to deal with
mutineers? He should shoot them where they stand." The rest of the
regiment was ordered to parade with loaded muskets; the insubordinate
companies were offered the choice of instant death or instant
submission. The men knew their commander, and at once surrendered.
"This," says Dabney, "was the last attempt at organised disobedience
in the Valley army."

CHAPTER 1.10. WINCHESTER.

1862. May.

That week in May when the Army of the Valley marched back to the
Shenandoah was almost the darkest in the Confederate annals. The
Northern armies, improving daily in discipline and in efficiency, had
attained an ascendency which it seemed impossible to withstand. In
every quarter of the theatre of war success inclined to the Stars and
Stripes. At the end of April New Orleans, the commercial metropolis
of the South, had fallen to the Federal navy. Earlier in the month a
great battle had been fought at Shiloh, in Tennessee; one of the most
trusted of the Confederate commanders had been killed;* (* General
A.S. Johnston.) his troops, after a gallant struggle, had been
repulsed with fearful losses; and the upper portion of the
Mississippi, from the source to Memphis, had fallen under the control
of the invader. The wave of conquest, vast and irresistible, swept up
every navigable river of the South; and if in the West only the
outskirts of her territory were threatened with destruction, in
Virginia the roar of the rising waters was heard at the very gates of
Richmond. McClellan, with 112,000 men, had occupied West Point at the
head of the York River; and on May 16 his advance reached the White
House, on the Pamunkey, twenty miles from the Confederate capital.
McDowell, with 40,000 men, although still north of the Rappahannock,
was but five short marches distant.* (* Directly McClellan closed in
on Richmond, McDowell was ordered, as soon as Shields should join
him, to march from Manassas to his assistance. Lincoln and Stanton
had recovered confidence when Jackson returned to the Valley from
Mechum's Station.) The Fe