I Rode With Stonewall

Stonewall Jackson depended on him; General Lee complimented him; Union soldiers admired him; and women in Maryland, Virginia, and even Pennsylvania adored him—the young, dashing, handsome Henry Kyd Douglas. He rode with Stonewall; he fought by the model of the incomparable Ashby; he lived, joked, and courted with Jeb Stuart.

From his meeting with John Brown, alias Isaac Smith, shortly before the Brown Raid, through the long, bitter years of the Civil War, he clung to the Southern cause, fought its battles, and endured its defeats. During and shortly after the war he set down his experiences of great men and great days. In a resonant prose almost unique among soldiers and rare among writers, he wrote as simply and intimately of history as though it were a jovial anecdote, spun out after dinner for the entertainment of his friends.

He tells of the persimmon tree that the General climbed but could not descend; the irate farmer who upbraided Jackson for crossing his field; the lemon that Stonewall sucked all during the battle at Cold Harbor. Here is one of the finest and most remarkable stories to come out of any war, written wholly firsthand from notes and diaries made on the battlefield.