As soon as McClellan had been beaten back from Richmond, Jackson
returned to the Shenandoah valley, defeated Banks at Cedar Run, seized
Pope's depot at Manassas, and held him on the ground until Lee came up,
when Pope was defeated at the second battle of Bull Run. Two weeks
later, Jackson captured Harper's Ferry, with thirteen thousand
prisoners, seventy cannon, and a great quantity of stores; commanded the
left wing of the Confederate army at Antietam, against which the corps
of Hooker, Mansfield and Sumner hurled themselves in vain; and at
Fredericksburg commanded the right wing, which repelled the attack of
Franklin's division.
These remarkable successes had established Jackson's reputation as a
commander of unusual merit; he was promoted to lieutenant-general, and
Lee came to rely upon him more and more. He had, too, by a certain high
courage and charm of character, won the complete devotion of his men; to
say that they loved him, that any one of them would have laid down his
life for him, is but the simple truth. No other leader in the whole war,
with the exception of Lee, who dwelt in a region high and apart, was
idolized as he was. But his career was nearly ended, and, by the bitter
irony of fate, he was to be killed by the very men who loved him.
On the second day of May, 1863, Lee sent him on a long flanking movement
around Hooker's army at Chancellorsville.
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