Before he had
finished his statement of the plans he proposed pursuing in the
event of Johnston's attack on the enemy's right flank, a party
of horsemen rode up in front of the house, and, dismounting, one
of them walked in and reported himself as Brigadier-General T.
J. Jackson, who had arrived with the advanced brigade of
Johnston's troops by the way of Manassas Gap Railroad, and he
stated that his brigade was about twenty-five hundred strong.
This information took General Beauregard very much by surprise,
and, after ascertaining that General Jackson had taken the cars
at Piedmont Station, General Beauregard asked him if General
Johnston would not march the rest of his command on the direct
road, so as to get on the enemy's right flank. General Jackson
replied with some little hesitation, and, as I thought at the
time, in rather a stolid manner, that he thought not; that he
thought the purpose was to transport the whole force by railroad
from Piedmont Station. This was the first time I ever saw
General Jackson, and my first impressions of him were not very
favorable from the manner in which he gave his information. I
subsequently ascertained very well how it was that he seemed to
know so little, in the presence of the strangers among whom he
found himself, of General Johnston's intended movements, and I
presume nothing but the fact of General Beauregard being his
superior in rank, and his being ordered to report to him, could
have elicited as much information from him, under the
circumstances, as was obtained.
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