May 13, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
Seldom, indeed, has a people manifested so deep and universal a sorrow as that which has spread over the land with the announcement of the loss of the loved and trusted leader, whom both hemispheres had learned to know and admire as ‘Stonewall’ JACKSON. General LEE’S sublime tribute to his services in the late battles, his profound and sincere sympathy for his sufferings previous to their fatal termination, leaves us at a loss which to admire and love most – the author or the receiver of the letter, in which this magnanimity and manly sorrow are conveyed. ‘How gladly would I have borne, in my own person, the serious loss you have sustained, for to you, and to you alone is due the victory we have achieved.’ To this effect is LEE’S letter. Who, asks the Richmond Whig, is not proud to live in the same day and to belong to the same race with such men? Together, they make up a measure of glory which no nation under Heaven ever surpassed. The central figure of this war is, beyond all question, that of ROBERT E. LEE. His, the calm, broad intellect that reduced the chaos after Donelson to form and order. But JACKSON was the motive power that executed, with the rapidity of lightning, all that LEE could plan. LEE has been the exponent of Southern power of command; JACKSON, the expression of its faith in God and in itself, its terrible energy, its enthusiasm and daring, its unconquerable will, its contempt of danger and fatigue, its capacity to smite, as with bolts of thunder, the cowardly and cruel foe that would trample under foot its liberty and its religion.
But, though Stonewall Jackson is dead, his fiery and unquailing spirit survives in his men. He has infused into them that which cannot die. The leader who succeeds him, be he whom he may, will be impelled, as by a supernatural impulse, to emulate his matchless deeds. […..] JACKSON’S way.’ The leader who will not or cannot comply with that demand, must drop the baton quickly. JACKSON’S corps will be led forever by the memory of its great chieftain.