Life and campaigns of JJackson, (Stonewall Jackson) . t might appear, at first thought, that the obvious way to carryout the purpose of attacking Shields and defeating him sepa-rately, was to withdraw the whole Confederate army at once tothe same side of the river with him, burn the bridge, thusleaving Fremont alone and useless upon the other bank, andthen fall with full force upon the former. This, any other goodsoldier than Jackson would probably have done; but his designswere more audacious and profound still. With whateverpromptitude he might attack Shields, he saw that th
Life and campaigns of JJackson, (Stonewall Jackson) . t might appear, at first thought, that the obvious way to carryout the purpose of attacking Shields and defeating him sepa-rately, was to withdraw the whole Confederate army at once tothe same side of the river with him, burn the bridge, thusleaving Fremont alone and useless upon the other bank, andthen fall with full force upon the former. This, any other goodsoldier than Jackson would probably have done; but his designswere more audacious and profound still. With whateverpromptitude he might attack Shields, he saw that the battle-fieldmust be upon the southeastern margin of the Shenandoah, andunder the heights of the opposite bank; wliich, if he yieldedall the country on that side to Fremont, would of course becrowned by his artillery. And then, the struggle would havebeen virtually against both his foes combined; although thewaters still flowed between their troops. Li addition, hispowerful artillery, the right arm of his strength, would then CONFEDERATE POSITION AT CEOSS-EEYS. 409. CONFEDERATE POSITIOIf AT CBOSS-KEYS, 410 LIFE OP JACKSON. have been paralyzed by the inferiority of its positions as com-pared with those* ceded to Fremont upon the northwesternbank. Further, General Jackson was not willuig to deprivehimself of the power to take the aggressive against Fremont,after disposing of Shields, should his success in assailing thelatter prove sujfficiently crusliing to encourage him to a secondbattle. For these reasons, General Jackson neither ceded the north-western bank to Fremont, nor bui-ned the bridge. Where aninferior genius would have purchased the full union of his forcesat the expense of allowing to his two enemies a virtual concertas injurious as an actual jimction; he accepted a nominal sepa-ration of his own troops, perceiving that he would thus have themost effective co-operation. He purposed thus to hold bothliis adversaries at bay, until the propitious moment a
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