In April 1861 , Douglas enlisted at Harpers Ferry as a private in Company B , 2nd Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment which formed part of what was later to become the Stonewall Brigade . The reality of war struck home , when the Virginia forces retreated and he was among the men detailed to burn the bridge , over the Potomac at Shepherdstown , in which his father owned stock . Douglas rose through the ranks , fighting at Bull Run as a first sergeant , and commanding his company as a lieutenant at Kernstown . In the spring of 1862 he was , through the intervention of his friend Sandie Pendleton , detailed on special duty at Stonewall Jackson 's headquarters . Soon after having joined Jackson 's HQ , Douglas made an extraordinary ride of 103 miles , from Mount Jackson to Brandy Station , crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains in a heavy rainstorm , with orders from Stonewall to General Ewell . As a reward for his efficient fulfillment of duty , he was , the day after his return to HQ , made assistant inspector general on Jackson 's staff . Douglas ' task as inspector general was to see to the proper execution of orders and commands given . When Stonewall 's men were destroying a section of the B&O railroad , it was his job to check its thorough completion ; being in the saddle all day and inspecting the whole stretch to be demolished . In battle , he rode with orders and reports . At Antietam , he wore out two horses and fainted of exhaustion already at noon . A delicate task that once fell upon Douglas was when ordered to relieve General A. P. Hill from his command , due to his division 's tardiness . Hill 's vehement protests eventually led to his arrest by order of Stonewall . Another time , Douglas was approached by Belle Boyd , whom he knew since before the war , in the afternoon just before the battle of Front Royal , who urged him to inform General Jackson that the enemy force was very small and easy to defeat through a rapid advance . Late in the fall of 1862 , when the army was about to go into winter camp , a delegation from his old company approached Douglas and wanted him to take command of the company . After consulting with Stonewall , he accepted a commission as captain of Co . B , 2nd Virginia Vols . Soon thereafter , he also became assistant inspector general of the Stonewall Brigade , while keeping his company command . When Stonewall Jackson fell wounded at Chancellorsville , Douglas visited him and spent an hour talking about the recent battle . After Stonewall 's death , Douglas accompanied Mrs. Jackson and the staff with the general 's body on the train to Richmond . In the funeral procession , he sat with the other staff officers in the carriage behind Mrs. Jackson and President Jefferson Davis , and saw Stonewall 's earthly remains put on lit de parade in the Confederate Capitol . When Douglas returned from Richmond , he accepted an offer from General Edward Johnson , the new commanding officer of the Stonewall Division , to be assistant adjutant general , with the rank of major , on his staff . On the third day of the battle of Gettysburg , Douglas was severely wounded in his left shoulder , for a time paralyzed in his left arm , while guiding Extra-Billy Smith 's brigade into position during an early morning attack on Culp 's Hill . He was taken several miles towards Hunterstown , and left in the house of the Henry Pickering farm , that served as a Confederate field hospital , while quite a number of wounded soldiers had been left in the barn . His mother and sister , who at the news of his wounding had travelled through the lines , soon came to visit him . After a few days , a major of the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry paroled Douglas and the soldiers in the barn . Tendered with care by the Picking family he soon could receive visits from friends he had known in college . After a fortnight , Douglas was moved to the Gettysburg Theological Seminary . His doctor there was an old college chum , Henry Leaman , and Douglas complimented the care with which he was treated . He could now walk about and visited the town in female company . In Gettysburg , Douglas remained for a month before he was taken to Baltimore hospital . As he was held as a prisoner of war , Douglas began a lengthy correspondence with the United States Army in order to convince it to honor his parole . That was denied , however , on the grounds of it being issued by an officer who had exceeded his powers . After a couple of months in Baltimore , Douglas had recovered enough to be transferred to the prison camp for Confederate officers at Johnson 's Island . He found the camp cold , very cold , the food sufficient , the treatment , although not as friendly as in Baltimore , kind enough . In February 1864 , Douglas was transferred to the Point Lookout prison camp in southern Maryland . Ill from the cold at Johnson 's Island , he was hospitalized in the new camp . At the end of March 1864 , Douglas , through the intervention of General Benjamin Butler , was sent home , although not formally exchanged . On the southbound steamer were not only a number of properly exchanged officers and soldiers , but also one of President Lincoln 's sisters-in-law , who returned to Alabama with a special pass from the president . On parole , Douglas could go back to the army before being formally exchanged . It was not until the first day of the battle of the Wilderness that Douglas returned to the service , as assistant adjutant general ( AAG ) of General Edward Johnson 's division , fighting at the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania , where he managed to escape when the general and 3,000 of his men were captured . During the rest of the battle , Douglas served on General Gordon 's staff , later being transferred to General Early 's division as AAG . Early took command of the Second Corps , Army of Northern Virginia at Cold Harbor , taking his staff officers with him to the new command , Douglas becoming the AAG of that corps . As the Union Army drove the Confederates up the Shenandoah Valley , General Lee , June 12 , 1864 , ordered Early and his corps to strike at the Union forces , proceed down the Valley and threaten Washington , with the hope of Grant diverting his forces in order to protect the capital . Outside Washington , Douglas rode by Silver Spring , Francis P. Blair 's home , saw the house full of Confederate stragglers , and chased them away . It then became headquarters for Early , at least for a night . Having failed to make any permanent impression on the defenses of Washington , Early 's corps returned to the Shenandoah , in order to fight Sheridan 's advancing army . General John B. Gordon took command of the Second Corps , November 11 , with Douglas remaining as AAG . The corps was now transferred to the trenches of Petersburg , making a failed but bloody attack on Fort Stedman , March 25 . Douglas now became commander of the much depleted Walker 's Brigade , which he led at Sailor 's Creek and at the last battle of the civil war in Virginia , at Appomattox Court House , and at the final surrender . Immediately after he had returned from the war , Douglas ran into trouble with the United States military authorities . He was arrested and sentenced to three months in prison , because he had been seen in public in his Confederate uniform . Douglas did not serve the full term of the sentence , but was dragged into the investigation after the assassination of President Lincoln , taken to Washington as a witness before the military commission that tried the assassins . After his release in Washington he was arrested , and discharged several times , before taken to Fort Delaware where he after some time in confinement was set free by military orders . Douglas practiced law , at first in Winchester , but after two years , he moved his law office to Hagerstown , his birthplace where he remained for the rest of his life . Douglas was a successful lawyer and an effective speaker . He ran for Congress in 1886 , and was leader of the Gold Democrats in Maryland 1896 . He was appointed associate justice of the Maryland Court of Appeals by Governor Jackson , but was not confirmed in the judicial elections in November the same year . Douglas kept his military interest alive ; in 1876 appointed colonel on the staff of Governor Carrol . During the railway strike of 1877 , Douglas commanded the Maryland forces in the Western Department of the state . His commission expiring with the outgoing governor , Douglas in 1880 became captain of a Hagerstown militia company ( Hagerstown Light Infantry ) , and the following year lieutenant colonel of the 1st Infantry Battalion , Maryland National Guard , and colonel of the 1st Infantry Regiment , Maryland National Guard 1886 until 1891 . Douglas was appointed adjutant general of Maryland 1892 , and served under Governor Brown 's term , until 1896 . During the Spanish – American War , he was offered a commission as brigadier general of volunteers , but had to decline due to ill health . Douglas died in Hagerstown of tuberculosis 1903 Douglas maintained an interest in the history and memory of the civil war all his life . He was a member of the Society of the Army and Navy of the Confederate States in the state of Maryland , and had a special interest in the Washington Confederate Cemetery and the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery . During the war , Douglas kept a diary , which he used after the war as a source for a large manuscript memoir finished about 1867 . The manuscript was later used in writing his two contributions to '' Battles and Leaders of the Civil War '' : " Stonewall Jackson 's Intentions at Harper 's Ferry " and " Stonewall Jackson in Maryland " . In 1899 , Douglas reworked the manuscript . At his death , his nephew inherited the manuscript , and it was not published until 1940 , as '' I rode with Stonewall '' , by the University of North Carolina Press .
assassination of President Lincoln
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Henry Kyd Douglas