Straggling (and General Early’s Humor)

Gen. Jubal Anderson Early ("Old Jube")

Straggling was a major problem in Civil War armies, and was particularly irksome to stern disciplinarians who drove their men to make some prodigious marches. Exchanges between such officers and their subordinates with respect to the “evil” were sometimes testy but humorous. One such instance was noted in a communication between General Early and Stonewall Jackson: “[General Early] who, when he received a note with Gen. Jackson’s compliments, & desiring to know why he saw so many stragglers in rear of Early’s division that day, answered with his own compliments that it was probably because Gen. Jackson rode in the rear of the division.”