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Page:War and its Heroes.djvu/57

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THE WAR AND ITS HEROES. 59 was always prominent. At Port Republic, Ewell was pitted ■g»intt Fremont. He routed him completely and clapped an extinguisher upon his pretensions to be considered a soldier. Since that time, Fremont has been continually sinking in the estimation of the Yankees, and has now at last found his level, as the chief of an army ©f negroes. General Ewell was in all the battles around Richmond in which JteksOB*! corps was engaged. When the latter was ordered to the Piedmont country to chastise the miscreant Rope, Ewell was his right-hand man. lie distinguished himself greatly in the battle of Cedar mountain, and was the life and soul of the inarch to MuuMM. In the second battle of that name, he was *o severely wounded in the leg, that amputation was rendered necessary. He bore the operation with gm( fortitude and even cheerfulness. V- >.>on as he had sufficiently recovered, he was removed to Richmond, where, in the house of hm friend, Dr. Hancock, who had been his surgeon on a former occasion, he lay several months, occasionally suffering great pain. Having finally recovered, he was made a lieutenant-general and placed in command of one-half of Jackson > old corps, out of which two had been formed, General A. P. Hill commanding the other. It is -aid that Jackson, on his death-bed, express'-*! hu earnest desire that Ewell might be -his successor. That he was eorrect in his estimate of Ewell's capacity for command has been reudered sufficiently evident. The capture of Winchester was one of the most magnificent achievements >j the war, and places its author, at once, in the foremost rank of our ire-j.'.wis