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Re: Chapla - 42nd Virginia Infantry

John Peter Lavinder was a musician at the time of the Chancellorsville battle, and may have been detailed to work as part of the medical support staff at the brigade, division or Corps level field hospitals during the battle. In support of that scenario, a musician in the 48th Va, part of Jones' 2nd Brigade with the 42nd, recorded in his diary that he was detailed to work at the brigade hospital on 2 May and moved with the brigade hospital west from the battlefield on 3 May. According to Robertson's biography of Jackson, on the night of his wounding, Jackson was brought in to a field hospital at Dowdall's Tavern/Melzi Chancellors, and then later to the Second Corps field hospital, some 4 miles west of Dowdall's Tavern, at Wilderness Tavern. So it might have been possible for Lavinder to have seen the wounded Jackson in a field hospital setting. That said, Robertson also indicated that Little Sorrel, Jackson's horse, was initially under the control of a man in Jackson's party initially, but Union artillery fire caused the horse to bolt and flee toward Union lines. Little Sorrel was not recaptured by the Confederates until a few days after Jackson's wounding. So, while it was entirely possible that Lavinder was handed the reins of a horse in the party accompanying the wounded Jackson, it would seem remote that Lavinder took the reins of Old Sorrel -- unless there is other evidence to be considered about Little Sorrel.

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Chapla - 42nd Virginia Infantry
Re: Chapla - 42nd Virginia Infantry
Re: Chapla - 42nd Virginia Infantry
Re: Chapla - 42nd Virginia Infantry
Re: Chapla - 42nd Virginia Infantry
Re: Chapla - 42nd Virginia Infantry