03Fox2/1
21-01-07, 03:24
The following is just one of many, maxims, of someone that I greatly admire.
Thomas Jonathan Jackson, General, CSA, better known as "Stonewall" Jackson. But first, some comments from some fellow Confederates.
One Virginia veteran stated of Jackson: "Of all the generals on the side of the South, he, and he alone, infused into the minds of the rank and file of the army unquestioning confidence and utter reliance.... No other general could get from the soldiers what Stonewall Jackson secured without an effort. The privates of the army adored him; and no matter whether the ground was covered with snow, or rain poured in blinding torrents, or the sun beat with vivid force upon the heads and their feet sunk in the dust a foot deep, they would follow the old tattered uniform, that old faded gray hat, that kindly, rugged face, until nature itself would rebel."
Another Confederate put it more simply: "There was something about Jackson that always attracted his men. It must have been faith... The very sight of him was the signal for cheers."
In 1862, an Englishman declared for the ages: "If the South had done nothing more in this revolution then to give the world such a character as Jackson, she would need no further vindication in her noble struggle for independence."
From Stonewall Jackson's, "Guides for Good Behavior", Maxim #1:
" Through life let your principle object be the discharge of duty, if anything conflicts with it, adhere to the former and sacrifice the latter."
According to his wife, Jackson often said: "My duty is to obey orders !" This dedication became deep-rooted during Jackson's ten years as a professor at VMI. One of the Institute's trustees considered "the striking characteristic" of Jackson to be "his strict sense of duty. This with an abrupt manner and a crisp but not brusque form of expression did not tend to render him popular."
The Reverend R.D. Dabney asserted that duty was "the ever present and supreme sentiment" in Jackson's makeup. Another clerical friend, Dr. Moses Hoge, wrote a month after Jackson's death: "If he required implicit obedience to his orders, he set the example of prompt and unhesitating compliance with those he received himself."
General Jackson was never absent from his post of duty. Not once did he take a furlough or brief leave to visit a loved one or attend to a personal errand. Duty came first. Late in 1862, one of his aides lamented that he had not been away from the army for a day since he entered service.
"Very good," Jackson replied. "I hope you will be able to say so after the war is over."
Thomas Jonathan Jackson, General, CSA, better known as "Stonewall" Jackson. But first, some comments from some fellow Confederates.
One Virginia veteran stated of Jackson: "Of all the generals on the side of the South, he, and he alone, infused into the minds of the rank and file of the army unquestioning confidence and utter reliance.... No other general could get from the soldiers what Stonewall Jackson secured without an effort. The privates of the army adored him; and no matter whether the ground was covered with snow, or rain poured in blinding torrents, or the sun beat with vivid force upon the heads and their feet sunk in the dust a foot deep, they would follow the old tattered uniform, that old faded gray hat, that kindly, rugged face, until nature itself would rebel."
Another Confederate put it more simply: "There was something about Jackson that always attracted his men. It must have been faith... The very sight of him was the signal for cheers."
In 1862, an Englishman declared for the ages: "If the South had done nothing more in this revolution then to give the world such a character as Jackson, she would need no further vindication in her noble struggle for independence."
From Stonewall Jackson's, "Guides for Good Behavior", Maxim #1:
" Through life let your principle object be the discharge of duty, if anything conflicts with it, adhere to the former and sacrifice the latter."
According to his wife, Jackson often said: "My duty is to obey orders !" This dedication became deep-rooted during Jackson's ten years as a professor at VMI. One of the Institute's trustees considered "the striking characteristic" of Jackson to be "his strict sense of duty. This with an abrupt manner and a crisp but not brusque form of expression did not tend to render him popular."
The Reverend R.D. Dabney asserted that duty was "the ever present and supreme sentiment" in Jackson's makeup. Another clerical friend, Dr. Moses Hoge, wrote a month after Jackson's death: "If he required implicit obedience to his orders, he set the example of prompt and unhesitating compliance with those he received himself."
General Jackson was never absent from his post of duty. Not once did he take a furlough or brief leave to visit a loved one or attend to a personal errand. Duty came first. Late in 1862, one of his aides lamented that he had not been away from the army for a day since he entered service.
"Very good," Jackson replied. "I hope you will be able to say so after the war is over."