Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/291

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Stonewall Jackson.
277

be followed. And that was not vanity or self-esteem. No mortal was freer from those vices. It was simply the product of a heart that quailed at nothing, of an intellect brilliant in military conceptions, of a will that knew not how to bend from a worthy purpose and from a confidence in the righteousness of his cause that knew not how to shake. No two men are exactly alike, just as no two leaves are exactly alike, but most men, even most distinguished men, have something of a counterpart. Has Jackson's "double" ever been suggested? It is certain that no man in the Confederate army ever approached his completeness as a soldier—General Lee always excepted, but cast in a mold, with personal traits so different, that comparisons cannot be made. And in the Federal army Sheridan alone seems to have taken some lessons from the Confederate soldier. Two revelations have been given to the public in Jackson's character and equipment, in his literary attainments and his warmth of feeling. When his letters to his wife were, by the permission of that interesting lady, given to the public, surprise at the tenderness they displayed was universal. From the day his speech of farewell to his brigade was published allowance was made, and it was supposed that some partial friend with graceful and felicitous rhetoric had smoothed and embellished it. But for the assurance Colonel Douglas has just given in his review of Colonel Henderson's book, that with Sergeant Towner he wrote it from memory within fifteen minutes after its delivery, and that when finished he and the orderly sergeant both thought it absolutely correct, we should still harbor the suspicion of friendly embellishment, so inconceivable is it to the writer that the Major Jackson of the V. M. I. could make a speech so perfectly fitting the occasion. Colonel Henderson has, from his resources, well painted the picture of this parting, but it may be entertaining to read the version given in a quaint book written by Private John C). Casler, of the 33d Virginia Infantry, entitled, "Four Years in the Stonewall 'Brigade." He says:

"On the 4th of October General Jackson was promoted to Major-General, and ordered to Winchester to take command of the forces then in the Shenandoah Valley, and he had his brigade paraded to bid them farewell. We all had the blues, for