THOMAS JONATHAN JACKSON 875 Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Artillery Tactics in the Virginia Military Institute, situated in Lexington, Va. In the decade sue- ceeding this event, he was to the casual eye the least striking figure in the group of professors who taught the art of war in- the beautiful mountain-girt "West Point of the South." " I should have said that he was the least likely of our family to make a noise in the world," said his sister-in-law in 1862, when the popular voice was ranking him with Bayard, Roland, Sidney, and Napoleon. " I knew that what I willed to do, I could do," he had said of his recovery from physical weaknesses which made his acceptance of the Lexington professor- ship of doubtful expediency, in the judgment of friends. He never willed to be eloquent in the lecture-room or brilliant in society. In his life as teacher, church official, and neighbor there was no evidence of the personal magnetism which was to make him the soul and genius of the Confed- erate army. While carrying into every detail of daily existence the military law of system and fidelity, he was aggressive in nothing. The grave, quiet gentleman who was never late in class, never negligent of the minutest professional duty, who was always punctual at religious services, and never missed a meeting of the Faculty of the V. M. I., or of the deacons of the Presbyterian Church, was reckoned a good Christian and upright citizen, exemplary in domestic and social relations perhaps a trifle ultra-conscientious in some particulars. But for the prevalency of orthodoxy in " the Valley " he would have been considered eccen- tric in his religious views and practice. He established a Sunday-school for the negroes and superintended it in person ; he gave a tenth of his substance to the church ; he " weighed his lightest utterances in the balances of the sanctuary ; " he would not pick up an apple in a neighbor's orchard unless he had permission to take it ; he never wrote or read letters on Sunday, or mailed one that must travel on that day to reach its destination ; used neither tobacco, tea, nor coffee, and during the war was "more afraid of a glass of wine than of Federal bullets." His reverence for women was deep and unfeigned ; he was gentleness itself to little children ; bowed down before the hoary head, and never sank the lover in the husband. All that he had and all he was, belonged first to God, then to his wife. " His person was tall, erect, and muscular. . . . His bearing was pe- culiarly English, and in the somewhat free society of America was regarded as constrained. Every movement was quick and decisive ; his articulation was rapid, but distinct and emphatic, and often made the impression of curtness. He practised a military exactness in all the courtesies of society. . . . His brow was fair and expansive ; his eyes blue-gray, large, and expressive ; his nose Roman and well-chiselled ; his cheeks were ruddy and sunburned ; his mouth, firm and full of meaning ; his beard was brown " is a pen-picture drawn by a brother officer. On December 2, 1859, a corps of cadets was sent to Charlestown, Va., to secure law and order during the execution of John Brown. Major Jack-
