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October 18, 1911. ]
Stonewall
His Characte\
By Rev. James Power Smith, Former Captain
jL/urnig me summer mere have been
several contributions to the study and
portrayal of the remarkable man known
as Stonewall Jackson, which have been
widely read. In the Atlantic Monthly
for June Mr. Gamaliel Bradford, Jr., of
Boston, in one of a series of papers on
the great men of the South, during the
war period, contributed an article on
I^ee and Jackson, comparing and con.
trasting the two great soldiers?an article
we may discuss at another time.
"The Long Roll" is a work of histor.
ical fiction from the brilliant mind and
pen of Miss Mary Johnston, the author
of "To Have and To Hold," "Lewis
Rand," and other stories of Virginia
life at different periods. "The Long
Roll" has been read by many in
all sections of the land and will be read
no aouDt ior years to come, it Is a
story of love and adventure, of manly
courage and heroism, wrought into the
history of the War Between the States,
and especially the war career of Stonewall
Jackson. As is always true In
Miss Johnston's literary work, there is
much of vivid and charming description
of nature in all its moods, with the
poet's eye and the artist's pen. And yet
more vivid and thrilling are here descriptions
of the soldier's life in camp,
on the march, with the privations and
sufferings of a winter's campaign in
the mountains and the awful tragedy of
the battlefield in the Tidewater. There
is throughout the book a just and stirring
portrayal of the spirit of the splendid
soldiery of the Army of Northern
Virginia, the heroic men of the ranks,
their utter sacrifice and patience and
courage, their high aims, devotion to
duty, their comradeship and hero-worship.
The heroes, the greater heroes
of the ranks, are here who without
reward or applause gave their lives
for their country and their homes; and
the story of the coward and the deserter
bu* adds to the color of the picture of
the 'rue and steadfast.
Oia is surprised at the extensive
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THE PRESBYTE&l.
I Jackson
r and Career.
and A. D. C. Staff of General T. J. Jackson
knowledge of the details of the campaigns
and the gathering of so much of
Incident and story both of the leaders
and of the ranks. Especially is the
reader surprised that a woman should
have gathered so much of the detail of
march and battle, at the cost of a long
period of industry, you may be sure.
The accounts of profane swearing
are much exaggerated, we are confident,
and the frequent introduction of
profane language is much to be regretted.
These things are not necessary to
the story, and not to any such extent
true to history. They are to be regretted
in a book to be read by many of our
boys and are not just to the character of
their fathers. The gentlemanly behaviour
of officers of all ranks repressed
any such profane habits whenever they
came into the army. The few men of
prominence who were known to be profane
in speech in times of excitement
ana passion tnemselves Telt the repression
of the noble men of character and
piety who were their leaders, and in
later years they left the bad habit behind
them.
General Richard S. Ewell, Jackson's
trusted division commander and his sue.
cessor in command of the Second Corps,
is represented as frequently uttering
profane oaths. One, who after Jackson's
death served on the staff of General
Ewell and was in Intimate personal
contact with him 1s ready to testify that
he never heard him utter an oath, but
knew him as a Christian gentleman, rev.
erent, devout and free from the habit of
profanity. loosing a leg at the second Manassas,
he was for some time an invalid
in Richmond, during which time he made
a confession of Christ, from which he
never declined. There may be those In
Richmond who yet remember the day
when General Ewell went up the aisle of
St. Paul's church on his crutches and
was confirmed, probably by the venerable
Bishop Johns.
The readers of the "Long Roll" will
do well to remember that this is a
uuvm U1 m,uuii, aiiu me auiuur uses ine
novelist's right of imagination. Like all
historical fiction, it is impossible to draw
the lines between the history and the
fiction. The author's view of the history,
her conceptions of the character
of historic men will color the picture,
with depreciation here and exaggeration
there.
Those living today who knew Gen.
eral Thomas J. Jackson, and especially
those who followed him and came to
trust, to admire and to love him, will
not be satisfied with the strange and
homely picture given as a frontispiece
in "The Long Roll," uncouth, misshapen,
almost monstrous. It would have been
mor? true and Just if the artist had reproduced
the Beresford-Hope statue,
with its force and dignity; or the yet
more faithful frontface of the Routzahn
Winchester photograph. "Th? Long
Roll" picture is an unfortunate caricature.
forbidding as it is unjust. With
a bland countenance and courteous manner,
Jackson was erect and soldierly
in bearing, riding with natural and unaffected
ease. If in the strenuous Valley
campaign his forage cap and uniform
were sunburnt and worn, It was
not from neglect of dress, but from the
thoroughness with which he shared the
exposures of his army. Nor was his
horse, the little Sorrel, as distinguished
from a larger sorrel he sometimes rode,
the unfed and bony animal here described.
Compact and easily kept, the
Little Sorrel wa8 always in good condition,
receiving the daily attention of
its master.
\ N OF THE SOOTH
Some of the strong features of his
character and bearing as a commanding
officer are well described, though not <
without some exaggeration; his reticence
and secretiveness, his will power
and determination, his prompt decision
on the field, his expectation and requirement
of obe<SMice to orders and fidelity
to duty. With strong convictions of the
right and justice of his cause, with a
great personal devotion to that cause,
with a deep and strong moral purpose,
he expected fidelity and efficiency from
all his officers and men. For men of
self-indulgence, of personal ambition, of
Indifference to duties on which depended
the safety and welfare of others in
the army and in the homes of the people,
and the success of the campaign,
he could have no toleration. To many
he seemed occupied, abrupt, sometimes
severe, so intense was his effort to discharge
all duty and secure the success
of the cause.
Some things in the account of his
personality are overdrawn. He was not
uncouth and ungainly in appearance and
manner. In his bearing and intercourse
he was a gentleman of naturalness and
simplicity, very gentle in the expression
of his face and courteous and considerate
in manner. He was accessible in ,
reasonable conditions to officers of all
ranks and to private soldiers. In personal
habits he was cleanly and neat,
without affectation or display.
To men outside of army life, to very
young and inexperienced men, to irreligious
and unworthy men, no doubt he of.
ten seemed a mystery, strange, stern,
unkind and unjust. Stories went abroad
that were more or less untrue. Miss
.Tnhnatftn dparrthea him no
"harsh, hostile and pedantic." "awkward,
hypochondriac, literal, strict."
Readero of "The Long Roll" will do
well to remember that Stonewall Jackson
was an educated gentleman, pure
and upright in life, and of constant association
with the best classes of society.
He was twice married most happily,
in families of high standing and
culture. In Lexington his daily assosoclateg
were the first gentlemen of
Virginia.
For the first winter of the war, when
his army was not in the field, General
Jackson and his wife were at home in
the family of the Rev. James R. Graham,
D. D., of Winchester, a home of
OUU1 gOUHC V>UUI LCOJ , ICUUClliClll ?11111 111telligence
as we have not often known;
and there he was esteemed and loved
as a gentleman of courtesy that could
not be excelled.
The changing staff he gathered about
him included cultivated men of the highest
class, who, without exception, came
to trust, to admire and to love him, and
to whom he was full of consideration;
such men as Colonel John T. L. Preston,
Colonel Stapleton Crutchfleld, Dr. Hunter
McGulre, Dr. R. L. Dabney, Colonel
A. S. Pendleton, Colonel Edward Willis.
He was the friend and associate of Robert
E. Dee and J. E. B. Stuart, of Richard
S. Ewell, W. B. Taliaferro, John B.
Gordon and others with whom he was in
frequent and cordial Intercourse, and
at whose table he was often the most
welcoma eufist.
He won the profound respect of distinguished
visitors, such men as Lord
Wolsley, Colonel Freemantle, Mr. Lawler,
Lord Hartington, later the Duke of
Devonshire, and his friend, Colonel I^es.
lie, who were entertained by him with
cordial hospitality, e&oh one for a week
or more. Colonel Leslie, chairman of
the Committee on Military Affairs in
the British House of Commons, an accomplished
gentleman, after spending
a week in personal intercourse with
Jackson, on taking his leave, said to the
staff: "General Jackson la thn haa? In
formed military man I have met In
America, and as courteous a gentleman
as I have ever known."
(1001) 17
Repeatedly "The Long Roll" speaks of
Jackson's "jerking" his hand up, an uncouth
description of a gesture sometimes
observed, but certainly no habitual.
He was slightly wounded in the left
hand at the First Manassas, and until
that was well healed he sometimes held
that hand up as giving relief to an in.
Liiuuiuiiun or Diood. The
writer of this paper rode with the general
in the early dawn of the morning
to the battlefield of Fredericksburg. Silent,
occupied as he was, I dropped behind
him and saw him raise his right
hand, not the left, making the impression
that he was engaged 1n prayer,
looking for guidance and help to the
God he trusted and served. It was
the only time I saw the gesture or heard
of it, and there was no awkward "jerking"
of the hand.
It was not true that General Jackson
was devoid of humor. That, indeed,
would have shown him an abnormal
man, devoid also of sanity. His happy
domestic life described in .Mrs. Jackson's
charming "Memoirs of Stonewall
Jackson," shows him fond of play, some.
nines to a ludicrous extent. At Moss
Neck, through the last winter of his
life, he made himself the playmate of
Janie Corbin, the sweet child of six years
with whom he played and romped for
an hour or more each afternoon. He
enjoyed th? table talk of staff and guests
and laughed heartily at the stories of
some of the best conversationalists we
have ever known. No guest received so
cordial a welcome as General Stuart,
whose gayety and exhuberance of spirits
gave him the greatest delight. It
was the general's own humor that set
certain traveled gentlemen of his party
to discussing the part of France from
which a bottle of wine came which
was really made at Front Royal, in the
Valley of Virginia.
Some things in the career of Stonewall
Jackson, of which Miss Johnston
does not hesitate to give her judgment,
are too serious and difficult for discussion
in this paper. There were cases
of military discipline In which he seem,
ed to some unjust and unrelenting. He
was not infallible; nor did he think himself
infallible; but with his high sense
of duty and his entire devotion to the
cause, it was inevitable that some men
should cross his path. No doubt he was
sometimes mistaken; but this is certainly
true, he bore no ill will to any one,
and put away as unworthv nf him
thought of recrimination against those
who made charges against him.
The much discussed delays at Gaines
Mill and Savage Station will continue
to be problems for the military student
and will yet find solutions in which the
integrity and fidelity of Jackson will not
be questioned in the slightest degree.
Those who followed Jackson may rest
assured that in the farther research
?Mi* " '
nuiuu muuarjr nisiory in tnis country
and abroad ig giving to these problems
there will be nothing to dim the glory
of their great captain.
Most of all do we regret that "The
Long Roll" hag no adequate conception
of the rellgioug character of Stonewall
Jackson. It presents him as "a patriotically
devoted fatalist and enthusiast."
To this author he wag evidently
a fanatic, liable at times to a religious
obsession that made him unfit
for duty, for all of which there is absolutely
no foundation whatever.
Stonewall Jackson wag a Christian
believer of a very distinct and simple
character. His religion had taken hold,
deep and lasting, of his whole being.
He was devout and reverent, humble,
steadfast, prayerful in spirit and faith
rui in duty. Ruling his own life strictly
according to the will of God which
he sought to know, he respected the
views of others. He worshipped 1n the
( Continued on page 21.)