The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-10
STONRRALL JACKSON.


the Hartford Post, from Berk eley Springs Vir-
ginia:--"It was here that stonewalI Jackson in
augursted his first lunatie campaign, a chap
ter In his life that the Rebel bographers have
prudently omitted. In the winter of 1851 he
succeeded in obtaining commend of adIstrict
under Joe Johnston, and at once, in the terri.
BILE cold OF the mountains, moved his 6f een
thousand men upon Bath TO whip Kelley at Rom.
Dey, Lander at Hancock, and all the other
windmills that this strange old Qlixote could
conlure up at impossible points. He froze
number OF bis mtn to death in cutting the
Potomac canal, ana on the march from Wiu-
chester hither brought tnirty-two piecas of
cannon, two OF them being twenty -four poundecs
drawn by ten horses each. At Bath there was
little picket VIII Ch escaped with ease while
the redouotabe General was moving troops up
the slippery spnes OF the mountains, as ii he
were to take an immense army captive. The
retiring troops cmptied some dozens OF his sad
dies and the bulk of Jackson's command seemed
unwilling to 20 on, when he himself clustered
into the town, anu ordered q crushing ADVANCE.
The freezing troopers OF Ashby, and all the loot
soldiers, were now standing on fence rails and
panks 10 keep their feet warm, but some Of
Them were urged forward TO Hancock where
jackson cited Lander to surrender, or he would
lombard the town.
Ere and be id" replied Lander.
The Ge eral then had artillery planted on the
mountain knobs at prodigIous labor, and
attempted to cross troops on rait with the
river swollen to a torrent. He scarcely put to
fight one goose in Hancock, while h is ptoueers
were shot Gown along all the rlver bauk.
Meantime he pushed a0ug the turnpike to
no prisoners any where, was repulsed az Oapon
Bridge by few village boys of BaJn,
and When he projected the burning of
bridgee on the Baltimore and Ohio road,
above and below Cumberland, Tauk mutny
broke out IN his ranks. Almost all his OIL
GERS signed petitions for his removal, on the
general grounds OF insanity and tmck k-headed-
ness. He Was ordered from Richmond TO tall
back TO Winchester: ana while affecting rage
ne resigned; he secretly got the Presbyterian
Clergymen of bis acquaintance to threaten to
desert Confederate
cations unless he were retained In this cam
paign he lost by cold, exposure, and the bullet
hve hundred men, who never carried musket
again, and his crazy method OF marching so
diseustod above thousand Others that they
went home and qul the Rebel service forever
He narrowly escaped court-maTtai himself and
descended thenceiorward from plotter OF CAM
paigns TO be thoroughly subservient servant of
General Lee, who is directly responsible for all
Jackson's successes.
l find through the VIreinia valley that Jack.
son never had the confidence OF the rational
r officers under his command. He was ambitious
almost to maniacy, moody. and mutterng like
agibbeling person, lacked The element OF organi-
cation and order entirely, and had altogether
the worst used, most slatteruy body OF men IN
the service OF Virginia. He knew nothing of
distances; being himself an extraordinary pedes-
trlan, he made his men walk Tor weeks, and his
own example on the II arch shamed them from
murmurine; and his successes late in the SER
wee SO contented them that criticism was dis
armed.
l state these things here because have been
undecelved in the current Northern estimate of
the famous warriors ability at almost every
point have touched. He was absent and un.
sympathetic by temperament rash in judgment,
and his victories are ascrbable to his insensi-
blllty to fatigue and his regardessness of 1t in
all his army. He led strong, ardent BODY of
men, the flower of the valley; and they would
march anywhere in the midst OF success. and
stragglc anywhere after defeat Some of the
foles OF this wild Drained soldier are so noto-
riors that shall be old in relating them. When
he seized Martinsburg he burned forty lOcomo-
tives worth half million dollars, and all the
bridges on the Baltimore and Ohio road, aud
then began to haul engines along the turnpIkes
TO Winchester by horses, whereas he could haye
run them all up by rail had he not destroyed
the road. The locomotives we're a serious loss
to the Con 'ederacY, aud the best five battles he
ever fought could not compensate tor their loss.
At the beginning of the war he seriously
counselled the taking of no prisoners, arguing
that a soluier was bound to dght till he died,
and that the Yankees had no ri ght to expect
quarters any way.
He had been accustomed to all sorts of rough
travel, on nag aud foot and with any other
body OF men than the Valley of Virginia con-
tributed, he could never have kept his command
together. General Lee had 10 subdue this
eccentric Zealot's crude notions OF warfare be-
fore he became useful at all. have picked up
some points about him at Lexington, Winches-
ter, and elsewhere, which you may like to have
related
The family of stonewall Jackson came to
America l20 years ago. His remote ancestor
was Il common soldier in the revolution, aud
the third generation promised well intermarry-
ing with Mrs. James Madlson's family. Jack
sons father drank, gambled, and borrowed away
all his means: his mother married twice, and
died of grief. The orphan boy ran away from
the cruelty OF one OF his uncles wearled OF the
protection of two others, and finally disappeared
upon a vagabond career, down the ONO and
Mississippi rivers. Returning almost wrecked,
his uncle put him TO hard work, and as he had
dyspepsia at an early age, he took the active
post OF constable in a mountain county. Here
he was celebrated as a rough fighting character
and his uncle put him upon the saddle jockey
in the country races.
He descended low in the moral and social
scale, and his accounts were short in several
cases, so that his uncle, his security, had to
make them good. His biographer admits that
ne provided himself with an outfit for West
Point, by selling some public claims that he
was entrusted with, and leaving the uncle to
adjust them. He ranked among the poorest of
his class, but slipped through the institution
Just in time for the Mexican war, where Magru-
der mentioned him tavorably for handling ar
tillery well.
His common origin, dullness, and the mean
ness of his associations, made him morbidly
bashful. and grave for the most of his life.
Hence he began to covet religious associations,
and shy, sell-IntrospectiOn and selEmeasure-
ment absorbed him altogether He used to say
that an officer ought to sacrifice everything else
to the attainment OF rank.
When Jackson applied for the Professorshipo
Philosophy and Artillery Tactics at Lexington,
in 1851, his competitors were George b. McOlel-
Ian, Generals RosecTans, Reno, and the Rebel
General G.. w. Smith. He had probably the
poorest success Of any of the professors being
obtuse, illogical, a jumper at conclusions, aud
personally unsympathetic with his pupils. He
used to tail dlsmally with his philosophical eX
peTiments to the laughter OF his classes, and his
mind seemed always set upon dreamy contmgen