The Phoenix herald., 1879-06-07

before. After that time he seemed to , have had no trouble in any of his classes, and to have taken high rank.
 His demerits were few and of no con
 sequence. He graduated at the end of
 the fourth year with distinguished
 hoDors.
 Young Jackson, as horseback-rider
 on the race, had no superiors. His
 uncle, Cummins E. Jackson, kept a
 number of blood horses, and had a
 four.mile track on his farm. ''Thomas, :" as he always called him, was his trainer, and so well was he taught to ride that he was never thrown from his horse, and rarely ever failed to win the race. He looked awkward on horseback, and cut rather a poor figure, from the fact that he rode with short stirrups and leaned forward-a position his uncle required of him when on his fastest steeds run ming for '' big pile and the habit he then contracted he never afterward abandoned. And just here an element in him never failed to show itself. the mention whereof must not be omitted. Notwithstanding he rode his uncle's race horses, and won for him money, he was moralist in its fullest meaning, He observed the Sabbath, read good books, abstained from all intemperance and was kind to the poor. He early espoused the doctrine of foreordination, and cultivated the belief that men never die till their time comes-an error which may have prematurely led to his untimely death.
 After leaving West Point he entered the United States army and fought through the Mexican war. How he bore himself in that war the dispatches of General Scott to MT. Marcy best tell. At its close he was placed in com mand of a body of United States sol diers at Fort Hamilton, and subse- quently at Tampa Bay, and after re- maining at these two places some two years, his health giving way, he re- signed his place in the army and re- turned to his old home at Jackson Mills. His uncle, bachelor, had number of negro slaves who kept house for him and attended to his domestic affairs. Some of them had nursed young Stonewall when child, and his meeting with them, after an absence, was not unlike an old-time love-feast | Such shaking of hands and laughter, loud enough to shake the house-tops, was sight worth seeing.
 Thomas J. Jackson was a noble | hearted fellow. and was never known | to have forgotten a kindness or forsaken | friend.
 While at the mills he was a close stu dent of history and the laws of war, and nothing pleased him more than to | discuss with the writer the generalship | of the commanders of armies and the | treaties made by contending forces. He | often said that he had but one talent, 1 and '' he would never be anything | but Tom Jackson unless the United | States engaged in war;
 He had read and pondered closely the | lives of warriors and heroes of the old | and new world, and was enamored with | the 'tpomp and circumstance of war" Taking in review his own matchless | campaigns, 1t is not wonderful that two | such masters in the arts of war as Julius Caesar and Frederick the Great should have become his prototypes. That he often drew inspiration from their dash and rapid marches-their disposition of troops and dispatch of an enemy-in his 's Valley campaigns" there can be no doubt
 One of the marked characteristics of this extraordinary man was his extreme modesty. It was with the greatest diff fculty that he could be induced to speak of any act, however meritorious, with which his name was associated. No
  complimented by his superior than he. in our war with Mexico, and vet. if | that fact had been left alone for him to have told, 1t would never have been known.
 After remaininga at his old home some length of time he became tired of in action. He wanted something to do. In the mean time q new prefessorship was created in the Virginia Military Institute. He was an applicant, and, through the exertions of the late John s. Carlisle, he was appointed to the place. He discharged its duties to the satisfaction of all concerned but the field was too small for the display of his great talents.
 When the vacancy occurred in the | chair of mathematics of the University | of Virginia, by the death of the accom- plished Courtney, his friends presented | him as a suitable successor, and he only | lost the place by Doctor Bledsoe being | an alumnus. For when Judge George | H. Lee, a representative of his old | home, laid before the board of visitors | his credentials of fitness, the venerable | Thomas Jefferson Randolph declared | that no such high character of recom- mendation had ever before accompa- | nied the application for professorship | in the university
 Lieutenant Thomas J. Jackson con- nected himself with the Virginia Mili- | tary Institute in 1851, as professor of | natural and experimental philosophy | and artillery tactics, and remained in | that position until the breaking out of our civil war. He took sides with the | South, and the role he acted in that bloody drama has become part of our cOuntrV'G history TTJLlin11 R A,-noId
 The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts, q 4ol-