Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1879-05-22

and TO speak to no one who en-
tered his room during study.
At the end of the first two years
it was thought he would not be
able to go through, and some of
the professors advised him to re-
sign. His pride was touched,
and he Indignantly replied he
would not do but "would go
through or die" About the
middle of the year, to use his
own words, the scales fell from
his eyes, and he saw through
things at glance which requir-
led him weeks 10 see through a
year before. After that time he
seemed to have had no trouble
in any of his classes, and to
have taken high rank. His de-
merits were few and of no con-
sequence. He graduated at the
end of the fourth year with dis
tinguished honors.
Young jackson, as horse
back rider on the race, had no
superiors. His uncle, Cummins
E. jackson, kept a number of
blooded horses, and had four
mile track on his farm. sThoIn-
al" as he always called him,
was his trainer, and SO well was
be taught to- ride that he was
never thrown from his horse;
and rarely ever failed to win
the race. lie 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 running for a "big
pile"--and the habit he then
contracted he never afterward
abandoned. And just here an
element in him that 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 a, moralist
in its fullest meaning. He OBJ
served the Sabbath, read good
books, abstained from all intem-
perance 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 pre-
maturely led to his untimely
death. sasss
After leaving West Point he
entered the United States army
and fought through the Mexi-
can war. How he bore himself
in that war the dispatches of
General Scott to Mr. Marcy
best tell. At its close he was
placed in command Of a body of
United States soldiers at Fort
Hamilton, and subsequently at
Tampa Bay, and after remain
ing at these two places some two
years, bis health giving way, he
resigned his place in the army
and returned to his old home at
Jackson's Mills. His uncle, a
bachelor, had a number Of ne
gro slaves who kept house for
him and attended to his domes-
tic affairs. Some Of them had
nursed young Stonewall when
a child, and his meeting with
them, after All absence, was not
unlike an old-time love feast.
Such shaking of hands and
laughter, loud enough to shake
the house-tops, was a sight
worth seeing.
Thomas j. Jackson was a no.
BILE hearted fellow, and was never
known to have forgotten a kind
ness or forsaken q friend.
While at the mills he was a
close student Of history and the
laws of war, and nothing pleas
ed him more than TO discuss
with the writer the generaiship
lof the commanders of armies
and the treaties made by con-
tending forces. He often said
that he had but one talent, 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 sspomp and circumstance of
war" Taking inreview his own
matchless campaigns. it is not
wonderful that two such masters
in the arts of war as Julius
Caesar and Frederick the Great
should have become his proto-
TYPES. That he often drew in
spiration from their dash and
rapid marches-their DISPOSE
tion of troops and dispatch
of an enemy--in his "Valley
campaigns" there can bc no
doubt.
One Of the marked character
istics Of this extraordinary
man was his extreme modesty.
1t was with the greatest difficul-
ty that he could be induced to
i~,1aol~ of onu aut bnsvnvf,,. M az.