The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1896-03-05
sToNsWALL At MANASSAS.
Personal Appearance of the Great Con-
federate General.

tederate Generat.
Mr.. George r. Vending of Washing
ton, in lecture on Stonewall jackson,
incidentally gives personal descrip-
tion of jackson.
Let us pause for a moment" he
said, 'and look at this college profess
sor. He is about feet 10 inches in
height, with an angular figure and
broad shoulders, and so far from being
graceful that one would first say he is
a clumsy man; but if he will uncover
his head we shall see broad white
forehead. betokening in its lines the
firm intellect and the powerful will.
His eyes are blush gray and very mild
in expression when undisturbed, but
full of volcanic sparks when aroused
they say the piercing eye of an eagle.
His clothes are common, with just
enough simple braid to show his rank.
All through life his external seeming.
taken together with the heart, the soul,
and the brain of him. forms paradox,
He mounts his old sorrel horse, and we
laugh at him. Stirrups too short, knees
projecting upward, heels projecting
outward, and chin hugging his breast
in sober truth, an awkward man in his
saddle He wears cadet cap, and
looks from side to side beneath its low
rim. He is a reticent man; his air is
thoughtful and distracted. His bear
ing is stiff; he loves TO be alone; he
consults no one. His lips move often
in prayer, and he has a way of looking
long and steadily into the sky.
What sort of man is this2 Shall
we set him down for hypochondriac
driven by fate into short-lived promi-
nenceS Is he anything more than a
mere routine professor. Unbalanced
when out of his groove? Is it safe to
put thousands of men into his hands3
We shall see presently; meanwhile it
looks doubtful"
The lecturer digressed to give what
he called the philosophy of the tremen-
dous conflict, characterizing it as a
struggle between two civilizations, one
originating at Plymouth Rock and the
other at jamestown.
''Nominally," he said. I'VE were one
people, but in fact we were two; we
were Old England on American soil.
and the problem was to construct one
10th century American out of two nth
century Englishmen. All honor to the
Cavalier and all honor TO the Puritan.
But there is new man and one better
than either at the door. To-day there
are neither Yankees nor Southerners,
and in their stead we find an Ameri-
can"
In conclusion the lecturer said:
Summing mp his career. the muse of
American history may write: Here
was man who gave soul. and heart,
and brain, and at last life itself, to his
duty as he saw it, and humbly trusted
all to God l doubt not that when
Stonewall Jackson passed behind the
veil and saw the things that are and
are to be, he said again, as upon his
dying bed, 1t is all right One day, in
the delirium of his illness, he softly
and rest in the shade of the trees, but
the last rational words that fell from
his lips were: 1t is all rightr
And when the sad and careworn
face and loving heart of Lincoln were
touched by death, and his great spirit
went up to the same God before whom
jackson had so often knelt, and when
later on there came the noble soul of
stately Lee; and by and by there came
the hero Of the Union cause, the great
commander, Grant, doubt not that,
one and all, with Sidney johnson and
Hancock and Thomas and Mcclellan
and with million of brave men who
wore here the blue and wore the gray,
all looked with clearer eyes over the
past and into the future, and beheld a
great nation where there had been
great States, saw one people where
there had been two, and then. with di-
vine approval, said, with one voice
1t is all rightP"