Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-03-06
ALL LOVE A HERO.
ReeoIIections of StOnewall Jackson
by Colonel WOrthingtOn.
RaleIgh News and Observer)

| Raleigh News and Observer
There has been now ana then an illus
| trious parsonage who appears TO us to
| have been mirrored upon the foreground
| Of events like some titanic silhouette.
| The irony of fate has dealt with such
a man as the creation of an hour-hold-
ing him in leash in time of peace to be-
come the storm centre in monstrous
crises. When he dies, the perspective
Of history is changed, and a twilight
suddenly falls upon the world. Such a
parsonage may be fifty called the courier
Of fate-the tragedian of revolution. He
cannot be weighed or measured by the
definite judgment Of contemporaries.
When he dies the stride of conquest is
checked; sword blades dripping with
slaughter are thrust back into scabbards.
In war he is it's inspiration-its pro-
violence. l make no allusion TO that
splendid effgy-that is as yet discerned
in the haze that lowers over Vienna,
Berlin, and Moscow, that Incompetent
sible tutor of strategic science who, with
sword and cannon, cut a swath through
the capital cities OF Europe, and par
titioned the world into two dominions as
il he were only cutting in twain ar
apple.
| speak of him whom this man that
embarrassed God" found a "waif ana
made a giant" the Duke of Montebelo.
His death FASTENED to its decline that
magnificent Imperialism that Napoleon
the Great erected on the ruins of the
Commune. The fall Of StOnewall jack
son at Charlottesville thrust between
the COME 5eracy and independence a pail
so dence that it could not be hewn asun-
der by the sword.
1 can compare Stonewall Jackson with
no military hero living or dead. He
stood in the foreground an unique per-
sonality-a phenomenon-with the genius
OF war he was almost supernaturaly
mated. Whether his unparalleled vic
tories were the result of method, logically
conceived, or the result of intuition-a
God-like perception that almost without
effort forced his genius upon vast evolu-
tons-will perhaps be never known.
The plain outlines of this man remind
one Of the hard-hitting, rough-riding
ROundhead. His dispatches plainly smack
ed Of the Calvanism Of Ireton and Crom-
well. God blessed our arms with victory
1t Mcdowell yesterday" Wherever there
was a downpour of leaden rain Jackson
and the "Ironsides' would have been i'm
full accord. His was the genius that |
resolved all combinations in his favor. |
His that mastery apprehension of re- |
carnage
Dlucking the fruit of success before IL |
was fully ripe. In war as elsewhere, he |
was absorbed by fatalism such as Ma |
sum up when they say what |
Will be will be-" Napoleon, like an as
rologer, believed in a star. Stonewall |
Jackson, unlike an astrologer, believed in |
Him who made the star, and lighted it
n tho cendelabra Of night.
A few years ago an American asked a |
lalting, mutilated soldier OF the "Old
Guard" in Paris, If he could tell him how
Napoleon died. 1.-THE Great Emperor
lead? You don't know him. He will not
lie," replied the old man, who had fought
Il Marengo and Waterloo under the inn
ierial eagle. II was with something OF
his vague superstition Of this heroic be-
lief in old Stonewall as their providence
hat one OF the "Old Brigade" would
earken obviously to such a challenge,
Tell us how Stonewall died"
Critics who have judged with more or
ess asperity, have said that his capacity
5 a commander was limited 10 the
nanoeuvres Of corps. Strange fatuityiI
\ score OF battle-helds prove the opinion
alse. III such had been the case. the
istory Of Port Republic, OF Harper's
'erry, Of Groveton, would have baen
1ritten the other way.
/ saw this man OF destiny at Cold Har-
or. Again he initiated the predes-
ined leader OF the 'Tronsides." 'If the
nemy stand at sunset press them with
ne bayonet." All commands issuing
rom him found their climax In this su.
RENE order. The hero OF Toulon never
wed the fire-throated l2-pounder more
han did Jackson. He would have swept
very obstruction from the field with a |
ingle battery, or failing in this, he would
ave still pressed" them with the bavo-
ct.
/ shall speak OF the campaign OF this