Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 20.djvu/313

 Reminiscences of Stonewall Jackson. 307

STONEWALL JACKSON.

Reminiscences of Him as a Professor in the Virginia Military Institute.

SOME OF HIS PECULIARITIES SHOWN.

Rev. J. C. Hiden, His Former Class-mate, Gives New and Interesting

Particulars.

[From the Montgomery, Alabama, Advertiser, November 27, 1892.]

Stonewall Jackson, as a lieutenant during the Mexican war, and as a "Bellona's Bridegroom" in the late civil war, is reasonably well known to the reading world. The " Life " by Dr. Dabney is in many respects worthy of the illustrious subject as well as the very able and accomplished author. But this " Life," and all other " Lives," are devoted mainly to the task of depicting the Christian warrior, and as this is the role in which Jackson figured most con- spicuously before the world at large and in which he was not fully himself, it was natural and proper that the several biographers should concern himself especially with this manifestation of the man.

Still, it is well known that Jackson spent a considerable part of his life as professor of natural philosophy, and of artillery tactics in the Virginia Military Institute, at Lexington; and it is manifest to the observant reader that this portion of his life has received scant measure at the hands of the biographers.

This, however, is not due to any neglect on the part of these writers, for they must have known that all intelligent readers would be interested to know how Professor Jackson lived; how and what he taught his pupils; what he said and did in the class-room; indeed, anything that would throw any light upon the character and conduct of the man who said so little and did so much.

The simple truth is that there was precious little to tell about this phase of Jackson's life. A biography of a great literary man is apt to be but little more than a review of his work. The biography of a thinker must often be simply an account of his thinking and its