Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 22.djvu/173

 S/nin'ir,i// Jackson's Boyhood Days. 161

sixteen hours out of the twenty-four. He made it a practice during study hours to sit with his back to the door, with his book before him, and to speak to no one who entered the room. But despite these extraordinary efforts his early training had left him far behind his fellow-students. At the end of the second year it was thought he would not be able to get through, and one of the professors, who had taken a warm interest in him, advised him to resign, and thus, save himself from the humiliation of a failure in the end. Jackson's pride was touched at this, and he replied that he would not resign, but would go through or die, and he did. About the middle of the third year, to use his own words, the scales fell from his eyes, and he comprehended in an instant things which had puzzled him for weeks a year before. After that he had no trouble; took high rank in all his classes, and graduated with distinguished honors at the end of the fourth year.

ACTIVE SERVICE.

" Upon leaving West Point he entered the regular army, and soon saw active service in the Mexican war. His gallantry won him pro- motion, and at the end of the war he was placed in command of the garrison at Fort Hamilton, and afterward at Tampa Bay. At these places he spent two years, but his health failing, he resigned his commission and came back to his old home here. After remaining here for some time he tired of inaction, and wanted something to do. A new professorship had been created in the Military Institute of Virginia, at Lexington, and through the efforts of influential friends Jackson was appointed to the place. He remained there a successful teacher of young men until the opening of the war called him to a broader field of action."

" I first met Stonewall Jackson when he was a professor and I a student at Lexington, and afterward when he was a commander and I an officer in the army of Virginia. He was one of the grandest men it has been my good fortune to claim as a friend." The speaker was Colonel George H. Moffatt, formerly of Buckhannon, this State. It was while passing an afternoon with him not long ago that I per- suaded him to give me his recollections of General Jackson, which fittingly supplemented those of Mr. Arnold.

"During the years I spent at college in Lexington," continued Colonel Moffatt, "I made my home with the wife of Dr. Estelle. She was a warm-hearted southern woman, and a close friend of Jackson's, then a professor of mathematics at the Military Institute.