Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/156

152 "'No other officer in the whole army in Mexico was promoted so often for meritorious conduct or made so great a stride in rank.' (Dabney's Life of Stonewall Jackson, page 51.)"

His courage, capacity, and valuable and efficient services in that war were repeatedly and conspicuously commended in the reports of his superior officers, as, for instance, by Captain (afterwards Major-General) J. B. Magruder in his report upon the battle of Chapultepec, in which he refers to young Jackson in the following terms:

"'If devotion, industry, talent, and gallantry are the highest qualities of a soldier, then he is entitled to the distinction which their possession confers.'"

Such was the distinction which Jackson had attained when he came to Lexington to serve as a professor in the Virginia Military Institute.

The principal facts as to his career as a cadet and as an officer in the army were well known to the superintendent and officers and members of the Board of Visitors of the Institute, to members of the corps of cadets, and to the people of Lexington generally, of which community he was a citizen and resident during most of the decade preceding the War between the States.

The manly form, soldierly bearing, earnest but kindly countenance, and gentle manners of this modest and dutiful citizen were familiar to the people of that community as he daily walked about their streets or to and from the Virginia Military Institute from and to his home in the town.

Though he did not possess the graces of a Bayard or a Sidney, he was by no means ungainly or unattractive in his appearance, his bearing, or his address.

On the contrary, his was the presence, the manner, and the countenance to inspire confidence and command esteem.

It is true that he was not a graceful horseback rider, but