Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/159

Rh And Jackson's appointment was instantly confirmed.

And now the civilized world knows what manner of man Major Jackson was, for within two years he wrote his name across the heavens.

While Jackson was startling the world by his victories, and still more since death untimely closed his great career, the question has been raised as to what is and what will be his place in history. Eminent soldiers, students, and some of them makers of history, have given this inquiry careful consideration, and have assigned to Jackson very high rank among the great captains of the world. Colonel Henderson, the accomplished English soldier, the author of that admirable "Life of Jackson" which is used as a text-book in some of the foremost military schools of the world, one of the most intelligent and competent of military critics, gives his answer to this question in the following language, which is so just and so true that we may safely adopt it as our own:

"'So far as his opportunities had permitted, he had shown himself in no way inferior to the greatest generals of the century—Wellington, Napoleon, and Lee. That Jackson was equal to the highest demands of strategy his deeds and conceptions show; that he was equal to the task of handling a large army on the field of battle must be left to conjecture; but throughout the whole of his soldier's life he was never entrusted with any detached mission which he failed to execute with complete success.'No general made fewer mistakes. No general so persistently outwitted his opponents. No general better understood the use of ground or the value of time. No general was more highly endowed with courage, both physical and moral, and none ever secured to a greater degree the trust and affection of his troops.'"