[Illustration: Jackson and his officers]
THE LIFE
OF
Gen. Thos. J. Jackson
“Stonewall”
FOR THE YOUNG,
(FOURTH READER GRADE)
In Easy Words.
ILLUSTRATED.
By Mrs. MARY L. WILLIAMSON.
Harrisonburg, Virginia
SPRINKLE PUBLICATIONS
1989
Copyright, 1899
BY
Mrs. MARY L. WILLIAMSON.
Sprinkle Publications
P. O. Box 1094
Harrisonburg, Virginia 22801
_DEDICATED
TO ALL YOUTHS WHO
ADMIRE THE CHRISTIAN VIRTUES
AND MILITARY GENIUS OF
THOMAS J. JACKSON._
PREFACE.
Continuing the argument set forth in the “Life of Gen. Lee for
Children,” that we can advance primary education and impress lessons of
morality upon children in no better way than to place before them the
careers of our great men, I now give, in simple words, the “Life of Gen.
Thos. J. Jackson.”
In this brief sketch of our great Southern hero, I have endeavored to
portray, amid the blaze of his matchless military genius, the unchanging
rectitude of his conduct, the stern will-power by which he conquered all
difficulties, his firm belief in an overruling Providence, and his
entire submission to the Divine Will. These traits of character were the
corner-stones upon which he reared the edifice of his greatness, and
upon which the young people of our day will do well to build.
Teachers may introduce this book as a supplementary reader into the
fourth grade, as I have been careful to employ as few words as possible
outside of the vocabulary of that grade.
In preparing this work, I used chiefly as reference and authority the
Life of Lieut.-Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, by Prof. R. L. Dabney, D. D., who
was, for a time, Jackson’s chief of staff, and who had personal
knowledge of his character and military exploits.
Acknowledgment is due Col. James H. Morrison for valuable assistance
rendered, and to Mrs. Thomas J. Jackson, of Charlotte, N. C., and Mr. M.
Miley, of Lexington, Va., for furnishing valuable illustrative matter.
I am also indebted to the kindness of Messrs. Paxton and Henkel, the
editors, respectively, of the _Rockbridge County News_ and the
_Shenandoah Valley_, for files of their reliable journals, containing
accounts of the more recent events recorded in the last chapter.
Mary Lynn Williamson.
New Market, Va.
Stonewall Jackson’s Way.
Des Rivieres.
Come! stack arms, men; pile on the rails,
Stir up the camp-fires bright;
No matter if the canteen fails,
We’ll make a roaring night.
Here Shenandoah brawls along,
There lofty Blue Ridge echoes strong
To swell the brigade’s rousing song
Of “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.”
We see him now—the old slouched hat
Cocked o’er his eye askew;
The shrewd, dry smile, the speech so pat,
So calm, so blunt, so true.
The “Blue Light Elder” knows them well:
Says he, “That’s Banks—he’s fond of shell;
Lord save his soul! we’ll give him—” Well,
That’s Stonewall Jackson’s Way.
Silence! ground arms! kneel all! caps off!
“Old Blue Light’s” going to pray;
Strangle the fool who dares to scoff!
Attention! it’s his way:
Appealing from his native sod,
_In forma pauperis_ to God—
“Lay bare thine arm, stretch forth thy rod;
Amen!” That’s Stonewall Jackson’s Way.
He’s in the saddle now. Fall in!
Steady! the whole brigade!
Hill’s at the ford, cut off! We’ll win
His way out ball and blade.
What matter if our shoes are worn?
What matter if our feet are torn?
Quick step! we’re with him e’er the morn!
That’s Stonewall Jackson’s Way.
The sun’s bright glances rout the mists
Of morning—and, by George!
There’s Longstreet struggling in the lists,
Hemmed in an ugly gorge.
Pope and his columns whipped before.—
“Bay’nets and grape!” hear Stonewall roar;
“Charge, Stuart! pay off Ashby’s score!”
Is “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.”
CONTENTS.
Chapter Page
I. An Orphan Boy. 9
II. A Cadet. 25
III. A Major of Artillery. 33
IV. A Professor. 43
V. A Confederate Colonel. 78
VI. A Brigadier-General. 98
VII. A Major-General. 119
VIII. A Major-General. (continued.) 175
IX. A Lieutenant-General. 194
X. Upon the Roll of Fame. 225
Life of Gen. T. J. Jackson.
CHAPTER I.
An Orphan Boy.
Thomas Jonathan Jackson was born January 21, 1824, at Clarksburg, West
Virginia, which state was then a part of old Virginia. He sprang from
Scotch-Irish stock. His great-grandfather, John Jackson, was born in
Ireland, but his parents moved to the city of London when John was only
two years old. John Jackson grew up to be a great trader. In 1748 he
came to the New World to make his fortune, and landed in the State of
Maryland. Not long after, he married Elizabeth Cummins, a young woman
who was noted for her good looks, fine mind, and great height.
[Illustration: _House in which Jackson was Born, Clarksburg, Va._]
John Jackson with his wife soon moved West, and at last took up lands in
what is now known as Upshur county, West Virginia. As land was then
cheap, he soon owned a large tract of country, and was a rich man for
those times. He was greatly aided by his brave wife, Elizabeth. In those
days the Indians still made war upon the whites, who would flee for
safety into the forts or strongholds. It is said that in more than one
of those Indian raids Elizabeth Jackson aided in driving off the foe.
[Illustration: _Father of “Stonewall” Jackson._]
When the great Revolutionary war came on, John Jackson and several of
his sons marched to the war; and at its close came back safe to their
Virginia home. In these lovely and fertile valleys, John Jackson and his
wife Elizabeth passed long and active lives. The husband lived to be
eighty-six years old, while his wife lived to the great age of one
hundred and five years. Her strength of body and mind fitted her to rear
a race of mighty men.
Thomas Jonathan was the great-grandson of these good people. His father,
Jonathan Jackson, was a lawyer. He is said to have been a man of good
mind and kind heart. Thomas’s mother was Julia Neale, the daughter of a
merchant in the then village of Parkersburg, on the Ohio river. Mrs.
Jackson was good and beautiful. Thomas had one brother, Warren, and two
sisters, Elizabeth and Laura. Not long after the birth of the baby
Laura, Elizabeth was taken sick with fever and died. Her father, worn
out with nursing, was also taken ill; and two weeks after her death he
was laid in a grave by her side.
After his death it was found that he had left no property for his widow
and babes. They were now without a home, and the Masonic Order gave the
widow a house of one room. Here she sewed, and taught school, caring as
well as she could for her little fatherless children.
In the year 1830 she married Mr. Woodson, a lawyer, who was pleased with
her youth and beauty. Her children—Warren, Thomas, and Laura—were now
claimed by their father’s family, who did not like the second marriage
of the mother.
As her new husband was not a rich man, she was at last forced to give
them up. Little Jonathan, then only seven years old, was placed behind
good, old “Uncle Robinson,” the last of his father’s slaves, and sent
away to his aunt, Mrs. Brake, who lived about four miles from
Clarksburg.
After being one year at his aunt’s he was sent for to see his mother
die. Death for her had no sting; and Thomas, long years after, said that
her dying words and prayers had never been erased from his heart. She
was laid to rest not far from the famous Hawk’s Nest, on New river, West
Virginia.
Jonathan was then a pretty child, with rosy cheeks, wavy brown hair, and
deep-blue eyes. It is said of him that, as a child, he was strangely
quiet and manly. The sadness of his young life made him grave and
thoughtful beyond his years. When he was but eight years old he went one
day to the home of his father’s cousin, Judge John G. Jackson, in
Clarksburg.
While eating his dinner, he said to Mrs. Jackson in a quiet way, “Uncle
and I don’t agree. I have quit him and shall not go back any more.” His
kind cousin tried to show him that he was in fault and that he should go
back to his Uncle Brake. He only shook his head and said more firmly
than ever, “No, uncle and I don’t agree. I have quit him and shall not
go back any more.” It seems that his uncle had tried to govern him by
force rather than through his sense of right and wrong. So, this strange
child calmly made up his mind not to stay where there would be constant
warfare.
From Judge Jackson’s he went that evening to the home of another cousin,
who also tried to persuade him to return to his Uncle Brake. But
Jonathan only said, “I have quit there. I shall not go back there any
more.” The next morning he set out alone and on foot, and went eighteen
miles to the home of his uncle, Cummins Jackson, the half-brother of his
father.
There he found his brother Warren, and soon felt quite at home with his
kind uncle and aunts. His Uncle Cummins was a bachelor, who owned a fine
farm and mills, and was one of the largest slave-owners in Lewis county.
He was quite fond of his little nephew, and took pains to teach him all
the arts of country life. He treated him more as an equal than as a
child, for he saw at once the noble nature with which he had to deal. He
also sent Thomas and Warren to the nearest county school, but Warren,
now a bold lad of fourteen years, did not like such restraint. He at
last induced Thomas to go with him from their uncle’s home to seek their
fortunes in the great West.
After stopping for a time at the home of their uncle on the Ohio river,
they went down that river, and for some months were not heard from.
In the fall of that year, they returned to their kind friends, ragged,
and ill with chills and fever.
Their story was that they made a raft and floated down to one of the
lonely islands in the Mississippi river near the Kentucky shore, where
they cut wood for steamboats on the river. Here they spent the summer
alone, with little food, in the midst of a dense forest surrounded by
the turbid, rushing waters of the great Mississippi.
At last, illness forced them to seek their way homeward; and Thomas
boldly said that he was going back to his good Uncle Cummins. Warren
stopped at the home of his Uncle Brake, but disease had laid so firm a
hold upon him that, after lingering a few years, he died, aged about
nineteen.
[Illustration: _Warren and Thomas on the Ohio river._]
Thomas and Laura were now all that were left of the little family. They
lived together for several months at their Uncle Cummins’s, and it is
told of Thomas that he was very fond of his little sister. Across the
brook from the house was a large grove of sugar-maple trees where they
would go to play “making sugar.” It was a great pleasure to Thomas to
build bridges for his little sister to walk on in crossing the stream,
and many were the delights of the cool and fragrant forests. But in a
short time Laura was sent to live with her mother’s friends in Wood
county, and Thomas was left alone. Though they could not live together,
Thomas always cherished the warmest love for his sister, and the very
first money he ever earned was spent in buying a silk dress for her.
Thomas now went to school to Mr. Robert P. Ray. He showed no aptness for
any study except arithmetic. When called upon to recite a lesson, he
would flatly say that he did not understand it and, therefore, was not
ready; nor would he go to the next lesson until he had learned the first
perfectly. Thus, he was always behind his class. He was never surly at
school, but was always ready for a merry romp or play. When there were
games of “bat and ball” or “prisoner’s base,” he was sure to be chosen
captain of one side, and that side generally won.
As long as he was treated fairly by his playmates, he was gentle and
yielding; but, if he thought himself wronged, he did not hesitate to
fight it out. It is said that he would never admit that he had been
beaten in a fray, and was always ready to renew the contest when his foe
assailed him again.
In the summer, Thomas worked on the farm and became of use to his uncle
in many ways. One of his most frequent tasks was to haul great logs of
oak and pine from the wood to the saw-mill. He, thus, became a famous
driver of oxen, and was known throughout the country-side as a young man
of great strength and courage.
So his life was passed, from nine to sixteen, between the school and the
farm. He was then like his father, of low stature, but he afterwards
grew tall like the men of his mother’s race.
About this time, he was made constable of one-half of Lewis county. We
see him now with his bag of bills and account books going up and down
the hills of Lewis county. In this work he had to be firm and exact, for
it was now his task to collect money due for debts.
This story is told of his nerve and skill in doing this unpleasant duty.
A man who owed a debt of ten dollars promised to pay it at a given time.
The day came and the man failed to keep his word. Young Jackson paid the
money out of his own purse, and then watched for the man who would not
pay his debt. The very next morning the man came riding up the street on
a good horse. Jackson at once taxed him with not keeping his word, and
was going to take the horse for the debt, when the latter resisted, and
a fierce fight took place in the street. In the midst of the fray the
man mounted his horse and was riding off.
Jackson, however, sprang forward and seized the bridle. Seeing that he
could get the man off the horse in no other way, he led it to the low
door of a stable near by. The man cuffed him right and left, but Jackson
clung to the bridle, and pulled the horse into the stable. The man was
thus forced to slide off to keep from being knocked off; and Jackson got
the horse.
Though this life in the open air was good for the health of our hero, it
did not benefit his morals. He was kept much from home, and was thrown
with the worst class of people in the county.
[Illustration: Jackson on horseback]
His aunts had now married, and his Uncle Cummins was keeping “bachelor’s
hall.” He also kept race horses, and none save Thomas could ride for him
if a contest was close.
It was said through all that country that if a horse could win, he would
do so if young Tom Jackson rode him in the race.
It is sad to think of this young man thrown upon the world without
mother or sister or any human influence, save his own will, to keep him
in the right way. But in this wild, rough life the great wish of his
heart was to reach that condition from which he had been thrust when
left a poor orphan boy. And even now the great God, who has said that He
will be a father to the fatherless, was opening up a way to a great and
notable career.
Constable (kun′-sta-ble), an officer of the peace.
Nõ-ta-ble, wonderful.
Ca-reer′, a course.
In′-flu-ence, power not seen.
Do you remember—
The name of Thomas’s father?
The place of his birth?
His early loss of father and mother?
His life at Uncle Cummins’s?
The story told of him when constable?
The wish of his heart in the midst of his wild, rough life?