One of the most curious peculiarities of Jackson was the strange fashion he had of raising his right hand aloft and then letting it fall suddenly to his side. It is impossible, perhaps, to determine the meaning of this singular gesture. It is said that he had some physical ailment which he thus relieved; others believed that at such moments he was praying. Either may be the fact. Certain it is that he often held his hand, sometimes both hands, thus aloft in battle, and that his lips were then seen to move, evidently in prayer. Not once, but many times, has the singular spectacle been presented of a Lieutenant-General commanding, sitting on his horse silently as his column moved before him his hands raised to heaven, his eyes closed, his lips moving in prayer. At Chancellorsville, as he recognised the corpses of any of his old veterans, he would check his horse, raise his hands to heaven, and utter a prayer over the dead body. There were those who said that all this indicated a partial species of insanity—that Jackson's mind was not sound. Other stories are told of him which aim to show that his eccentricities amounted to craziness. Upon this point the philosophers and physiologists must decide. The present writer can only say that Jackson appeared to him to be an eminently rational, judicious, and sensible person in conversation; and the world must determine whether there was any "craze," any flaw or crack, or error, in the terribly logical processes of his brain as a fighter of armies. The old incredulity of Frederick will obtrude itself. upon the mind. If Jackson was crazy, it is a pity he did not bite somebody, and inoculate them with a small amount of his insanity as a soldier. Unquestionably the most striking trait of Jackson as a leader was his unerring judgment and accuracy of calculation. The present writer believes himself to be familiar with every detail of his career, and does not recall one blunder. Kernstown was fought upon information furnished by General Ashby, a most accomplished and reliable partisan, which turned out to be inaccurate; but even in defeat Jackson there accomplished the very important object of retaining a large Federal force in the Valley, which McClellan needed on the Chickahominy. For instances of the boldness, fertility, and originality

of his conceptions, take the campaigns against General Pope, the surprise of Harper's Ferry, the great flank attack at Chancellorsville, and the marvellous success of every step taken in the campaign of the Valley. This is not the occasion for an analysis of these campaigns; but it may be safely declared that they are magnificent illustrations of the mathematics of war; that the brain which conceived and executed designs so bold and splendid, must have possessed a sanity for all practical purposes difficult to dispute.

IV.

Jackson's religious opinions are unknown to the present writer. He has been called a "fatalist." All sensible men are fatalists in one sense, in possessing a strong conviction that "what will be, will be." But men of deep piety like Jackson, are not Oriental in their views. Fate was a mere word with Jackson, with no meaning; his "star" was Providence. Love for and trust in that Providence dwelt and beat in every vein and pulse of his nature. His whole soul was absorbed in his religion-as much as a merchant's is in his business, or a statesman's in public affairs. He believed that life "meant intensely, and meant good." To find its meaning was "his meat and drink." His religion was his life, and the real world a mere phantasmagoria. He seemed to have died rejoicing, preferring death to life. Strange madness! This religious dreamer was the stern, practical, mathematical calculator of chances; the obstinate, unyielding fighter; the most prosaic of realists in all the commonplaces of the dreadfully commonplace trade of war.

The world knocks down many people with that cry of "eccentric," by which is really meant "insane." Any divergence from the conventional is an evidence of mental unsoundness. Jackson was seen, once in Lexington, walking up and down in a heavy rain before the superintendent's quarters, waiting for the clock to strike ten before he delivered his report. He wore woollen clothes throughout the summer. He would never mail a letter which to reach its destination must travel on Sunday.

All these things made him laughed at; and yet the good sense seems all on his side, the folly on that of the laughers. The Institute was a military school; military obedience was the great important lesson to the student-rigid, unquestioning obedience. Jackson set them the example. He was ordered to hand in his report at ten, and did not feel himself at liberty to present it before ten, in consequence of the rain. He was ordered to don a woollen uniform in the winter, and having received no order prescribing or permitting another, continued to wear it. He considered it wrong to travel or carry mails on Sunday, and would not take part in the commission of wrong. This appears logical, however eccentric.

In truth, the great soldier was an altogether earnest man, with little genius for the trivial pursuits of life, or its more trivial processes of thought and opinion. His temper was matter-offact, his logic straightforward; "nonsense" could not live in his presence. The lighter graces were denied him, but not the abiding charm. He had no eye for the "flower of the peas," no palate for the bubble on the champagne of life; but he was true, kind, brave, and simple. Life with him was a hard, earnest struggle; duty seems to have been his watchword. It is hard to find in his character any actual blot-he was so true and honest.

Jackson has probably excited more admiration in Europe than any other personage in the late revolution. His opponents even are said to have acknowledged the purity of his motivesto have recognised the greatness of his character and the splendor of his achievements. This sentiment springs naturally from a review of his life. It is no part of my design to present a critical analysis of his military movements. This must sooner or later be done; but at present the atmosphere is not clear of the battle-smoke, and figures are seen indistinctly. The time will come when the campaigns of Jackson will become the study of military men in the Old World and the New-the masterly advances and retreats of the Valley; the descent against McClellan; the expedition to Pope's rear, which terminated in the second battle of Manassas; and the great flank movement at

Chancellorsville, which has made the tangled brakes of the Spotsylvania wilderness famous for ever.

Under the grave exterior, the reserved demeanour, the old faded costume of the famous soldier, the penetrating student of human nature will discern "one of the immortals." In the man who holds aloft his hand in prayer while his veteran battalions move by steadily to the charge, it will not be difficult to fancy a reproduction of the stubborn Cromwell, sternest of Ironsides, going forth to conquer in the name of the Lord. In the man who led his broken lines back to the conflict, and charged in front of them on many fields, there was all the dash and impetus of Rupert. The inscrutable decree of Providence struck down this great soldier in the prime of life and the bloom of his faculties. His career extended over but two years, and he lives only in memory. But history cannot avoid her landmarks; the great proportions of Stonewall Jackson will sooner or later be delineated.

The writer of these lines can only say how great this man appeared to him, and wait with patience for the picture which shall "denote him truly."