# Beloved Bride: The Letters of Stonewall Jackson



## RamistThomist (Jul 29, 2007)

Has anyone read this? I picked it up and it is very warm and moving. Also you need to read this in conjunction with watching Gods and Generals.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jul 29, 2007)

That looks sweet! I've met Stephen Lang too -- good man.


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## RamistThomist (Jul 29, 2007)

VirginiaHuguenot said:


> That looks sweet! I've met Stephen Lang too -- good man.



Stephen Lang autographed my book!--I haven't met him, though. This was given me as a gift.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jul 29, 2007)

Spear Dane said:


> Stephen Lang autographed my book!--I haven't met him, though. This was given me as a gift.



Very kewl!


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## Ivan (Jul 29, 2007)

Mr. and Mrs. Jackson were two people who truly loved each other. Remarkable people.


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## bookslover (Jul 29, 2007)

Ivan said:


> Mr. and Mrs. Jackson were two people who truly loved each other. Remarkable people.



Unfortunately, he should have fought for the Union. Nicer uniforms, better food...


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## Semper Fidelis (Jul 29, 2007)

Jackson is a very interesting figure to me.

I've read a bit about him and always wondered what his allure was. I've concluded he must have had some sort of personal charisma of some of the quiet military officers that I've met that make them seem very personally imposing and competent even when they hardly say anything.

Jackson was actually a bit awkward intially at West Point and had to work much harder than others to maintain his grades. He was not a man of great privilege like some of the others and some ailments caused him to ride stiffly in the saddle and sit very upright. His self-discipline, however, was legendary even while at West Point.

Because he finished middle of his class, he didn't get to go into the prestigous Engineering Corps like McClellan did (who finished 2nd in the Class of 1846) but went into the Dragoons instead.

I'm not quite certain how but in the War against Mexico he impressed some people because he finished the war as a brevet Major - ahead of all his class mates.

When war broke out, he was a teacher at VMI. I've heard he wasn't particularly popular with his students in the same way a really hard professor is not popular because he expected high standards out of others in the same way he expected of himself.

I'm rambling here because I've never quite found the quality in him spelled out that made him so beloved and yet that fact was indisputable among his men. I know he was fearless in battle and could be found to be among his men suffering their same challenges and have concluded that must be what made him so legendary.

Yet militarily, he really ticked of his subordinate Generals at times and I've never read anything that indicated to me he was a really deep thinker or inventor of new concepts but that his boldness and daring and tenacity were his keys to success. At Chancelorsville, A.P. Hill was under arrest by him for failing to keep pushing his men in the previous engagement.

On a sidenote, at Chancelorsville, his famous flanking maneuver was aided by some local knowledge. There was apparently a kid who knew this circuitous route on a road that allowed him to march his entire Corps, unseen, to the flank of the Army of the Potomac. I believe it was the 10th of the Ohio that they basically rolled up and made a deep incursion into Union Lines. They moved so far that the lines were really confused by nightfall and, while Jackson was reconning, he got shot (might have even been by his own men accidentally).

I'll tell you the truth, when you read about him you just can't help but root for him. There is something really mysterious about it. I used to really despise men like him when I was younger and really ambitious. I never understood personal charisma and why I didn't have it. Now, I've simply accepted that I don't have what other men have. As I've said, though, I've never read anything that leads me to believe the man was incredibly gifted intellectually but that he had a magnetic personality in spite of his quietness. I've met similar men and conclude he just must have been like them. It certainly was not his ability to go around slapping people on the back and making them laugh or being really friendly to people that endeared him so much to others.

Anyway, sorry for the distraction but this thought came to my mind the other day and this thread kind of resurrected it.


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## RamistThomist (Jul 29, 2007)

He was fortunate to have a good biographer (R.L. Dabney). He was also fortunate to have Stephen Lang play his part in a movie!


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## Ivan (Jul 29, 2007)

bookslover said:


> Unfortunately, he should have fought for the Union. Nicer uniforms, better food...



...but less honor?


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## Ivan (Jul 29, 2007)

SemperFideles said:


> Because he finished middle of his class, he didn't get to go into the prestigous Engineering Corps like McClellan did (who finished 2nd in the Class of 1846)



So much for class ranking.


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## Semper Fidelis (Jul 30, 2007)

Yeah, the guy who finished first (Seymour) virtually disappeared from history after that. McClellan and Jackson were probably the most famous figures from that Class. McClellan was only 16 when he entered West Point and was really obsessed about finishing on top.


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## No Longer A Libertine (Jul 30, 2007)

bookslover said:


> Unfortunately, he should have fought for the Union. Nicer uniforms, better food...


He did fight for the Union, but the Union betrayed it's constitution and so reform was going to come by way of separation.

The revolution failed and the constitution was lost and has been ever since.


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