ain.

The cadets received marching orders, and on that morning, for the first
time since his residence in Lexington, Major Jackson was seen in his
element. As a professor at the Virginia Military Institute he was
remarkable only for strict punctuality and discipline. I, with one of my
brothers, had been assigned to his class in Sunday-school, where his
regular attendance and earnest manner were equally striking.

It was on a beautiful Sunday morning in May that the cadets received
orders to move, and I remember how we were all astonished to see the
Christian major, galloping to and fro on a spirited horse, preparing for
their departure.

In the arsenal at the Institute were large stores of firearms of old
patterns, which were hauled away from time to time to supply the troops.
I, with five others of the College company, was detailed as a guard to a
convoy of Wagons, loaded with these arms, as far as Staunton. We were
all about the same size, and with one exception members of the same
class. In the first battle of Manassas four of the five--Charles Bell,
William Wilson, William Paxton and Benjamin Bradley--were killed, and
William Anderson, now Attorney-General of Virginia, was maimed for life.

There was great opposition on the part of the friends of the students to
their going into the service, at any rate in one body, but they grew
more and more impatient to be ordered out, and felt decidedly offended
at the delay.

Finally, in June, the long-hoped-for orders came. The town was filled
with people from far and near, and every one present, old and young,
white and black, not only shed tears, but actually sobbed. My father had
positively forbidden my going, as his other three sons, older than
myself, were already in the field. After this my time was chiefly
occupied in drilling militia in different parts of the country. And I am
reminded to this day by my friends the daughters of General Pendleton of
my apprehensions "lest the war should be over before I should get a
trip."

[Illustration: GUN FROM WHICH WAS FIRED THE FIRST HOSTILE CANNON-SHOT IN
THE VALLEY OF VIRGINIA]

CHAPTER II

ENTERING THE SERVICE--MY FIRST BATTLE--BATTLE OF KERNSTOWN

Jackson's first engagement took place at Hainesville, near Martinsburg,
on July 2, one of the Rockbridge Artillery guns firing the first hostile
cannon-shot fired in the Valley of Virginia. This gun is now in the
possession of the Virginia Military Institute, and m