mpression was at
once rejected; evidence was called to clear up disputed points; no
inferences or suppositions were allowed to stand; truth was never
permitted to be sacrificed to effect; superlatives were rigorously
excluded,* (* The report of Sharpsburg, which Jackson had not yet
revised at the time of his death, is not altogether free from
exaggeration.) and the narratives may be unquestionably accepted as
an accurate relation of the facts. Many stirring passages were added
by the general's own pen; and the praise bestowed upon the troops,
both officers and men, is couched in the warmest terms. Yet much was
omitted. Jackson had a rooted objection to represent the motives of
his actions, or to set forth the object of his movements. In reply to
a remonstrance that those who came after him would be embarrassed by
the absence of these explanations, and that his fame would suffer, he
said: "The men who come after me must act for themselves; and as to
the historians who speak of the movements of my command, I do not
concern myself greatly as to what they may say." To judge, then, from
the reports, Jackson himself had very little to do with his success;
indeed, were they the only evidence available, it would be difficult
to ascertain whether the more brilliant manoeuvres were ordered by
himself or executed on the initiative of others. But in this he was
perfectly consistent. When the publisher of an illustrated periodical
wrote to him, asking him for his portrait and some notes of his
battles as the basis of a sketch, he replied that he had no likeness
of himself, and had done nothing worthy of mention. It is not without
interest, in this connection, to note that the Old Testament supplied
him with a pattern for his reports, just as it supplied him, as he
often declared, with precepts and principles applicable to every
military emergency. After he was wounded, enlarging one morning on
his favourite topic of practical religion, he turned to the staff
officer in attendance, Lieutenant Smith, and asked him with a smile:
"Can you tell me where the Bible gives generals a model for their
official reports of battles?" The aide-de-camp answered, laughing,
that it never entered his mind to think of looking for such a thing
in the Scriptures. "Nevertheless," said the general, "there are such;
and excellent models, too. Look, for instance, at the narrative of
Joshua's battles with the Amalekites; there you have one. It has
clearness,