is an infallible means of becoming a great or even a good general.
The first qualification necessary for a leader of men is a strong
character, the second, a strong intellect. With both Providence had
endowed Jackson, and the strong intellect illuminates and explains
the page that to others is obscure and meaningless. With its innate
faculty for discerning what is essential and for discarding
unimportant details, it discovers most valuable lessons where
ordinary men see neither light nor leading. Endowed with the power of
analysis and assimilation, and accustomed to observe and to reflect
upon the relations between cause and effect, it will undoubtedly
penetrate far deeper into the actual significance and practical
bearing of historical facts than the mental vision which is less
acute.

Jackson, by reason of his antecedent training, was eminently capable
of the sustained intellectual efforts which strategical conceptions
involve. Such was his self-command that under the most adverse
conditions, the fatigues and anxieties of a campaign, the fierce
excitement of battle, his brain, to use the words of a great
Confederate general, "worked with the precision of the most perfect
machinery."* (* General G. B. Gordon. Introduction to Memoirs of
Stonewall Jackson page 14.) But it was not only in the field, when
the necessity for action was pressing, that he was accustomed to
seclude himself with his own thoughts. Nor was he content with
considering his immediate responsibilities. His interest in the
general conduct of the war was of a very thorough-going character.
While in camp on the Rappahannock, he followed with the closest
attention the movements of the armies operating in the Valley of the
Mississippi, and made himself acquainted, so far as was possible, not
only with the local conditions of the war, but also with the
character of the Federal leaders. It was said that, in the late
spring of 1862, it was the intention of Mr. Davis to transfer him to
the command of the Army of the Tennessee, and it is possible that
some inkling of this determination induced him to study the Western
theatre.* (* In April he wrote to his wife: "There is increasing
probability that I may be elsewhere as the season advances." That he
said no more is characteristic.) Be this as it may, the general
situation, military and political, was always in his mind, and
despite the victory of Fredericksburg, the future was dark and the
indications ominous