iet street, there in that
home where order reigned supreme, where, as the master wished, "each
door turned softly on a golden hinge," came those hours of thought
and analysis which were to fit him for great deeds.

The even tenor of this calm existence was broken, however, by an
incident which intensified the bitter feeling which already divided
the Northern and Southern sections of the United States. During the
month of January, 1859, Jackson had marched with the cadet battalion
to Harper's Ferry, where, on the northern frontier of Virginia, the
fanatic, John Brown, had attempted to raise an insurrection amongst
the negroes, and had been hung after trial in presence of the troops.
By the South Brown was regarded as a madman and a murderer; by many
in the North he was glorified as a martyr; and so acute was the
tension that early in 1860, during a short absence from Lexington,
Jackson wrote in a letter to his wife, "What do you think about the
state of the country? Viewing things at Washington from human
appearances, I think we have great reason for alarm." A great crisis
was indeed at hand. But if to her who was ever beside him, while the
storm clouds were rising dark and terrible over the fair skies of the
prosperous Republic, the Christian soldier seemed the man best fitted
to lead the people, it was not so outside. None doubted his sincerity
or questioned his resolution, but few had penetrated his reserve. As
the playful tenderness he displayed at home was never suspected, so
the consuming earnestness, the absolute fearlessness, whether of
danger or of responsibility, the utter disregard of man, and the
unquestioning faith in the Almighty, which made up the individuality
which men called Stonewall Jackson, remained hidden from all but one.

To his wife his inward graces idealised his outward seeming; but
others, noting his peculiarities, and deceived by his modesty, saw
little that was remarkable and much that was singular in the staid
professor. Few detected, beneath that quiet demeanour and absent
manner, the existence of energy incarnate and an iron will; and still
fewer beheld, in the plain figure of the Presbyterian deacon, the
potential leader of great armies, inspiring the devotion of his
soldiers, and riding in the forefront of victorious battle.

CHAPTER 1.4. SECESSION. 1860 TO 1861.

1861.

Jackson spent ten years at Lexington, and he was just five-and-thirty
when he left it. For ten years he had s