Stonewall Jackson the Failed Teacher

[Ainatari]

We have a couple good threads back in the archives about whether or not Stonewall was an aspie! Myself, I think there is a good case to be made for it but, of course, our subject is no more and can't be evaluated. Some think he had epilepsy. That might account for some of his nap attacks - he fell asleep in church one day and snored so loudly the lady behind him stabbed him with a hat pin. I mean stabbed! He didn't wake up... But...again, we have no EEG or anything else to help confirm that. And...epilepsy and autism often go together.

As amweiner says, it could all be a matter of his chaotic raising. A lot of people whose lives are jumbled seek control, order and continuity. Sherman is an example of this as well - being a soldier meant stability. It's interesting to note Jackson and Stuart's friendship. Stuart was outgoing, fun-loving, dearly loved good food and laughed that there were never leftovers when he got done at a dinner! Jackson instinctively knew he needed just such a person in his life. When Jackson did lay out a proper dinner, butter and wine and the works, Stuart just couldn't resist teasing him about his extravagant tastes and amazing gluttony - made Jackson at least smile! He also brought Jackson a spiffy new uniform - always style conscious! - to replace his beat up, raggedy one. Stuart was the only such person in Jackson's life, by the way, and I think that might have been why he started doing better toward the end.

Also think there might be a case there...
Love his friendship with Stuart though-besties for life! Would you happen to have any more stories about the two friends?

 

[diane]

Also think there might be a case there...
Love his friendship with Stuart though-besties for life! Would you happen to have any more stories about the two friends?

This site here has a really good telling of the Christmas Dinner story! Jeb, one might note, was the only person who got away with jabbing Old Blue Light in the ribs like that...and he was the only one who dared!

http://www.civilwarprofiles.com/christmas-at-moss-neck-with-stonewall-jackson/

 

[amweiner]

This site here has a really good telling of the Christmas Dinner story! Jeb, one might note, was the only person who got away with jabbing Old Blue Light in the ribs like that...and he was the only one who dared!

http://www.civilwarprofiles.com/christmas-at-moss-neck-with-stonewall-jackson/

Jeb was a sassypants!

 

[diane]

Jeb was a sassypants!

I love his raid on a farmhouse full of food. It wasn't exactly Hampton's great Beefsteak Raid but it got his people fed! Scouts came across an abandoned farmhouse that was still warm from the residents having been in it - there was food inside. Jeb peeked in the windows alongside his scouts and beheld pies, butter, buttermilk, bread, jam...you name the goodie. That's it - he turned around and gave the scouts a boost to get up to the window and inside the pantry!

 

[amweiner]

From
A Civil War Treasury of Tales, Legends and Folklore
edited by Benjamin Albert Botkin

 

[diane]

That's a good one! Jackson was probably a little on the lucky side - Jeb tended to sleep walk when super-stressed. One time he showed up at a lady's dinner and ate only boiled eggs, one after another into his mouth, and said surprisingly rude things to his hostess. He abruptly went out the door and rode away without saying a word after all that. Thing was....he was sound asleep the whole time! Truly mortified when he learned of his behavior, of which he remembered exactly nothing.

 

[Zella]

That's a good one! Jackson was probably a little on the lucky side - Jeb tended to sleep walk when super-stressed. One time he showed up at a lady's dinner and ate only boiled eggs, one after another into his mouth, and said surprisingly rude things to his hostess. He abruptly went out the door and rode away without saying a word after all that. Thing was....he was sound asleep the whole time! Truly mortified when he learned of his behavior, of which he remembered exactly nothing.

Bahaha that's amazing! Did anyone record the exact nature of the rude things he said?

 

[diane]

Bahaha that's amazing! Did anyone record the exact nature of the rude things he said?

Yes, someone did but I can only remember a couple - he said the meat was really tough (even though he didn't eat any!) and that the hostess' dress was ugly, did her no favors at all. Poor Jeb - the lights were on but he wasn't home!

 

[WJC]

To be honest, I wonder if Stonewall Jackson lived during the Battle of Chancellorsville. Assuming nothing else changes and the Civil War ends in the manner we recognize how would Jackson reacted to Reconstruction? Considering Jackson educated his slaves in Virginia despite being illegal would he have been Reconstruction-friendly and if so how would this affect Reconstruction as a whole if a prominent Confederate general like Jackson endorsed it.

For one thing, he could share the invective directed at Longstreet. For another, the Lost Cause gang would have to find some other excuse for loss of the rebellion.

 

[Zella]

Yes, someone did but I can only remember a couple - he said the meat was really tough (even though he didn't eat any!) and that the hostess' dress was ugly, did her no favors at all. Poor Jeb - the lights were on but he wasn't home!

LOL that's great! Thank you! Ol' Jeb sure was blunt! The sleepwalking version of in vino veritas?

Those things sound like something my great-grandmother, who didn't have sleepwalking as an excuse for her, um, rather frank running commentary on life, would say.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

If Jackson was such a terrible teacher at VMI why did he keep his job so long? No tenure. Were good science teachers that hard to find in 1850s Virginia?

 

[diane]

If Jackson was such a terrible teacher at VMI why did he keep his job so long? No tenure. Were good science teachers that hard to find in 1850s Virginia?

They were for that subject. It had a whole lot of components in mathematics, acoustics, astronomy - all sorts of very difficult things. As it happened, Jackson excelled at this subject. He loved math and science. The textbook he used had been written by a professor he idolized - and he literally memorized the book! Trouble was, he didn't know how to get what was in his head into other heads. He had applied for a job at the University of Virginia but was turned down, so he plugged away at VMI. Anna asked him why he did it, it was not up his alley, and his reply was the job had come to him unsolicited and was therefore providential - God willed it and would give him what he needed to complete the task. It might be a little odd, but it seemed he was right in a way - he was needed at VMI when a certain time came!

 

[amweiner]

They were for that subject. It had a whole lot of components in mathematics, acoustics, astronomy - all sorts of very difficult things. As it happened, Jackson excelled at this subject. He loved math and science. The textbook he used had been written by a professor he idolized - and he literally memorized the book! Trouble was, he didn't know how to get what was in his head into other heads. He had applied for a job at the University of Virginia but was turned down, so he plugged away at VMI. Anna asked him why he did it, it was not up his alley, and his reply was the job had come to him unsolicited and was therefore providential - God willed it and would give him what he needed to complete the task. It might be a little odd, but it seemed he was right in a way - he was needed at VMI when a certain time came!

And apparently he was entirely a different instructor when teaching artillery. It sounds like he was in his element, and the students appreciated him for it, if not for his classroom demeanor.

 

[BlueandGrayl]

For one thing, he could share the invective directed at Longstreet. For another, the Lost Cause gang would have to find some other excuse for loss of the rebellion.

In a Jackson-filled Reconstruction I wonder who else besides Longstreet will be blamed for the rebellion

 

[BlueandGrayl]

There is no reality that I can imagine that sees Jackson happily enduring the outcome of the war.

Theologically speaking, Jackson was a Calvinist, or what many today call "reformed." He believed that God has planned everything out according to His will long before the world was formed. It was this kind of faith that allowed Jackson to be the virtually fearless military commander that he was, and he was deeply convinced that the South was fighting the equivalent of a holy war and that God would not let them be ultimately defeated. The outcome of the war would have shaken Jackson to the very core of his being, and it may have been more than he could bear.

Edited

Sure he'd be disappointed at the outcome but as I said he did educate his slaves in Virginia despite being illegal and I asked the question about how Jackson will react to the Reconstruction governments in the South will he support them or oppose them?

 

[WJC]

In a Jackson-filled Reconstruction I wonder who else besides Longstreet will be blamed for the rebellion

Thanks for your response.
Why would Longstreet- or Jackson- be blamed for something that they joined in progress? The blame ought to go, not to the soldiers, but to the rabble-rousing politicians.

 

[BlueandGrayl]

Thanks for your response.
Why would Longstreet- or Jackson- be blamed for something that they joined in progress? The blame ought to go, not to the soldiers, but to the rabble-rousing politicians.

Actually, I was not asking Longstreet or Jackson being blamed for something they joined in progress instead I was referring to another Confederate general getting the blame instead.

 

[WJC]

There is no reality that I can imagine that sees Jackson happily enduring the outcome of the war.

I don't know that any of the defeated rebels was "happy" with the outcome. But most put on their 'big boy pants' and went to work rebuilding their lives, their communities and the prospects of their families. I personally believe Jackson, had he survived, would have done the same.

 

[WJC]

Actually, I was not asking Longstreet or Jackson being blamed for something they joined in progress instead I was referring to another Confederate general getting the blame instead.

Thanks for your response.
Sorry I misunderstood. Yes, the Lost cause gang might have turned on each other.
Interesting idea for a 'What If?' thread....

 

[diane]

My question about Jackson is what would he think about West Virginia becoming a Union state? He died a month before that happened - he was born in Clarksburg. If he'd made it through the war, I think he would not have said anything either way about anything or anyone - just gone on about his business as best he could! He and Stuart were on the same page with Southern nationalism, though - Stuart was hard core on the subject, even changed his son's name from his Unionist grandpa's, and made it clear his children were to be raised in the South. Likely Jackson would have done the same with his children. He would definitely have accepted the South's defeat as God's will, just as he accepted his own death at a critical point to be God's will. Stuart's death came a year later, almost to the day - both were irreplaceable to Lee.