![]() ![]() In numerous battles, he failed to perform up to expectations, sometimes leaving his fellow troops in grave danger. Stonewall refused to share his plans with subordinates, assuring the element of surprise but often guaranteeing confusion in his own ranks. Gwynne is careful not to reduce Jackson to caricature, and to take seriously the flaws in Jackson's nature. During warfare, he tried to keep his face turned toward the source of the bullets because he was afraid of being shot in the back. Despite being an obsessively religious man, he often fell asleep in church. ![]() He often brought his own food to dinners at people's houses. He was distracted with worry about his health, trying various "water cures," including plunging into cold baths and wearing wet shirts. ![]() That hard-headedness would pay off later when the war came, but Jackson was always considered an odd bird. VMI's superintendent once found Jackson sitting on a camp stool and told him to "remain as you are until further orders." The next morning, the superintendent discovered Jackson in the very same position. Jackson was unbending and disciplined beyond reason. "By the end of his first year," Gwynne writes, "it had become common knowledge that the grave, taciturn major was, if not completely inept, at the very least the worst teacher in the institute." ![]()
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