Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 9.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[217] dare, and, if need be, die for Dixie. How vain it would be for any one to add to what has been said by such a witness.

Again, and lastly, Jackson's character and conduct so filled the measure of his glory that no encomium could increase or adorn it. When he came from the academic shades of the Virginia Military Institute, who could have foreseen the height of military fame to which the quiet professor would reach. He rose with the brilliancy of a meteor over the blood-stained fields of the Potomac, but shone with the steady light of the orb of day, a light around which no evening shadows gathered, but grew brighter and brighter the longer it shone. It is not alone by us that his merit has been recognized.

In Europe, so far as I had opportunity to learn, he was regarded as the great hero of our war, and appreciative men in England have contributed the bronze statue to him, the first and only one which they have given to one of our soldiers. The column which stands before me, crowned with a statue of enduring stone, which you have reared to commemorate his services and virtues, is a fit tribute from you, and teaches a useful lesson to posterity, because it is erected not to perpetuate the story of his military prowess merely, but also, and perhaps even more, to record his pure patriotism, his piety and private worth. No place could have been more appropriate than this for such a testimonial, for the fame of Jackson is closely identified with the heroic history of Louisiana.

In the beginning of the war the Confederate States were wanting in all the material needful for its prosecution, and there was nothing which it was more difficult to supply than field batteries. Then the Washington Artillery came full-armed to fill that want. From the first battle of Manassas, where Jackson won his sobriquet of Stonewall, in the East and in the West, the guns of the Washington Artillery were heard wherever battles were fought. In the ever memorable campaign of the Shenandoah, where Jackson, with the swoop of the eagle, attacked the divided columns of the enemy, and, beating them in succession, drove his vast host from our soil, the sons of Louisiana were a staff on which he securely leaned.

At Port Republic, a battle as noticeable for the strategy which preceded it as for the daring and resolution by which it was characterized, Jackson in making the disposition of his forces, assigned an important duty to the Louisiana brigade commanded by General Dick Taylor. This was to gain a position on the mountain side above the enemy's most effective battery and descend to attack him in flank and reverse. After Taylor had put his troops in motion, he went to receive from