The Daily Dispatch: December 28, 1863., [Electronic resource]

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An example for military men.

Gen. Jackson, like all great military commanders, was especially remarkable for his attention to details. Nothing was too small to escape his eagle eye. Upon a march be was always to be found with his wagon train. On one occasion, when one of his wagons was stuck in the mud, and the wagoners were standing around and cursing the mules, without doing anything to remedy the difficulty, he suddenly rode up, slighted from his old sorrel, took a rail from the fence, and went to work himself — an example which instantly recalled the men to a sense of their duty, and the wagon was soon put on terra firma. He then superintended the filling up of the hole in which it had sunk, so as to secure the uninterrupted transit of the rest of the train. This was Gen. Jackson's style of doing business. He knew how much the great operations of war depend upon what appear to be the most trifling details. He never lost a thousand dollars' worth of public property while he was in the army. Those who imagine that all a commanding General has to do is to fight battles, make an egregious mistake. Some of our military popinjays seem to think that the of the battle-field and fuss and feathers make up the sum of military glory. If they would emulate the fame of Jackson they must adopt his habits of patient, practical labor, and his thorough and absorbing attention to details.