Civil War Bookmarks

This excerpt may not quite flow as naturally from the previous offering as one might like, but the image is so unexpected that I will risk the somewhat rough transition. In his memoir, “I Rode With Stonewall”, Henry Kyd Douglas wrote of an incident early in General Thomas J. Jackson’s career in the Valley. This small window into a life cut short reveals a much different side of the man than that of the oft described stoic, secretive, disciplinarian.

“After riding along some distance, the General spied a tree hanging heavy with persimmons, a peculiar fruit of which he was very fond. Dismounting, he was in a short time seated aloft among the branches, in the midst of abundance. He ate in silence and when satisfied started to descend, but found that it was not so easy as the ascent had been. Attempting to swing himself from a limb to the main fork of the tree, he got so completely entangled that he could move neither up nor down and was compelled to call for help. He remained suspended in that attitude until his staff, convulsed with laughter, brought some rails from a fence nearby and made a pair of skids to slide him to the earth.”

Mr. Douglas said nothing more of the incident.

Respectfully.

Randy