"I wanted to see active service," he said in after years, "to be near the enemy and in the fight; and when I heard that John Magruder had got his battery, I bent all my energies to be with him, for I knew if any fighting was to be done, Magruder would be on hand.'"

He succeeded in securing his transfer, and took a prominent part in the assault on the enemy's intrenched camp at Contreras, and in the stubborn struggle which followed at Churubusco. "My fire was opened," wrote Captain Magruder, "and continued with great rapidity for about an hour. In a few moments Lieutenant Jackson, commanding the second section of the battery, who had opened a fire upon the enemy's works from a position on the right, hearing our own fire still further in front, advanced in handsome style, and kept up the fire with great briskness and effect. . . . . Lieutenant Jackson's conduct was equally conspicuous throughout the whole day, and I cannot too highly commend him to the major-general's favorable consideration."

This report was addressed to "Captain J. Hooker, A. A. G.," afterwards General Hooker.

In the report of General Twiggs the young lieutenant was mentioned for "gallant services;" and for "gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco," he was brevetted captain. On the 8th of September came the victory of El Molino del Rey; and on the 13th the city of Mexico was stormed and taken.

Jackson had borne his fair share of the toils and dangers of the campaign, and had secured high commendation. The source and character of this commendation place his merit beyond question. General Scott twice mentioned him in his report, and declared that he had "gained merited praise." General Worth wrote: "After advancing some four hundred yards we came to a battery which had been assailed by a portion of Magruder's field-guns-particularly the section under the gallant Lieutenant Jackson, who, although he had lost most of his horses and many of his men, continued chivalrously at his post, combating with

noble courage." General Pillow wrote: "Captain Magruder's field-battery, one section of which was served with great gallantry by himself, and the other by his brave lieutenant, Jackson, in the face of a galling fire from the enemy's intrenched positions, did valuable service preparatory to the general assault. . . The advanced section of the battery, under the command of the brave Lieutenant Jackson, was dreadfully cut up and almost disabled." Captain Magruder made mention of the young man's services throughout his report, and wrote: "I beg leave to call the attention of the major-general commanding the division to the conduct of Lieutenant Jackson of the First Artillery. If devotion, industry, talent, and gallantry are the highest qualities of a soldier, then he is entitled to the distinction which their profession confers."

This warm testimony to the young soldier's skill and courage was not disregarded. For "gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Chepultepec, September 13, 1847," he was brevetted major. In less than a year he had risen from brevet second lieutenant to brevet major, distinguishing himself so greatly in every action as to attract the attention, and secure the especial notice of his generals, including the commander-in-chief. "The brave Lieutenant Jackson". "The gallant Lieutenant Jackson"-his "devotion, industry, talent, and gallantry"these tributes to his merits as a soldier had been showered upon him by some of the bravest and most famous officers of the army; and such praise must have thrilled to the very depths of a heart, at that time, if not afterwards, passionately sensitive to military glory.

An incident, which appears to rest upon good authority, will serve to convey an idea of the young lieutenant's coolness and nerve. His section had opened fire on the enemy's intrenchments, and drawn upon itself a whirlwind of iron which tore man and horse to pieces. Men fell around the guns at every moment, and the fire of the enemy at last became so terrible that the bravest of the cannoneers fled from the pieces. Only Jackson and a sergeant were left, and dismounting, the youthful

lieutenant took the sponge staff, and, with the assistance of his sergeant, began to load and fire with immovable phlegm and coolness. He was thus engaged when Magruder rode up and ordered him to withdraw his guns; but against this Jackson strongly remonstrated. He could hold his ground, he declared, and if General Worth would only send him fifty regulars, he would silence the enemy's batteries and render their capture easy. Magruder acquiesced, the men were sent, and Jackson immediately advanced his section, opening with a more rapid and destructive fire than before. The opposing batteries were silenced, the works were charged, and the American troops were soon occupying them.

On another occasion when his men ran from the pieces, and crouched behind a bank for shelter from a heavy fire of artillery, Jackson is said to have advanced into the open space, which was every moment being ploughed up with shot and shell, calling out with great coolness, "Come on! This is nothing. You see they can't hurt me!"

Long after the war, in 1858, a gay youth at Lexington asked Jackson one day if one of these anecdotes was true, and receiving a reply in the affirmative, added:

"That was a very hot place, wasn't it, Major?"

"Yes, very hot," was the reply.

"Why didn't you run, Major!" asked another as the laugh ran round the circle. With a smile Jackson replied:

"I was not ordered to do so. If I had been ordered to run, I would have done so; but I was directed to hold my position, and I had no right to abandon it."

Such was the explanation of the ex-artillerist; but we suspect that the character of his audience, or self-deception, led him to dwell too exclusively on the motive of duty. That motive may have been controlling with him, and the question of his young pupil gave him an excellent opportunity to enlarge upon it, and "point a moral." But behind the composed mask of the grave Lexington professor we think we can discern the grim smile of the artillerist of Contreras, Churubusco, and Chepul

tepec. Whatever may have been the sentiment of Major Jackson of the Virginia Military Institute, Lieutenant Jackson of the United States Army in Mexico loved fighting. He loved it to the last with all his piety and kindliness; and for the simple reason that his organization was essentially dominant, combative, delighting in antagonism. Until greatly changed by religious feeling, he seems to have loved fighting for its own sake; and it is certain that he performed his military duties in Mexico with the greatest gusto. He does not seem at that time to have been at all pious. He was a young soldier leading a soldier's life, in the atmosphere of the camp; busy with many things; full of ambition; in good health; and delighted with this "best of all possible worlds" in which he had become a major of artillery at the age of twenty-three. To have his battery in readiness for action at a moment's notice to get the best position, stand to his guns, do the enemy the largest amount of damage, and thereby secure "honorable mention" and a brevet-this was probably regarded as the chief end of man by the young and ardent artillerist.

It may be said that there was nothing very grand about all this; but it is something to be a good soldier, and Jackson certainly was such. He worked hard in camp, and fought hard iu the field. Devotion, industry, talent, and gallantry are not possessed by every one; but Magruder, who knew Jackson intimately, declared that he possessed them.

He was more than a good soldier afterwards-he was a very great man. But that was when a sublimer thirst than that for human glory had made him a true "Soldier of the Cross."

CHAPTER IV.

PROFESSOR AT LEXINGTON.

THE capture of the city of Mexico ended the was soon declared between the two countries.

war, and peace

The United States forces were withdrawn, and we next hear of Major Jackson in Florida, where the remnant of the Indian tribes formerly inhabiting that region still carried on hostilities against the Government. Here his health gave way. He had never been a person of very robust constitution, though capable of enduring great fatigue, and the swampy airs of Florida soon told upon a frame subjected to a heavy strain in the campaigns of Mexico.

This feeble state of health was probably the main reason which induced him to accept a proposition made to him early in the year 1851, to become a candidate for the chair of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at the Virginia Military Institute. This step involved a relinquishment of all the dreams of military glory which had so long filled his mind. He was called upon to bid farewell to that "pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war" which he loved; to hang up the sword battered in glorious encounter; to close his eyes to all the bright hopes of the future; and, his "occupation gone," settle down into a simple professor, drilling knowledge into the minds of his pupils year after year, with no wars, no battles, no thunder of the cannon any more. It must have been a hard struggle with the young soldier. The camp had now become his home: the service his chosen occupation, in which were centred all his joys and aspirations. He must consent to sever at a single blow the tie so firmly knit: to commence life afresh, and bending all his energies in a different direction, make usefulness his aim, no longer military glory. His health, or other circumstances, however decided him. He wrote from Fort Meade, Florida, February 25, 1851, to Colonel