him. He was indeed on the threshold of a new world, with his own way
to make, and apparently no single advantage in his favour. But he
came of a fighting race; he had his own inflexible resolution to
support him, and his determination expressed itself in his very
bearing. Four cadets, three of whom were afterwards Confederate
generals,* (* A.P. Hill, G.E. Pickett, and D.H. Maury.) were standing
together when he first entered the gates of the Academy. "There was
about him," says one of them, "so sturdy an expression of purpose
that I remarked, "That fellow looks as if he had come to stay.""

Jackson's educational deficiencies were more difficult of conquest
than the goodwill of his comrades. His want of previous training
placed him at a great disadvantage. He commenced his career amongst
"the Immortals" (the last section of the class), and it was only by
the most strenuous efforts that he maintained his place. His
struggles at the blackboard were often painful to witness. In the
struggle to solve a problem he invariably covered both his face and
uniform with chalk, and he perspired so freely, even in the coldest
weather, that the cadets, with boyish exaggeration, declared that
whenever "the General," as he had at once been dubbed in honour of
his namesake, the victor of New Orleans, got a difficult proposition
he was certain to flood the classroom. It was all he could do to pass
his first examination.* (* Communicated by General John Gibbon,
U.S.A.)

"We were studying," writes a classmate, "algebra and analytical
geometry that winter, and Jackson was very low in his class. Just
before the signal lights out he would pile up his grate with
anthracite coal, and lying prone before it on the floor, would work
away at his lessons by the glare of the fire, which scorched his very