It is often said that the Civil War was in one sense a repetition
of the old struggle between the Puritan and the Cavalier; but
Puritan and Cavalier types were common to the two armies. In dash
and light-hearted daring, Custer and Kearney stood as conspicuous
as Stuart and Morgan; and, on the other hand, no Northern general
approached the Roundhead type--the type of the stern, religious
warriors who fought under Cromwell--so closely as Stonewall
Jackson. He was a man of intense religious conviction, who
carried into every thought and deed of his daily life the
precepts of the faith he cherished. He was a tender and loving
husband and father, kindhearted and gentle to all with whom he
was brought in contact; yet in the times that tried men's souls,
he proved not only a commander of genius, but a fighter of iron
will and temper, who joyed in the battle, and always showed at
his best when the danger was greatest. The vein of fanaticism
that ran through his character helped to render him a terrible
opponent. He knew no such word as falter, and when he had once
put his hand to a piece of work, he did it thoroughly and with
all his heart. It was quite in keeping with his character that
this gentle, high-minded, and religious man should, early in the
contest, have proposed to hoist the black flag, neither take nor
give quarter, and make the war one of extermination. No such
policy was practical in the nineteenth century and in the
American Republic; but it would have seemed quite natural and
proper to Jackson's ancestors, the grim Scotch-Irish, who
defended Londonderry against the forces of the Stuart king, or to
their forefathers, the Covenanters of Scotland, and the Puritans
who in England rejoiced at the beheading of King Charles I.