If he had been fragged a year earlier, a lot of good men would not have died. Jackson was a very disturbed individual.
“At the Virginia Military Institute where he taught, Jackson was nicknamed “Tom Fool” because of his personal eccentricities, which included sucking on lemons to ease the discomfort of what he thought was an ulcer. Students and colleagues thought of him as a dull professor who rarely smiled, but when he found something funny, he would throw his head back and let out a frightening roar. Throughout his life, he struggled to overcome the belief that his body was somehow “out of balance,” and that the only way to correct this was to remain in a rigid, upright position so that his organs remained aligned on top of one another. For this reason, he rarely sat in chairs, preferring to keep his posture erect when standing, lying straight in bed, or on horseback. In battle, he often charged with one gloved hand held high over his head, allowing the blood to flow down into his body to establish equilibrium.” http://troytaylorbooks.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-many-demons-of-stonewall-jackson.html
At first, the Confederate leadership was able to downplay his bizarre behavior because he was willing to drive his troops mercilessly in hopeless campaigns against the numerous invading Northerners. And who can blame them considering the futile nature of their conflict?
His laggardly performance behavior at First Manassas had been largely forgotten. That he stood his command on a hill behind the battle line, while the rest of army fought in front of him, was cleverly re-scripted into a tale of him “standing like a “stone wall” a rallying the hard-pressed Southern forces.
But the final straw for the men under his command was when word leaked out over his unnatural attraction to six year old Janie Corbin during the winter of 1862. It was more than any decent Southerner could stomach.
The “friendly fire” story was disseminated in order to keep up morale.
can you cite a source who rescripted his performance at 1st Manassas. Do you have any source that you can cite that supports the contention that the 18th NC intentionally fired on their Corp Commander.
The movie GODS AND GENERALS hinted at the creepiness of his “attraction” to the little girl.
Does your tagline -- "The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both." -- apply to your post?
I didn't get that from the movie. I mean -- we think Stonewall's relationship with the child is creepy. But did people at the time think so? Did Ron Maxwell, who made the film, even think so?
We might find the relationship between Lewis Armistead and Winfield Scott Hancock (Richard Jordan and Brian Mallon) in Gettysburg "creepy," but people 150 years ago wouldn't. That was just the way people expressed themselves back then. And people 150 years from now -- what will they think?