t of the blacksmith's
suggestion. Armed with a letter of introduction signed by leading
citizens of the county, to the Congressman from the district, he went
in person to Washington and through the kindness of the
representative obtained an interview with the Secretary of War.

"Gruff and heroic with the grit of Old Hickory himself" was the
cabinet-officer's opinion of the country lad. He commended him to the
West Point Board of Examiners in terms that secured him admission to
the Military Academy in spite of certain grave deficiencies in his
early education.

The story of the wrestle with these and other disabilities during the
next four years is interesting and instructive. Three extracts from a
list of rules for his personal conduct, set down at this time in a
private note-book, sound the keynote of his subsequent career:

"_Sacrifice your life rather than your word._

"_Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you
resolve._

"_You may be whatever you resolve to be._"

He was respected by all his classmates, known and liked by a few. He
was too reserved by nature, too busy in practice, to be a general
favorite. His labors were unremitting, his recreations few and simple.
With no prevision of the destinies awaiting them, Jackson, McClellan,
A. T. Hill, Reno, Picket, Foster, and Maury, as beardless boys,
studied and were drilled side by side for four terms and were
graduated upon the same day. There were seventy in this remarkable
class, and the name of Thomas Jonathan Jackson stood seventeenth upon
the roll of merit.

"If we had to stay here one year more, old Jack would be at the head,"
the witnesses of the fierce ordeal of his West Point training used to
say.

The class of '46 was ordered forthwith to the seat of war in Mexico.
Jackson's first engagement was the siege of Vera Cruz; his next the
battle of Cherubusco. The official report of this last mentions him
favorably. As second lieutenant, he was called upon early in the
action to take the place of the next in rank above him, the first
lieutenant having fallen in the charge. After the battle Jackson was
further promoted to the rank of brevet captain. His "devotion,
industry, talent, and gallantry" were noted officially after
Chapultepec, not only by his colonel, but by Generals Pillow and
Worth, and by the Commander-in-chief, Winfield Scott.

What he afterward confessed as the "one wilful lie he ever told" is
thus reported by a b