Possumblog

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

REDIRECT ALERT! (Scroll down past this mess if you're trying to read an archived post. Thanks. No, really, thanks.)

Due to my inability to control my temper and complacently accept continued silliness with not-quite-as-reliable-as-it-ought-to-be Blogger/Blogspot, your beloved Possumblog will now waddle across the Information Dirt Road and park its prehensile tail at http://possumblog.mu.nu.

This site will remain in place as a backup in case Munuvia gets hit by a bus or something, but I don't think they have as much trouble with this as some places do. ::cough::blogspot::cough:: So click here and adjust your links. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it's one of those things.


Friday, January 21, 2005

January 21, 1824

From the Library of Congress' American Memory Collection, a notation regarding the birthday of Stonewall Jackson.

One of the most famous generals of the Late Unpleasantness, and one of the most enigmatic, despite the amount of books written about him. One of the best online resources about General Jackson is administered by the archive department of Virginia Military Institute, which includes a section of frequently asked questions (note especially about the lemons), his personal papers, photos, as well as information about his less than stellar work in the classroom as a "Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy."

What I found most interesting on the American Memory bio was way down at the bottom--a link to First Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920, and particularly the excerpt from John S. Robson's work How a One-Legged Rebel Lives, Etc. Etc., in which the following anecdote is related:

...the old [Confederate] "grayback"...after the surrender, went to the [Union] Provost Marshal...to be paroled. After taking all the oaths required of him, he asked the Provost if he wasn't all right. "Yes," said the Captain, "you are." "Good a Union man as anybody, ain't I." "Yes," replied the Captain, "you are in the Union now as a loyal citizen, and can go ahead all right." "Well, then," said the old sinner; "didn't 'Stonewall' use to give us h--l in the Valley."

Heh. Indeed, he did whup up on us a good bit. A collection of material related to the Shenandoah Valley Campaign can be found here.

Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.


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