J. William Jones, Christ in the camp, or religion in Lee's army

[88] with which to decorate the hero's grave, was surprised to find a miniature Confederate flag planted on the grave with a verse of a familiar hymn pinned to it. Upon inquiry she found that a colored boy, who had belonged to Jackson's Sunday-school, had procured the flag, gotten some one to copy a stanza of a favorite hymn which Jackson had taught him, and had gone in the night to plant the flag on the grave of his loved teacher.

It will be gratifying to many of our readers to add that this school is still kept up, and is in a most flourishing condition under the management, of Colonel J. L. T. Preston, of the Virginia Military Institute, Professor J. J. White, of Washington and Lee University, and others of the best people in Lexington.

Jackson was equally scrupulous in attending to all his religious duties. ‘Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?’ seemed the motto of his life. Regular in meeting all of his religious obligations, he walked straight along the path of duty, doing with his might whatsoever his hands found to do. In the army his piety, despite all obstacles, seemed to brighten as the pure gold is refined by the furnace. He beautifully illustrated in his life the lesson of the great apostle: ‘Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.’ He was a man of prayer, accustomed in all he did to ask the Divine blessing and guidance. His old body-servant said that he ‘could always tell when a battle was near at hand by seeing the general get up a great many times in the night to pray.’ He was frequently observed in the beginning and in the midst of the battle to lift up his hands towards heaven, and those near could hear his ejaculatory prayers. Just before the battle of Fredericksburg he rode out in front of his line of battle and offered earnest prayer for the success of his arms that day. The morning of the opening of the campaign of Chancellorsville he spent a long time in prayer before mounting to ride to the field.

A writer in the Richmond Whig thus describes a scene enacted soon after the battle of McDowell: ‘General Jackson addressed his troops in a few terse and pointed remarks, thanking them for the courage, endurance and soldierly conduct displayed at the battle of McDowell on the 8th inst., and closed by appointing 10 o'clock of that day as an occasion of prayer and thanksgiving throughout the army for the victory which followed that bloody engagement. There, in the beautiful little valley of the South Branch, with the blue and towering mountains ’