The Hammock Papers: Distance.

09 June 2016

Distance.

The Paulding Clarion contained the following story of Stonewall Jackson:

General Jackson, who seldom wears a uniform or any other mark of his grade or rank was passing a corn field one day and saw a long, lank sided confederate pulling roasting ears. He hallooed to the confederate:

"Come out of that corn field!"
"Go to hell," replied the confederate.
"I'll report you to General Jackson," says the general.
"Report and be damned. I belong to Jackson's Foot Cavalry, and he allows us to eat as much corn as we want."

The general nods, laughing, while the confederate continued pulling corn "to feed Jackson's Foot Cavalry."

None could outmarch them. Some believed none could outfight them.

They were known as “Jackson’s Foot Cavalry” — so called for their ability to cover more than 30 miles a day – cavalry distance – on the march. Virginians all, they formed a division of troops under the command of General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in 1862.

CONNECT

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MARCUS AURELIUS

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?' neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility."

VINCENT van GOGH

"What am I in the eyes of most people? A nonentity or an oddity or a disagreeable person — someone who has and will have no position in society, in short a little lower than the lowest. Very well — assuming that everything is indeed like that, then through my work I’d like to show what there is in the heart of such an oddity, such a nobody. This is my ambition, which is based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Even though I’m often in a mess, inside me there’s still a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest little house, in the filthiest corner, I see paintings or drawings. And my mind turns in that direction as if with an irresistible urge. As time passes, other things are increasingly excluded, and the more they are the faster my eyes see the picturesque. Art demands persistent work, work in spite of everything, and unceasing observation."

DAN CAMPBELL