Yep, yesterday was Old Jack's date of birth back in 1824 and I thought I'd wax eloquent this morning on Deacon Tom. As you can see, this was a man who inspired nicknames, the most famous of which was 'Stonewall' that he got at the First Battle of Bull Run when the Yankees made a big mistake and attacked on Sunday, July 21, 1862. Oh, for you newbies, my book God Caused the Civil War points out that statistically more big battles were fought on Sundays than any other day of the week and the attacker statistically LOST 67% of the time vs. winning 67% of the time on Friday, Saturday, and Monday. But I digress...sort of...Old Jack, Old Blue Light, Tom Fool, Stonewall...Deacon Tom was quite a Christian in his day. He decided that the Presbyterian form of government was the best suit for him, so he joined Lexington Presbyterian after his conversion during the Mexican American War. He was also responsible for forming the first black Sunday school class in town...illegally, according to the laws of Virginia of the day. I've proposed that when he instituted The Rebel Yell at Bull Run when he commanded his Stonewall Brigade to 'charge and scream like the Furies' that it was his reaction to sitting quietly in pent up frustration during session meetings at Lexington Presbyterian...but that's just a guess on my part.
Deacon Tom was a praying man...I like that and was somewhat inspired by it 'back in the day' when I was just starting out my walk in the Lord. He used to pray for his students at Virginia Military Institute as classes were changing, for the person to whom he sent a letter, and just about all the time. He was a rock solid Calvinist who once told one of his aides that his religion made him understand that he was as safe on the battlefield as he was in bed since God had his death firmly accounted for and his responsibility was to live as strong a Christian life as he could.
Old Jack was a firm believer in 'whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord' from Colossians 3:23... the only problem with that was he got a bit over zealous at Chancellorsville when chasing down the Yanks after a clear cut victory, got a bit prideful in claiming there was no danger in pursuing them at night, and ended up getting shot by friendly fire on his way back towards his own line. The 'good' for him that came of his fatal wounding that Saturday night was that he 'crossed over the river to rest under the trees' by his Heavenly Mansion on Sunday, May 10, 1863...the day of the week he preferred as his death day.
Well, that's about it for now, since the buildings at Camp Cornelius are beckoning me to open them...in a post Reformation, Van Tillian, Zen Sorta Way, of course, in the coincidental providence of the Living and True God who called me and Deacon Tom to be a couple of His kids!!
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