“As an instance of the alacrity with which, if once convinced that a thing was right to do, he did it, on one occasion, when he had been talking of self-abnegation and making rather light of it, a friend suggested that he had not been called upon to endure it, and supposed a case: ‘Imagine that the providence of God seemed to direct you to drop every scheme of life and of personal advancement, and go on a mission to the heart of Africa for the rest of your days, would you go?’ His eyes flashed as he instantly replied: ‘I would go without my hat!’” — Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson) (1892), p. 72