had done under similar circumstances; resembling Napoleon especially in this, that he was very particular in securing maps, and in acquiring topographical information.  He furnished me with every facility that I desired for securing topographical information and for making maps, allowing me a complete transportation outfit for my exclusive use and sending men into the enemy’s country to procure copies of local maps when I expressed a desire to have them.  I do not think he had an accurate knowledge of the Valley previous to the war.  When I first reported to him for duty, at the beginning of March 1862, he told me that he wanted “a complete map of the entire Shenandoah Valley from Harper’s Ferry to Lexington, one showing every point of offence and defence,” and to that task I immediately addressed myself.  As a rule he did not refer to maps in the field, making his study of them in advance.  He undoubtedly had the power of retaining the topography of the country in his imagination.  He had spent his youth among the mountains, where there were but few waggon roads but many bridle and foot paths.  His early occupation made it necessary for him to become familiar with such intricate ways; and I think this had a very important bearing on his ability to promptly recognise the topographical features of the country, and to recall them whenever it became necessary to make use of them.  He was quick in comprehending topographical features.  I made it a point, nevertheless, to be always ready to give him a graphic representation of any particular point of the region where operations were going on, making a rapid sketch of the topography in his presence, and using different coloured pencils for greater clearness in the definition of surface features.  The carefully prepared map generally had too many points of detail, and did not sufficiently emphasise features apparently insignificant, but from a military standpoint most important.  I may add that Jackson not only studied the general maps of the country, but made a particular study of those of any district where he expected to march or fight, constantly using sketch maps made upon the ground to inform him as to portions of the field of operations that did not immediately come under his own observation.  I often made rough sketches for him when on the march, or during engagements, in answer to his requests for information."* (* Letter to the author.)

It is little wonder that it should have been said by his soldiers that “he knew every hole and corner of the Valley as if he had made it himself.”

But to give attention to topography was not all that Jackson had learned from Napoleon.  “As a strategist,” says Dabney, “the first Napoleon was undoubtedly his model.  He had studied his campaigns diligently, and he was accustomed to remark with enthusiasm upon the evidences of his genius.  “Napoleon,” he said, “was the first to show what an army could be made to accomplish.  He had shown what was the value of time as an element