Let us cross the river and rest in the shade.
Stonewall Jackson's dying words
In September 1897, a gawky, 16-year-old youngster from Uniontown, Pa. entered, the tradition-hallowed halls of Virginia Military Institute. "Flicker" Marshall, shy, freckle-faced and bewildered, was quickly the biggest dunce among the rats (freshmen). Yet, bitten by V.M.I.'s tradition and by a proper reverence for the exploits of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, V.M.I.'s most illustrious professor (whose statue still rates a salute from passing cadets), George Marshall wanted above all to be a soldier.
Upperclassmen hazed him mercilessly, once forced...