"In early 1861, Professor Thomas Jonathan Jackson was an unhappy, unpopular professor of artillery, optics, mathematics and astronomy at the Virginia Military Institute. Remarried after the death of his first wife, the deeply religious Jackson believed in predestination: Everything that happened to him was intended to happen. Conversely, one of his frequently stated maxims was, "You can be whatever you will." Guided by these two contradictory ideas, he became a fearless commander. If the Civil War had not happened, Jackson likely would have passed the rest of his life as a teacher, spending his spare time boning up on unfamiliar subjects, practicing his lectures, and spending time with his daughter. Instead, he was thrust into leadership positions. The Civil War changed his life forever, and his death changed the course of the war."
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Emilee Hines, It Happened In Virginia (2010), second edition, p. 73
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Virginia_Military_Institute
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Virginia Military Institute
Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is a public senior military college in Lexington, Virginia. It was founded in 1839 and is the first public Senior Military College in the United States. In keeping with its founding principles and unlike any other Senior Military College in the United States, VMI enrolls cadets only and awards bachelor's degrees exclusively. VMI offers its students, all of whom are cadets, strict military discipline combined with a physically and academically demanding environme
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