His 3500 men and his amazing tactics help keep the Yankees at bay. Jackson's tactics were to stay low and hide in the mountains and when the Union was least expecting it he"d roam out and fight the Union force keeping them divided.
Jackson was an ingenious man that set out to fight for his country and turn his bad situation into a good one. He was a great patriot and an amazing strategist. I think that Jackson should have been the one in charge and perhaps the south wouldn't have made there big mistake at Gettysburg. And if they hadn't made that critical mistake they probably would have won the war. If they had won Gettysburg they would have cut the north in half. I"d like to see how that would have turned out if Jackson was in charge instead of Lee "The Mistake." .
The article "Soldiering in the Civil War" was about how the civilians were the ones fighting and there weren't half as many trained soldiers as there were just plain old civilians taking up arms. Most of the soldiers were volunteers and they were living off of porn and were armed with an old muzzle rifle. Most of the men hadn't even been to school for they were need on their farms and such. Almost all the men about 75% of them at least were uneducated and couldn't count or read.
Even amongst the men there was competition and sometimes they showed hostility towards one another. The men had it set in their minds that their regiment was the best and no other regiment could even come close. This hostility turned into actual rivalry between the men and their regiments. Each soldier was loyal to his regiment and each would fight for it accordingly. .
Men during the Civil War were patriots each there to do his duty and fight if necessary for his country. Very little if any tried to enlist as cooks for any of the regiments. The soldiers were forced to make their own food for their own regiments; I"d imagine they took turns or traded off on a day to day basis.