Jackson's Alleged Eccentricities
In the trivia section of this page, they mention the oft-repeated but generally incorrect story that Jackson often raised finger "to balance his bodily humors". While Jackson may well have said that at some point (or maybe he said it often), but the movie actually comes close to the truth. Jackson DID get the tip of his finger shot off. After it healed, it would throb with pain from time to time, especially when he was under stress and his heart was pounding (if you've ever had a deep cut on your hand or finger, you have probably experienced a similar pain for quite a while after the original injury... it happened to me after smashing my thumbnail as a teen). When it was throbbing, he would raise his hand above his head, which reduced blood pressure in his hand and, in turn, lessened the throbbing. There was NOTHING odd about it. He did exactly what any rational person would do in that situation. Mind you, given the limits of medical science at that time, he (or Dr. McGuire) may well have attributed the throbbing to his "bodily humors," but that doesn't make him eccentric. It just makes him a man from a time when advances in weaponry has far outstripped those in medicine.
As for the lemons, well, that one was true. For whatever reason, he swore by them, and no matter where he was, he always had a lemon handy to suck on. ....and, yes, by all accounts, he was an AWFUL teacher. It was rumored that his students quickly realized that he was memorizing his class lectures and then reciting them in class by rote. They would get their kicks by interrupting him mid-lecture, ruining his train of thought, and, thus, forcing him to start the lecture over from the beginning.
One more note about Jackson and the "Stonewall" nickname: There are some who have posited (including quite a few who did so during the war, particularly after Jackson's poor performance during the "Seven Days" battles in front of Richmond in 1862) that General Bee's statement about Jackson standing "like a Stonewall" was intended to be derogatory, as in, "look at Jackson standing there like a stone wall while my regiment is being torn to pieces and desperately needs his help". Bee was killed soon after saying his fateful line so nobody was ever able to confirm or deny whether he was complimenting Jackson or cursing him. 150 years of Southerners rewriting history have made certain that only the positive interpretation is remembered today.