e exception of the prisoners taken, on the southern bank of the
Rappahannock.

During all these critical scenes, when the fate of the Confederate
capital, and possibly of the Southern cause, hung suspended in the
balance, General Lee preserved, as thousands of persons can testify,
the most admirable serenity and composure, without that jubilant
confidence displayed by General Hooker in his address to the troops,
and the exclamations to his officers. Lee was equally free from gloom
or any species of depression. His spirits seemed to rise under the
pressure upon him, and at times he was almost gay. When one of General
Jackson's aides hastened into his tent near Fredericksburg, and with
great animation informed him that the enemy were crossing the
river, in heavy force in his front, he seemed to be amused by that
circumstance, and said, smiling: "Well, I _heard_ firing, and I was
beginning to think it was time some of you lazy young fellows were
coming to tell me what it was all about. Say to General Jackson that
he knows just as well what to do with the enemy as I do."

The commander-in-chief who could find time at such a moment to
indulge in _badinage_, must have possessed excellent nerve; and this
composure, mingled with a certain buoyant hopefulness, as of one sure
of the event, remained with Lee throughout the whole great wrestle
with General Hooker. He retained to the end his simple and quiet
manner, divested of every thing like excitement. In the consultation
with Jackson, on the night of the 1st of May, when the crisis was so
critical, his demeanor indicated no anxiety; and when, as we have
said, the news came of Jackson's wound, he said simply, "Sit
down here, by me, captain, and tell me all about the fight last
evening"--adding, "Ah! captain, any victory is dearly bought which
deprives us of the services of General Jackson even for a short
time. Don't talk about it--thank God, it is no worse!" The turns of
expression here are those of a person who permits nothing to disturb
his serenity, and indulges his gentler and tenderer feelings even
in the hot atmosphere of a great conflict. The picture presented is
surely an interesting and beautiful one. The human being who uttered
the good-natured criticism at the expense of the "lazy young fellows,"
and who greeted the news of Jackson's misfortune with a sigh as tender
as that of a woman, was the soldier who had "seized the masses of his
force with the grasp of a Tita