your command, for this addition to the unprecedented
series of great victories which our army has achieved. The
universal rejoicing produced by this happy result will be mingled
with a general regret for the good and the brave who are numbered
among the killed and the wounded."

R.E. LEE, _General_.

VIII.

PERSONAL RELATIONS OF LEE AND JACKSON.

The most important incident of the great battle of Chancellorsville
was the fall of Jackson. The services of this illustrious soldier had
now become almost indispensable to General Lee, who spoke of him
as his "right arm;" and the commander-in-chief had so long been
accustomed to lean upon the strong shoulder of his lieutenant, that
now, when this support was withdrawn, he seems to have felt the loss
of it profoundly.

In the war, indeed, there had arisen no soldier who so powerfully drew
the public eye as Jackson. In the opinion of many persons, he was a
greater and abler commander than Lee himself; and, although such
an opinion will not be found to stand after a full review of the
characters and careers of the two leaders, there was sufficient ground
for it to induce many fair and intelligent persons to adopt it.
Jackson had been almost uniformly successful. He had conducted to a
triumphant issue the arduous campaign of the Valley, where he was
opposed in nearly every battle by a force much larger than his own;
and these victories, in a quarter so important, and at a moment so
critical, had come, borne on the wind of the mountain, to electrify
and inspire the hearts of the people of Richmond and the entire
Confederacy. Jackson's rapid march and assault on General McClellan's
right on the Chickahominy had followed; he then advanced northward,
defeated the vanguard of the enemy at Cedar Mountain, led the great
column of Lee against the rear of General Pope, destroyed Manassas,
held his ground until Lee arrived, and bore an important part in the
battle which ensued. Thence he had passed to Maryland, fallen upon
Harper's Ferry and captured it, returned to fight with Lee at
Sharpsburg, and in that battle had borne the brunt of the enemy's main
assault with an unbroken front. That the result was a drawn battle,
and not a Southern defeat, was due to Lee's generalship and Jackson's
fighting. The retrograde movement to the lowland followed, and Jackson
was left in the Valley to embarrass McClellan's advance. In this he
perfectly succeeded, and then