ipline were well adapted to the
peculiar constitution of the army in which he served. With the
officers he was exceedingly strict. He looked to them to set an
example of unhesitating obedience and the precise performance of
duty. He demanded, too--and in this respect his own conduct was a
model--that the rank and file should be treated with tact and
consideration. He remembered that his citizen soldiers were utterly
unfamiliar with the forms and customs of military life, that what to
the regular would be a mere matter of course, might seem a gross
outrage to the man who had never acknowledged a superior. In his
selection of officers, therefore, for posts upon his staff, and in
his recommendations for promotion, he considered personal
characteristics rather than professional ability. He preferred men
who would win the confidence of others--men not only strong, but
possessing warm sympathies and broad minds--to mere martinets, ruling
by regulation, and treating the soldier as a machine. But, at the
same time, he was by no means disposed to condone misconduct in the
volunteers. Never was there a more striking contrast than between
Jackson the general and Jackson off duty. During his sojourn at Moss
Neck, Mr. Corbin's little daughter, a child of six years old, became
a special favourite. "Her pretty face and winsome ways were so
charming that he requested her mother that she might visit him every
afternoon, when the day's labours were over. He had always some
little treat in store for her--an orange or an apple--but one
afternoon he found that his supply of good things was exhausted.
Glancing round the room he eye fell on a new uniform cap, ornamented
with a gold band. Taking his knife, he ripped off the braid, and
fastened it among the curls of his little playfellow." A little later
the child was taken ill, and after his removal from Moss Neck he
heard that she had died. "The general," writes his aide-de-camp,
"wept freely when I brought him the sad news." Yet in the
administration of discipline Jackson was far sterner than General
Lee, or indeed than any other of the generals in Virginia. "Once on
the march, fearing lest his men might stray from the ranks and commit
acts of pillage, he had issued an order that the soldiers should not
enter private dwellings. Disregarding the order, a soldier entered a
house, and even used insulting language to the women of the family.
This was reported to Jackson, who had the man arrested