he Guard; never more
at ease than when exchanging rough compliments with the veterans of
Rivoli or Jena. He was the representative of the army rather than of
the nation. The men knew that no civilian would be preferred before
them; that their gallant deeds were certain of his recognition; that
their claims to the cross, to pension, and to promotion, would be as
carefully considered as the claims of their generals. They loved
Napoleon and they trusted him; and whatever may have been his faults,
he was "the Little Corporal," the friend and comrade of his soldiers,
to the end.

It was by the same hooks of steel that Stonewall Jackson grappled the
hearts of the Second Army Corps to his own. His men loved him, not
merely because he was the bravest man they had ever known, the
strongest, and the most resolute, not because he had given them
glory, and had made them heroes whose fame was known beyond the
confines of the South, but because he was one of themselves, with no
interests apart from their interests; because he raised them to his
own level, respecting them not merely as soldiers, but as comrades,
the tried comrades of many a hard fight and weary march. Although he
ruled them with a rod of iron, he made no secret, either officially
or privately, of his deep and abiding admiration for their
self-sacrificing valour. His very dispatches showed that he regarded
his own skill and courage as small indeed when compared with theirs.
Like Napoleon's, his congratulatory orders were conspicuous for the
absence of all reference to himself; it was always "we," not "I," and
he was among the first to recognise the worth of the rank and file.
"One day," says Dr. McGuire, "early in the war, when the Second
Virginia Regiment marched by, I said to General Johnston, "If these
men will not fight, you have no troops that will." He expressed the
prevalent opinion of the day in his reply, saying, "I would not give
one company of regulars for the whole regiment." When I returned to
Jackson I had occasion to quote General Johnston's opinion. "Did he
say that?" he asked, "and of those splendid men?" And then he added:
"The patriot volunteer, fighting for his country and his rights,
makes the most reliable soldier upon earth." And his veterans knew
more than that their general believed them to be heroes. They knew
that thia great, valiant man, beside whom all others, save Lee
himself, seemed small and feeble, this mighty captain, who held the
ho