property while it lasts; but such a war will of necessity be
of brief continuance, and so would be an economy of life and property
in the end. To move swiftly, strike vigorously, and secure all the
fruits of victory is the secret of successful war."

That he felt to the full the fascination of war's tremendous game we
can hardly doubt. Not only did he derive, as all true soldiers must,
an intense intellectual pleasure from handling his troops in battle
so as to outwit and defeat his adversary, but from the day he first
smelt powder in Mexico until he led that astonishing charge through
the dark depths of the Wilderness his spirits never rose higher than
when danger and death were rife about him. With all his gentleness
there was much of the old Berserker about Stonewall Jackson, not
indeed the lust for blood, but the longing to do doughtily and die
bravely, as best becomes a man. His nature was essentially
aggressive. He was never more to be feared than when he was
retreating, and where others thought only of strong defensive
positions he looked persistently for the opportunity to attack. He
was endowed, like Massena, "with that rare fortitude which seems to
increase as perils thicken. When conquered he was as ready to fight
again as if he had been conqueror." "L'audace, l'audace, et toujours
l'audace" was the mainspring of all his actions, and the very sights
and sounds of a stricken field were dear to his soul. Nothing had
such power to stir his pulses as the rebel yell. "I remember," says a
staff-officer, "one night, at tattoo, that this cry broke forth in
the camp of the Stonewall Brigade, and was taken up by brigades and
divisions until it rang out far over field and woods. The general
came hastily and bareheaded from his tent, and leaning on a fence
near by, listened in silence to the rise, the climax, and the fall of
that strange serenade, raising his head to catch the sound, as it
grew fainter and fainter and died away at last like an echo among the
mountains. Then, turning towards his tent, he muttered in half
soliloquy, "That was the sweetest music I ever heard.""

Yet least of all was Jackson a mere fighting soldier, trusting to his
lucky star and resolute blows to pull him through. He was not,
indeed, one of those generals who seek to win victories without
shedding blood. He never spared his men, either in marching or
fighting, when a great result was to be achieved, and he was content
with nothing less t