tes. Yet, when their enemy remained
concentrated, they were content to wait till they could induce him to
disperse. Both were masters of ruse and stratagem, and the Virginian
was as industrious as the Englishman. And in yet another respect they
were alike. "In issuing orders or giving verbal instruction,
Jackson's words were few and simple; but they were so clear, so
comprehensive and direct, that no officer could possibly
misunderstand, and none dared disobey."* (* General J.B. Gordon.)
Exactly the same terms might be applied to Wellington. Again,
although naturally impetuous, glorying in war, they had no belief in
a lucky star; their imagination was always controlled by
common-sense, and, unlike Napoleon, their ambition to succeed was
always subordinate to their judgment. Yet both, when circumstances
were imperative, were greatly daring. The attacks at Groveton and at
Chancellorsville were enterprises instinct with the same intensity of
resolution as the storm of Badajos and Ciudad Rodrigo, the passage of
the Douro, the great counterstroke of Salamanca. On the field of
battle the one was not more vigilant nor imperturbable than the
other, and both possessed a due sense of proportion. They knew
exactly how much they could effect themselves, and how much must be
left to others. Recognising that when once the action had opened the
sphere in which their authority could be exercised was very limited,
they gave their subordinates a free hand, issuing few orders, and
encouraging their men rather by example than by words. Both, too, had
that "most rare faculty of coming to prompt and sure conclusions in
sudden exigencies--the certain mark of a master-spirit in war."* (*
Napier.) At Bull Run, Jackson was ordered to support Evans at the
Stone Bridge. Learning that the left was compromised, without a
moment's hesitation he turned aside, and placed his brigade in the
only position where it could have held its ground. At Groveton, when
he received the news that the Federal left wing was retreating on
Centreville across his front, the order for attack was issued almost
before he had read the dispatch. At Chancellorsville, when General
Fitzhugh Lee showed him the enemy's right wing dispersed and
unsuspecting, he simply turned to his courier and said, "Let the
column cross the road," and his plan of battle was designed with the
same rapidity as Wellington's at Salamanca or Assaye.

It has been already pointed out that Jackson's disp