and J. E. B. Stuart was handling it. It was some credit to that Corps to
have marched any at all! Thanks to the superb conduct of the cavalry,
General Lee's movement had succeeded! We had beaten the Federal column,
and were here, before them, on this much-coveted line, and meant to hold
it, too.

I note here in passing, that this Spottsylvania business was a "white
day" for the cavalry. When the army came to know of what the cavalry had
done, and _how they had done it_, there was a general outburst of
admiration,--the recognition that brave men give to the brave. Stuart
and his men were written higher than ever on the honor roll, and the
whole army was ready to take off its hat to salute the cavalry.

And, from that day, there was a marked change in the way the army
thought and spoke of the cavalry; it took a distinctly different and
higher position in the respect of the Army, for it had revealed itself
in a new light; it had shown itself signally possessed of the quality,
that the infantry and artillery naturally admired most of all
others--_obstinacy_ in fight.

As was natural, and highly desirable, each arm of the service had a very
exalted idea of its own importance and merit, as compared with the
others. In fact the soldier of the "Army of Northern Virginia" filled
exactly the Duke of Marlborough's description of the spirit of a good
soldier. "He is a poor soldier," said the Duke, "who does not think
himself as good and better than any other soldier _of his own army_, and
_three times as good_ as any man in the army _of the enemy_." That
fitted our fellows "to a hair;" each Confederate soldier thought that
way.

It was not an unnatural or unreasonable conceit, _considering the
facts_. It must be confessed that _modesty_ as to their quality as
soldiers was not the distinguishing virtue of the men of the Army of
Northern Virginia, but, it must be considered, in extenuation that their
experience in war was by no means a good school for humility. An old
Scotch woman once prayed, "Lord, gie us a gude conceit o' ourselves."
There was a certain wisdom in the old woman's prayer! The Army of
Northern Virginia soldiers had this "gude conceit o' themselves,"
without praying for it; certainly, if they did pray for it, their prayer
was answered, "good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running
over." They had it abundantly! And it was a tremendous element of power
in their "make up" as soldiers. It made them the t