with whom he
was brought in contact; yet in the times that tried men's souls, he
proved not only a commander of genius, but a fighter of iron will and
temper, who joyed in the battle, and always showed at his best when
the danger was greatest. The vein of fanaticism that ran through his
character helped to render him a terrible opponent. He knew no such word
as falter, and when he had once put his hand to a piece of work, he did
it thoroughly and with all his heart. It was quite in keeping with his
character that this gentle, high-minded, and religious man should, early
in the contest, have proposed to hoist the black flag, neither take nor
give quarter, and make the war one of extermination. No such policy was
practical in the nineteenth century and in the American Republic; but it
would have seemed quite natural and proper to Jackson's ancestors, the
grim Scotch-Irish, who defended Londonderry against the forces of the
Stuart king, or to their forefathers, the Covenanters of Scotland, and
the Puritans who in England rejoiced at the beheading of King Charles I.

In the first battle in which Jackson took part, the confused struggle at
Bull Run, he gained his name of Stonewall from the firmness with which
he kept his men to their work and repulsed the attack of the Union
troops. From that time until his death, less than two years afterward,
his career was one of brilliant and almost uninterrupted success;
whether serving with an independent command in the Valley, or acting
under Lee as his right arm in the pitched battles with McClellan, Pope,
and Burnside. Few generals as great as Lee have ever had as great a
lieutenant as Jackson. He was a master of strategy and tactics, fearless
of responsibility, able to instil into his men his own intense ardor
in battle, and so quick in his movements, so ready to march as well as
fight, that his troops were known to the rest of the army as the "foot
cavalry."

In the spring of 1863 Hooker had command of the Army of the Potomac.
Like McClellan, he was able to perfect the discipline of his forces
and to organize them, and as a division commander he was better
than McClellan, but he failed even more signally when given a great
independent command. He had under him 120,000 men when, toward the
end of April, he prepared to attack Lee's army, which was but half as
strong.

The Union army lay opposite Fredericksburg, looking at the fortified
heights where they had received so bloody a