enthusiasm, and while
every fibre of his mind and heart was strained towards the achievement
of his purpose, his hand would often be instinctively raised upwards;
and those who knew him best, believed this to be a sign that his trust
in the help of a Higher Power was ever present.

Jackson was remarkable as a fighter. In this he stands with but one or
two peers. Few men in the world's history have ever got so great results
from armed men as he was able to do. But to judge rightly of his actual
military strength is not so easy as to award this praise. Unless a
general has commanded large armies, it is difficult to judge of how
far he may be found wanting if tried in that balance. In the detached
commands which he enjoyed, in the Valley and elsewhere, his strategic
ability was marked: but these commands were always more or less limited;
and, unlike Lee or Johnston, Jackson did not live long enough to rise
to the command of a large army upon an extended and independent field of
operations.

In Gen. Lee, Jackson reposed an implicit faith. "He is the only man
I would follow blindfold," said Jackson. And Lee's confidence in his
lieutenant's ability to carry out any scheme he set his hand to, was
equally pronounced. Honestly, though with too much modesty, did Lee say:
"Could I have directed events, I should have chosen, for the good of the
country, to have been disabled in your stead."

But, illy as Lee could spare Jackson, less still could the Army of
Northern Virginia spare Robert E. Lee, the greatest in adversity of the
soldiers of our civil war. Still, after Jackson's death, it is certain
that Lee found no one who could attempt the bold manoeuvres on the field
of battle, or the hazardous strategic marches, which have illumined the
name of Jackson to all posterity.

It is not improbable that had Jackson lived, and risen to larger
commands, he would have been found equal to the full exigencies of
the situation. Whatever he was called upon to do, under limited but
independent scope, seems to testify to the fact that he was far from
having reached his limit. Whatever he did was thoroughly done; and
he never appears to have been taxed to the term of his powers, in any
operation which he undertook.

Honesty, singleness of purpose, true courage, rare ability, suffice to
account for Jackson's military success. But those alone who have served
under his eye know to what depths that rarer, stranger power of his has
sounded them