the affection of his followers.

The effect of this mode of progress was soon felt by the people of the
partisan. They quickly sought to emulate the virtues which they admired.
They became expert in the arts which he practised so successfully. The
constant employment which he gave them, the nature of his exactions,
taught activity, vigilance, coolness and audacity. His first
requisition, from his subordinates, was good information. His scouts
were always his best men. They were generally good horsemen, and first
rate shots. His cavalry were, in fact, so many mounted gunmen, not
uniformly weaponed, but carrying the rifle, the carbine, or an ordinary
fowling-piece, as they happened to possess or procure them. Their
swords, unless taken from the enemy, were made out of mill saws,
roughly manufactured by a forest blacksmith. His scouts were out in all
directions, and at all hours. They did the double duty of patrol and
spies. They hovered about the posts of the enemy, crouching in
the thicket, or darting along the plain, picking up prisoners, and
information, and spoils together. They cut off stragglers, encountered
patrols of the foe, and arrested his supplies on the way to the
garrison. Sometimes the single scout, buried in the thick tops of the
tree, looked down upon the march of his legions, or hung perched over
the hostile encampment till it slept, then slipping down, stole through
the silent host, carrying off a drowsy sentinel, or a favorite charger,
upon which the daring spy flourished conspicuous among his less
fortunate companions. The boldness of these adventurers was sometimes
wonderful almost beyond belief. It was the strict result of that
confidence in their woodman skill, which the practice of their leader,
and his invariable success, naturally taught them to entertain.

The mutual confidence which thus grew up between our partisan and his
men, made the business of war, in spite of its peculiar difficulties
and privations, a pleasant one. As they had no doubts of their leader's
ability to conduct them to victory, he had no apprehension, but, when
brought to a meeting with the enemy, that they would secure it. His
mode of battle was a simple one; generally very direct; but he was
wonderfully prompt in availing himself of the exigencies of the affair.
His rule was to know his enemy, how posted and in what strength,--then,
if his men were set on, they had nothing to do but to fight. They knew
that he had so pl