This affection and admiration were fully returned by General Lee, who consulted Jackson upon every occasion, and confided in him as his personal friend.  There was seldom any question between them of superior and subordinate—­never, except when the exigency required that the decision should be made by Lee as commander-in-chief.  Jackson’s supreme genius, indeed, made this course natural, and no further praise is due Lee in this particular, save that of modesty and good sense; but these qualities are commendable and not universal.  He committed the greatest undertakings to Jackson with the utmost confidence, certain that he would do all that could be done; and some words of his quoted above express this entire confidence.  “Say to General Jackson,” he replied to the young staff-officer at Fredericksburg, “that he knows just as well what to do with the enemy as I do.”

Lee’s personal affection was strikingly displayed after the battle of Chancellorsville, when Jackson lay painfully, but no one supposed mortally, wounded, first at Wilderness Tavern, and then at Ginney’s.  Prevented from visiting the wounded man, by the responsibilities of command, now all the greater from Jackson’s absence, and not regarding his hurt as serious, as indeed it did not appear to be until toward the last, Lee sent him continual messages containing good wishes and inquiries after his health.  The tone of these messages is very familiar and affectionate, and leaves no doubt of the character of the relations between the two men.

“Give him my affectionate regards,” he said to one officer, “and tell him to make haste and get well, and come back to me as soon as he can.  He has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right.”

When the wound of the great soldier took a bad turn, and it began to be whispered about that the hurt might prove fatal, Lee was strongly moved, and said with deep feeling:  “Surely General Jackson must recover!  God will not take him from us, now that we need him so much.  Surely he will be spared to us, in answer to the many prayers which are offered for him!”

He paused after uttering these words, laboring evidently under very deep and painful emotion.  After remaining silent for some moments, he added:  “When you return I trust you will find him better.  When a suitable occasion offers, give him my love, and tell him that I wrestled in prayer for him last night, as I never prayed, I believe, for myself.”

The tone of these messages is, as we have said, that of familiar affection, as from one valued friend to another.  The expression, “Give him my love,” is a Virginianism, which is used only when two persons are closely and firmly bound by long association and friendship.  Such had been the case with Lee and Jackson, and in the annals of the war there is no other instance of a friendship so close, affectionate, and unalloyed.

Jackson died on the 10th of May, and the unexpected intelligence shocked Lee profoundly.  He mourned the death of the illustrious soldier with a sorrow too deep almost to find relief in tears; and issued a general order to the troops, which was in the following words: