were never allowed to interfere.  For some months his chief of the staff was a Presbyterian clergyman, while his chief quartermaster was one of the hardest swearers in Virginia.  The fact that the former could combine the duties of spiritual adviser with those of his official position made him a congenial comrade; but it was his energy and ability rather than this unusual qualification which attracted Jackson; and although the profanity of the quartermaster offended his susceptibilities, their relations were always cordial.  It was to the intelligence of his staff officers, their energy and their loyalty, that he looked; for the business in hand these qualities were more important than their morals.

That a civilian should be found serving as chief of the staff to a general of division, one of the most important posts in the military hierarchy, is a curious comment on the organisation of the Confederate army.  The regular officers who had thrown in their lot with the South had, as a rule, been appointed to commands, and the generals of lower rank had to seek their staff officers amongst the volunteers.  It may be noticed, however, that Jackson was by no means bigoted in favour of his own cloth.  He showed no anxiety to secure their services on his staff.  He thought many of them unfitted for duties which brought them in immediate contact with the volunteers.  In dealing with such troops, tact and temper are of more importance than where obedience has become mechanical, and the claims of rank are instinctively reflected.  In all his campaigns, too, Jackson was practically his own chief of the staff.  He consulted no one.  He never divulged his plans.  He gave his orders, and his staff had only to see that these orders were obeyed.  His topographical engineer, his medical director, his commissary and his quartermaster, were selected, it is true, by reason of their special qualifications.  Captain Hotchkiss, who filled the first position, was a young man of twenty-six, whose abilities as a surveyor were well known in the Valley.  Major Harman, his chief quartermaster, was one of the proprietors of a line of stage coaches and a large farmer, and Major Hawks, his commissary, was the owner of a carriage manufactory.  But the remainder of his assistants, with the exception of the chief of artillery, owed their appointments rather to their character than to their professional abilities.  It is not to be understood, at the same time, that Jackson underrated soldierly acquirements.  He left no complaints on record, like so many of his West Point comrades, of the ignorance of the volunteer officers, and of the consequent difficulties which attended every combination.  But he was none the less alive to their deficiencies.  Early in 1862, when the military system of the Confederacy was about to be reorganised, he urged upon the Government, through the member of Congress for the district where he commanded, that regimental promotion should not be obtained by seniority, unless the applicant were