approved by a board of examination; and it was due to his representations that this regulation, to the great benefit of the army, was shortly afterwards adopted.  With all his appreciation of natural aptitude for the soldier’s trade, so close a student of Napoleon could scarcely be blind to the fact that the most heroic character, unsustained by knowledge, is practically useless.  If Napoleon himself, more highly endowed by nature with every military attribute than any other general of the Christian era, thought it essential to teach himself his business by incessant study, how much more is such study necessary for ordinary men?

But no man was less likely than Jackson to place an exaggerated value on theoretical acquirements.  No one realised more fully that Napoleon’s character won more victories than Napoleon’s knowledge.  The qualities he demanded in his subordinates were those which were conspicuous in Napoleon.  Who was more industrious than the great Corsican?  Who displayed an intenser energy?  Whose intelligence was brighter?  Who understood human nature better, or handled men with more consummate tact?  These were the very attributes which distinguished Jackson himself.  They are the key-note to his success, more so than his knowledge of strategy and tactics, of the mechanism of march and battle, and of the principles of the military art.  In selecting his staff officers, therefore, he deemed character of more importance than erudition.

The men of the Stonewall Brigade had a saying that Jackson always marched at dawn, except when he started the night before, and it was perhaps this habit, which his enemies found so unreasonable, that led him to lay so much stress on early rising.  It is certain that, like Wellington, he preferred “three o’clock in the morning men.”  In a letter to his wife he says: 

“If you will vouch for your brother’s being an early riser during the remainder of the war, I will give him an aide-ship.  I do not want to make an appointment on my staff except of such as are early risers; but if you will vouch for him to rise regularly at dawn, I will offer him the position.”

Another characteristic he looked for was reticence; and it was undeniably of the utmost importance, especially in an army which spoke the same language as the enemy, where desertion was not uncommon, and spies could easily escape detection, that the men who might become cognisant of the plans of the commander should be gifted with discretion.  Absolute concealment is generally impracticable in a camp.  Maps must be drawn, and reports furnished.  Reconnoitring parties must be sent out, roads examined, positions surveyed, and shelter and supplies requisitioned in advance.  Thus the movements of staff officers are a clue to the projected movements of the army, and the smallest hint may set a hundred brains to the work of surmise.  There will always be many who are just as anxious to discover the general’s intentions as he is to