was not there.  They went to the outposts.  He was not there.  They went to the prayer-meeting.  He was not there.  So they had to return without him; but when they reported that he had disappeared, they found that he had made a flank march and reached heaven before them.”  Another was to the effect that whereas Moses took forty years to get the children of Israel through the wilderness, “"Old Jack” would have double-quicked them through in three days on half rations!”

But, nevertheless, beneath this affectation of hilarity lay a deep and passionate devotion; and two incidents which occurred at this time show the extent of this feeling, and at least one reason for its existence.  “On October 8th,” writes Major Heros von Borcke, adjutant-general of the cavalry division, “I was honoured with the pleasing mission of presenting to Stonewall, as a slight token of Stuart’s high regard, a new uniform coat, which had just arrived from the hands of a Richmond tailor.  Starting at once, I reached the simple tent of our great general just in time for dinner.  I found him in his old weather-stained coat, from which all the buttons had been clipped by the fair hands of patriotic ladies, and which, from exposure to sun, rain, and powder-smoke, and by reason of many rents and patches, was in a very unseemly condition.  When I had dispatched more important matters, I produced General Stuart’s present in all its magnificence of gilt buttons and sheeny facings and gold lace, and I was heartily amused at the modest confusion with which the hero of many battles regarded the fine uniform, scarcely daring to touch it, and at the quiet way in which at last he folded it up carefully and deposited it in his portmanteau, saying to me, “Give Stuart my best thanks, Major; the coat is much too handsome for me, but I shall take the best care of it, and shall prize it highly as a souvenir.  And now let us have some dinner.”  But I protested emphatically against the summary disposition of the matter of the coat, deeming my mission indeed but half executed, and remarked that Stuart would certainly ask how the coat fitted, and that I should take it as a personal favour if he would put it on.  To this with a smile he readily assented, and having donned the garment, he escorted me outside the tent to the table where dinner had been served in the open air.  The whole of the staff were in a perfect ecstasy at their chief’s brilliant appearance, and the old negro servant, who was bearing the roast turkey to the board, stopped in mid career with a most bewildered expression, and gazed in such wonderment at his master as if he had been transfigured before him.  Meanwhile, the rumour of the change ran like electricity through the neighbouring camps, the soldiers came running by hundreds to the spot, desirous of seeing their beloved Stonewall in his new attire; and the first wearing of a new robe by Louis xiv, at whose morning toilette all the world was accustomed to assemble, never created half the excitement at Versailles that was roused in the woods of Virginia by the investment of Jackson in the new regulation uniform."* (* Memoirs of the Confederate War volume 1.)