practically cut off from the remainder; and in a country where railways were few, distances long, and roads indifferent, it was impossible, in default of communication by water, to accumulate and distribute the produce of the farms.  Moreover, the dark menace of the blockade had assumed more formidable proportions.  The Federal navy, gradually increasing in numbers and activity, held the highway of the ocean in an iron grip; and proudly though the Confederacy bore her isolation, men looked across the waters with dread foreboding, for the shadow of their doom was already rising from the pitiless sea.

If, then, his staff officers had some reason to complain of their chief’s silence and abstraction, it was by no means unfortunate for the South, so imminent was the danger, that the strong brain was incessantly occupied in forecasting the emergencies that might occur.

But not for a single moment did Jackson despair of ultimate success.  His faith in the justice of the Southern cause was as profound as his trust in God’s good providence.  He had long since realised that the overwhelming strength of the Federals was more apparent than real.  He recognised their difficulties; he knew that the size of an army is limited to the number that can be subsisted, and he relied much on the superior morale and the superior leading of the Confederate troops.  After long and mature deliberation he had come to a conclusion as to the policy to be pursued.  “We must make this campaign,” he said, in a moment of unusual expansion, “an exceedingly active one.  Only thus can a weaker country cope with a stronger; it must make up in activity what it lacks in strength.  A defensive campaign can only be made successful by taking the aggressive at the proper time.  Napoleon never waited for his adversary to become fully prepared, but struck him the first blow.”

On these principles Jackson had good reason to believe General Lee had determined to act;* (* “There is no better way of defending a long line than by moving into the enemy’s country.”  Lee to General Jones, March 21, 1863; O.R. volume 25 part 2 page 680.) of their efficacy he was convinced, and when his wife came to visit him at the end of April, she found him in good heart and the highest spirits.  He not only anticipated a decisive result from the forthcoming operations, but he had seen with peculiar satisfaction that a more manly tone was pervading the Confederate army.  Taught by their leaders, by Lee, Jackson, Stuart, and many others, of whose worth and valour they had received convincing proof, the Southern soldiers had begun to practise the clean and wholesome virtue of self-control.  They had discovered that purity and temperance are by no means incompatible with military prowess, and that a practical piety, faithful in small things as in great, detracts in no degree from skill and resolution in the field.  The Stonewall Brigade set the example.  As soon as their own huts were finished, the men, of their