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such work, and told what they are to do, and the importance and great safety of doing it with a rush.'

Gen. Longstreet had a genuine and inimitable sang-froid in battle. It did as much to encourage his men as many passionate displays of fervour, and was especially effective in keeping them steady in the most desperate circumstances.

The personal appearance of Gen. Longstreet was not engaging. It was decidedly sombre; his bluish-grey eye was intelligent, but cold; a very heavy brown beard was allowed to grow untrimmed; he seldom spoke unnecessarily; his weather-stained clothes, splashed boots, and heavy black felt hat gave a certain fierceness of aspect to the man. His temper was high and combative, and he was quick to imagine slights to his importance. But his relations with Gen. Lee, who seems to have been most felicitous in accommodating the peculiarities of all his lieutenants, were not only pleasant and cordial, but affectionate to an almost brotherly degree; an example of beautiful friendship in the war that was frequently remarked by the public.

Since the war Gen. Longstreet has engaged in commercial pursuits in New Orleans. The name of the firm is "Longstreet, Owens & Co."

LIEUT.-GEN. J. E. B. STUART.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Unique figure of Stuart in the war.-His first cavalry command in the Valley of Virginia.-Adventure with Capt. Perkins.-Complimented by Gen Johnston.The action of Dranesville.-"The Ride around McClellan."-Adventure at Verdiersville.-Capture of Gen. Pope's coat and papers.-Expedition into Pennsylvania.-At Fredericksburg.-At Chancellorsville.-His characteristic intercourse with Stonewall Jackson.-Splendid review at Brandy Station.-The scene changed into bloodiest battle.-Gen. Stuart's serious omission in the Gettysburg campaign.-Adventure in the flanking movement in North Virginia.-Hairbreadth escapes of the commander.-He is shot down at Yellow Tavern.-His last moments.-Criticism of his military character.

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PERHAPS the best-remembered figure of the war in Virginia from its uniqueness and brilliancy was that of Stuart and his brave troopers scouring the country, making magnificent surprises of the enemy, always startling the public with sudden apparitions, and bounding the most distant parts of the chief theatre of war with a luminous track of romance and adventure. ly everybody in Northern Virginia had at some time or other seen the commander, and obtained the impression of a face and figure not easily forgotten. The drooping hat, caught up with a star and decorated with an ebon plume; the tall cavalry boots decked with golden spurs; the "fighting jacket; " the magnificent charger, mud-splashed from head to foot, were all familiar objects-the popular marks of the famous cavalier. He had a face to be remembered Beneath a lofty forehead were brilliant blue eyes, which, when lighted up, were piercing and full of deep expression. A heavy beard covered the lower part of his face; a huge moustache gave some fierceness to the expression, but curled at the least provocation with contagious laughter; a

ruddy complexion and dancing eyes told of high health and the exuberant vitality of the man. He had a gay careless manner which greeted with indifference "the thunder or the sunshine." Full of ready jest; always in for a frolic; fond of practical jokes; attended in camp by the thrum of the banjo; often waking up the little country towns on his march for impromptu balls and merrymakings; as ready for an opossum-hunt as for a battle; with all sorts of odds and ends in his train, including a French cook, Sweeny, jr., of the banjo, and a Prussian adjutant; the idol of the country belles who "followed his feather," and among whom he distributed complimentary commissions as his "lieutenants," there was an appearance of lightness in the young man, not yet turned his thirtieth year; and in the midst of so much of what we must call downright frivolity, one would have scarcely recognized the cavalry commander who filled the whole country with the fame of his sword and was the eyes and ears of Gen. Lee's army. It is a unique figure and character, in which we introduce one of the most brilliant and exceptional men of the war.

James E. B. Stuart was born in Patrick County, Virginia; graduated at West Point in 1854; and saw his first active military service in the wilds of New Mexico, where he had abundant opportunity of indulging his inclination in riding and fighting; and no doubt got much of the roving, dashing, adventurous habit apparent in his future career. In the John Brown affair at Harper's Ferry, he was acting as Lee's aide, and it was his sword that brought the outlaw to the ground. On accepting the service of the Confederate States, in the war of which John Brown was messenger and prophet, Stuart was sent with the rank of lieutenant-colonel to command a small body of cavalry in the valley of Virginia, then within the department of Gen. J. E. Johnston. In this campaign, in which Johnston foiled Patterson and succeeded in transferring his army to Manassas, Stuart did most important service, watching the enemy with lynx-eyed vigilance, moving to and fro on his front, picketing the Potomac from the Blue Ridge to the Alleghanies, and hanging on his march as he advanced towards Winchester. On one occasion he surprised a whole company of Patterson's green soldiers in rather amusing circumstances. With a handful of horsemen he came upon a company of skirmishers gathered in about a

farm-house, the tired volunteers having stacked their arms in the fence corners, and betaken themselves to drinking milk and other pleasant and nonchalant occupations. Stuart rode boldly up to the house, exciting such little suspicion, that a civil soldier, having no idea of an enemy in the vicinity, and supposing that he was obliging a Federal officer, jumped forward and let down the bars that admitted the horsemen into the yard. The next moment there was a yell, a flourish of drawn pistols, and the astonished milk-drinking skirmishers found themselves prisoners of war, and were carried off in sight of the main army.

At another time a Capt. Perkins, of Patterson's army, commanding a battery of light artillery, was riding carelessly about half a mile in advance of his battery. He was suddenly accosted by three officers, one of whom exclaimed in a familiar voice and manner: "Hallo, Perk, I'm glad to see you; what are you doing here?" The captain, recognizing in the speaker his old West Point chum, J. E. B. Stuart, returned the salute heartily, recalling his college sobriquet: "Why, Beauty, how are you? I didn't know you were with us." "Nor did I know you were on our side," replied Stuart. "What command have yon?"

"There's my command coming over the hill," replied Perkins, pointing complacently to the well-equipped battery that was approaching with Federal colours displayed. "Oh, the devil!" exclaimed Stuart, wheeling suddenly and plunging into the forest. "Good-bye, Perk."

The adventurous Confederate might have taken another prisoner here, as there were two aides with him, and Perkins was alone; but it had been a mutual mistake, and Stuart, in his generous and high humour, forbore to take advantage of an old comrade's inadvertency.

After the battle of Manassas, in which he was mentioned by Gen. Beauregard for "enterprise and ability," Stuart was made a Brigadier-General, and did hard work on the Fairfax line. He continued in Northern Virginia under Gen. Johnston, who had remarked him in the Valley campaign, and then designated him as "the indefatigable Stuart." Such, indeed, was the confidence he secured that when, at a much later period of the war, Gen. Johnston was transferred from Virginia to the Department of the West, the distinguished commander was induced to exclaim:

"How can I eat, or sleep, or rest in peace, without Stuart on the outpost!" But by this time Stuart, ascending in reputation, had obtained a division, then a corps, and was indispensable in the great campaigns of Lee, whose right-hand man he became.

In December, 1861, while on the lines of the Potomac, Stuart met with a serious disaster in an affair called by exaggeration the battle of Dranesville, where the Federals gained their first success since Rich Mountain. He had set out with a large foraging force of about 2,500 men, escorting nearly 300 wagons. He was successful in securing forage, and about midday of the 20th December, arrived near Dranesville. On the same day, a foraging force of the enemy had marched to the same neighbourhood. It consisted of Gen. Ord's brigade-four full regiments of "Bucktail rifles," and some artillery-in all, at least 3,500 men. A rocket shot up by the enemy gave to the Confederates the first intimation of their presence. They were deployed in heavy clouds of skirmishers in the woods. To give his wagon-train time to retreat in safety, Gen. Stuart instantly prepared for battle. He was taken at disadvantage; the enemy, in superiour force, occupied a strong position, and was sheltered by the woods; the Confederate artillery could gain no position except by advancing right up the road. The consequence was that Stuart's command was thrown into disorder; and after an irregular fight, he ordered a retreat, having, however, saved his wagon-train, and the enemy making no attempt to pursue him. His loss in killed and wounded was about 200 men.

The adventure which gave Stuart his first instalment of brilliant reputation was his famous "ride around McClellan," on the Richmond lines. He had already done excellent service in the preceding campaigns, operating in front of the enemy towards Arlington Heights, and covering the rear of Johnston's army when it fell back from Centreville. He had now become the chief cavalry leader of the war. On the 13th, 14th, and 15th June, 1861, with portions of the First, Fourth, and Ninth Virginia cavalry, a part of the Jeff Davis Legion, with whom were the Boykin Rangers and a section of the Stuart horse artillery, the daring commander made a reconnoissance between the Pamunkey and Chickahominy Rivers, and succeeded in passing around the rear of the whole of the Federal army, routing the

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