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 ter and Bull Run perhaps waned a little, as the war went on; but many continued to the end to cherish the feelings of an admiring civilian who says: "The country looks hopefully—oh! how hopefully—to you in this hour of its deepest trials." 39 When Beauregard went to Charleston, Governor Pickens wrote: "I am rejoiced to see you here again, as there is no general who could have been selected to whom South Carolina could have looked with more confidence for her defense than to yourself." 40 While the testimony of a military man is equally impressive: "Floyd does understand this country and knows how to defend it. Above all, the country believes in him and desires him to be entrusted with its defense. . . . Joe Johnston or Beauregard could alone command the same confidence or more." 41

With the soldiers everywhere there was even more devotion than with civilians. Beauregard seems to have had the magnetic quality which is hard to seize or to define, but which inspires men to do anything. Pollard quotes the strong assertion that up to the very last days the Army of Northern Virginia would have greeted Beauregard's presence among them with "shouts of joy and demonstrations of wild affection which no other living man could elicit." 42

The staff officers were devotedly attached to their commander and preferred remaining with him to all other assignments, although the disfavor of the Government made promotion unlikely. It is worth observing that with