Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 41.djvu/22

 10 In war the South made him her leader, and after years of fiery trial hailed him as the ablest chieftain of the 'warring English race. Not from fear but from love was he followed, and his soldiers did his bidding not as a burdensome duty but as a coveted prize. With weak resources and scant numbers for years he made a continent tremble, eclipsed the light of successive commanders, and from his thin front swept his flying foes. Fifty years after the beginning of the conflict the pension roll of his brave veteran opponents numbers more men than he ever commanded. He waged war with an audacity that had indicated ignorance but for the ability that bore the signature of genius, the while the wide world wondered. When he failed, he wore such a look of danger that he struck his weakened foes with terror and benumbed them into timid caution. With a penetration that in olden days would have been called second sight he saw the coming movements of his foe and supplied by strategy what he lacked in numbers. In a campaign that has had no equal he put out of the ranks of his foe more men than fought under his flag. With a knowledge too clear to be timid, with a courage both fierce and serene, with a calmness unruffled by danger, with a genius that brightened in trial, he made war like a very archangel, and scarcely missed the miracle of success. We hail thee, thou great soldier of the South. Many sons of the South in war's wild and tumultuous combats have shone like stars through night's storm clouds. Like the sun at midday was the splendor of thy genius.

No man whose ears had been so often filled with the exultant shouts of victorious followers could have given to peace a warmer welcome; To duty's call he always had a ready answer, and though it might be homely, for him it was as sacred as when death stalked amid contending armies. In war he was not always victor, in peace he never failed. Never was he greater than when he was the teacher in the little mountain village, and the victory of character toward which he led the young was nobler even than the garland with which the world in wonder saw him crown his army. Tending the sheep in the fields near Bethlehem trained David for a throne. He saw the staff of the