his grace and skill as a horseman. No better rider was to be found among his fox-hunting Virginia troopers, and his appearance in times of excitement, and when well mounted, was magnificent.
The character of Stuart presents two phases, so strikingly contrasted, that we almost hesitate to assign them to the same individual. It is nearly the contrast between levity and dignity, between boyishness and greatness. The novelist has seized upon the one phase, and delights to depict the gaiety of the cavalryman, who was wont to make the woods to ring with his merriment.
The historian, who records his real greatness, will perhaps regret that he was not clothed in more of quiet dignity and reserve; but those who associated with him in daily intercourse, not only revered the genius which brought them safely through a thousand perils in the accomplishment of his great designs; they also loved him, because the general commanding could unbend to become the "bon camarade" by the bivouac fire.
Let me endeavor to show both sides of this remarkable character.
Remember, that Stuart was a young man. He had scarcely completed thirty-one years when stricken down at the Yellow Tavern. His physical constitution was superb, and his powers of endurance defied fatigue. Simple existence was to him a pleasure. The dark side of life had no charms for him, and even if it forced itself upon his attention found but scant utterance in his words. The joyous flow of animal spirits was as natural to him and as irrepressible as the happy song to the birds of Spring. Sometimes this feeling found expression in uproarious mirth around the camp-fire, where general, staff-officers and couriers assembled after a day of toil in office-work, and formed a circle in which all distinctions of rank were forgotten, when Sweeney brought out his banjo, and one and all swelled high the chorus,
"If you want to have a good time Jine the cavalry." |
Surely no set of school-boys was ever more noisy or more undignified than were we. But words cannot describe the charm of such scenes to men who daily faced the stern realities of war. A. P. Hill once laughingly declared that he would not again allow Stuart and Sweeney to visit his camp, for they demoralized his men, and made them all wish to "jine the cavalry."
At times this spirit of mirth found expression in practical jokes at the expense of some member of the staff; and All-Fool's Day was
