38 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS
The men who had watched and tried and tested him on such occasions as these knew what he was and gave him their trust. He asked nothing of them that he would not do himself. Therefore they did what he asked of them. Scheibert says that *' he won their confidence and inspired them by his whole bearing and personality, by his kindling speech, his flashing eye, and his cheerful- ness which no reverse could overcome." ^^ Stuart him- self describes his followers' enthusiastic loyalty with a naivete as winning as it is characteristic. " There was something of the subUme in the implicit confidence and unquestioning trust of the rank and file in a leader guid- ing them straight, apparently, into the very jaws of the enemy, every step appearing to them to diminish the very faintest hope of extrication." ^^ Yet he asked this trust and they gave it simply on the strength of his word. "You are about to engage in an enterprise which, to ensure success, imperatively demands at your hands coolness, decision, and the strictest order and sobriety on the march and in the bivouac. The destination and extent of this expedition had better be kept to myself than known to you." ^^
The men loved him also because, when the strain was removed, he put on no airs, pretense, or remoteness of superiority, but treated them as man to man. ** He was the most approachable of major-generals, and jested with the private soldiers of his command as jovially as though he had been one of themselves. The men were perfecdy
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