This page needs to be proofread.

almost as if he laid a hand on your shoulder. How imperturbable he was is shown by many witnesses, notably Fremantle : "No person could have been more calm or self-possessed than General Longstreet under these trying circumstances [after Gettysburg], aggravated as they now were by the movements of the enemy, who began to show a strong disposition to advance. I could now appreciate the term bulldog which I had heard applied to him by the soldiers. Difficulties seem to make no other impression upon him than to make him a little more savage." 7 He may not have felt the dancing ecstasy with which Stuart charged and which Longstreet himself admirably describes in another: "He came into battle as gayly as a beau, and seemed to receive orders which threw him into more exposed positions with peculiar delight." 8 But he was always ready to face any exposure—too ready. "Every one deplores that Longstreet will expose himself in such a reckless manner. To-day he led a Georgian regiment in a charge against a battery, hat in hand and in front of everybody." 9

The same imperturbable coolness that distinguished Longstreet in actual fighting characterized him as a leader. He was never anxious, never flurried. Victory could not over-excite him with triumph, nor defeat with confusion. He made every preparation, took every precaution, was ready for difficulties and indifferent to dangers. Unfortunately, however, consummate generalship