Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 22.djvu/339

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it. When Marshall Turenne, on one occasion, was leaping on his horse to meet a sudden assault, his legs shook as his feet sought the stirrups. "Ah, you rascals," he exclaimed, as he smilingly looked down upon them, " if you knew where I was going to take you you would shake worse than that." Chinese Gordon, who, after a life of hair-breadth adventures, fell at Khartoum, writes in his diary, that he has always been frightened, and very much so, not at the fear of death, but the fear of defeat and its consequences. "I do not believe," he says, "in the calm, unmoved man. I think it is only that he does not show it outwardly." Early had that supreme courage that shrinks before no responsibility and that dared with composure to face defeat and disaster for his country. Whatever pangs may have stirred his secret breast were never disclosed in outward manifestation. His hand never quivered, his face never changed when he launched the thunderbolts of war or received its rude shocks, and if ever he took account of danger or death or mis- fortune or blame or shame, it was a matter left behind the mask of his impassive countenance between him and his Maker.

MAGNANIMITY, GENEROSITY, AND CHARITY.

He possessed great magnanimity, generosity, and charity. His opposition to secession gave him a commanding political position, and the confidence of the people, when at last his forebodings were realized. But he never uttered the raven's croak, " I told you so;" he never reproached any secessionist that backed his opinions with his service, and he never sunned himself in the approving smiles of the conquerors. On the contrary, he contended that the subsequent harshness of our enemies justified the course that Virginia and the South pursued. It is well known, and I am a personal witness of the fact, that as soon as he occupied the town of Gettysburg, in the first day's fight, he earnestly urged the immediate pursuit of the enemy. Unable for the moment to find Ewell, the corps commander, he sent a note to Lieutenant-General A. P. Hill, urging him to assume responsibility of ordering all the troops present to assail Cemetery Ridge at once; but before this could be arranged, General Ewell, and presently, General Lee appeared, and reports of cavalry threatening our left led to the determination to suspend operations until the morrow. Public opinion has generally concurred that a great opportunity went by; but Early, never pluming himself upon his prescience, has defended his superiors and endorsed the conclu-