But when the general rode by the men
remembered the victories they had won and to whom they owed them, the
hardships they had endured, and who had shared them; and the
appearance of 'Little Sorrel' was the sure precursor of a scene of
the wildest enthusiasm. The horse soon learned what the cheers
implied, and directly they began he would break into a gallop, as if
to carry his rider as quickly as possible through the embarrassing
ordeal. But the soldiers were not to be deterred by their commander's
modesty, and whenever he was compelled to pass through the bivouacs
the same tribute was so invariably offered that the sound of a
distant cheer, rolling down the lines of the Second Army Corps,
always evoked the exclamation: "Boys, look out! here comes old
Stonewall or an old hare!" "These being the only individuals," writes
one of Jackson's soldiers, "who never failed to bring down the whole
house."
Nothing could express more clearly the loyalty of the soldiers to
their general than this quaint estimate of his popularity. The
Anglo-Saxon is averse to the unrestrained display of personal
affection; and when his natural reluctance is overborne by
irrepressible emotion, he attempts to hide it by a jest.
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