Not only in mechanical auxiliaries did the inventive
genius of their race find scope. The principles which govern
civilised warfare, the rules which control the employment of each
arm, the technical and mechanical arts, were rapidly modified to the
exigencies of the troops and of the country. Cavalry, intrenchments,
the railway, the telegraph, balloons, signalling, were all used in a
manner which had been hitherto unknown. Monitors and torpedoes were
for the first time seen, and even the formations of infantry were
made sufficiently elastic to meet the requirements of a modern
battle-field. Nor was the conduct of the operations fettered by an
adherence to conventional practice. From first to last the campaigns
were characterised by daring and often skilful manoeuvres; and if the
tactics of the battle-field were often less brilliant than the
preceding movements, not only are parallels to these tactics to be
found in almost every campaign of history, but they would probably
have escaped criticism had the opponent been less skilful. But among
the galaxy of leaders, Confederate and Federal, in none had the
soldiers such implicit confidence as in Stonewall Jackson, and than
the Southern soldiers, highly educated as many of them were, no
better judges of military capacity were ever known.
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