fair estimate of the approximate strength at any period within these
intervals. For instance, the numbers at Lee's disposal at the end of
August 1862 rest on the basis of a return dated July 20, and in the
meantime several regiments and batteries had been transferred
elsewhere, while others had been added. I have done my best, however,
to trace all such changes; and where officers and employed men are
not included in the returns, I have been careful to add a normal
percentage to the official totals.

As regards Jackson's place in history, my labours have been greatly
facilitated by the published opinions of many distinguished
soldiers--American, English, French, and German; and I have
endeavoured, at every step, as the surest means of arriving at a just
conclusion, to compare his conduct of military affairs with that of
the acknowledged masters of war. His private life, from his boyhood
onwards, has been so admirably depicted by his widow* (* Memoirs of
Stonewall Jackson. The Prentice Press, Louisville, Kentucky.), that I
have had nothing more to do than to select from her pages such
incidents and letters as appear best suited to illustrate his
character, and to add a few traits and anecdotes communicated by his
personal friends.

Several biographies have already been published, and that written by
the late Reverend R.L. Dabney, D.D., sometime Major in the
Confederate army, and Jackson's Chief of the Staff for several
months, is so complete and powerful that the need of a successor is
not at once apparent. This work, however, was brought out before the
war had ceased, and notwithstanding his intimate relations with his
hero, it was impossible for the author to attain that fulness and
precision of statement which the study of the Official Records can