"The news has just reached them that Old Jack has been made a lieutenant-
general. General Lee asked the government to divide his army into two
corps, with Old Jack in command of one and Longstreet in charge of the
other. The government has seen fit to do what General Lee advises it
to do, and we are now the Second Army Corps, two thousand officers,
twenty-five thousand men and one hundred and thirty guns, commanded by
Lieutenant-General Thomas Jonathan Jackson, better known to his enemy as
'Stonewall' Jackson and to his men as 'Old Jack.'"

"Splendid!" exclaimed Harry. "Never was a promotion better earned!"

"And so say we all of us," said Happy Tom. "But just a moment, Captain.
What is the news about me?"

"About you, Tom?"

"Yes, about me? Didn't I win the victory at the Second Manassas?
Didn't I save the army at Antietam? Am I promoted to be a colonel or
is it merely a lieutenant-colonel?"

"I'm sorry, Tom," replied Sherburne with great gravity, "but there is no
mention of your promotion. I know it's an oversight, and we'll join in
a general petition to Richmond that you be made a lieutenant-colonel at
the very least."

"Oh, never mind. If it has to be done through the begging of my friends
I decline the honor. I don't know that I'd care to be any kind of a
colonel, anyhow. I'd have to pass the boys here, and maybe I'd have
to command 'em, which would make 'em feel bad. Old Jack himself might