and it will not be credible, to any who knew the man, that he ever made any difference in his treatment of those who approached him from a consideration of their rank in the army.  His theory, expressed upon many occasions, was, that the private soldiers—­men who fought without the stimulus of rank, emolument, or individual renown—­were the most meritorious class of the army, and that they deserved and should receive the utmost respect and consideration.  This statement, however, is doubtless unnecessary.  Men of Lee’s pride and dignity never make a difference in their treatment of men, because one is humble, and the other of high rank.  Of such human beings it may be said that noblesse oblige.

The men of the army had thus found their commander all that they could wish, and his increasing personal popularity was shown by the greater frequency with which they now spoke of him as “Marse Robert,” “Old Uncle Robert,” and by other familiar titles.  This tendency in troops is always an indication of personal regard; these nicknames had been already showered upon Jackson, and General Lee was having his turn.  The troops regarded him now more as their fellow-soldier than formerly, having found that his dignity was not coldness, and that he would, under no temptation, indulge his personal convenience, or fare better than themselves.  It was said—­we know not with what truth—­that the habit of Northern generals in the war was to look assiduously to their individual comfort in selecting their quarters, and to take pleasure in surrounding themselves with glittering staff-officers, body-guards, and other indications of their rank, and the consideration which they expected.  In these particulars Lee differed extremely from his opponents, and there were no evidences whatever, at his headquarters, that he was the commander-in-chief, or even an officer of high rank.  He uniformly lived in a tent, in spite of the urgent invitations of citizens to use their houses for his headquarters; and this refusal was the result both of an indisposition to expose these gentlemen to annoyance from the enemy when he himself retired, and of a rooted objection to fare better than his troops.  They had tents only, often indeed were without even that much covering, and it was repugnant to Lee’s feelings to sleep under a good roof when the troops were so much exposed.  His headquarters tent, at this time (December, 1862), as before and afterward, was what is called a “house-tent,” not differing in any particular from those used by the private soldiers of the army in winter-quarters.  It was pitched in an opening in the wood near the narrow road leading to Hamilton’s Crossing, with the tents of the officers of the staff grouped near; and, with the exception of an orderly, who always waited to summon couriers to carry dispatches, there was nothing in the shape of a body-guard visible, or any indication that the unpretending group of tents was the army headquarters.