“grayish beard … all over his face”

‘self-possessed, controlling and earnest being’ – with or without the new whiskers

Sketching some CSA leaders

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch August 1, 1862:

Camp Notes.

–A letter from near Richmond to a Southern paper says:

We saw Gen. Lee on the field, the 27th June. We have hitherto spoken of the personnel of the General. He seems a little older than when we saw him at Coosawhatchia. Then he had a moustache alone; now he has, in addition, grayish beard a month old, all over his face. Seated on a log in a slight shade, having a map upon his knees, plainly dressed in uniform, with only one Aid at hand, he looked the same self-possessed, controlling and earnest being we noted before — great then in the execution of his masterly and gigantic scheme of the greatest battle of modern times.

We saw Stonewall Jackson during the same day. He is, perhaps, forty years old, six feet high, medium size, and somewhat angular in person. Has yellowish grey eyes, a Roman nose, sharp; a thin, forward chin, angular brow, a close mouth, and light brown hair. Has a sullen, unsocial, and to some extent, unhappy look. He is impassive, silent, emphatic, and we venture, obstinate. His dress is official, but very plain, his cap-front resting nearly on his nose. His tall horse diminishes the effect of his size, so that when mounted he appears less in person than he really is.

dead ringer for Jeff. Davis

President Davis was also on the field. His plain suit of brown and citizen’s outfit generally screened him from much observation. The postage stamps give a very good idea of his face.

Gen. Longstreet, while on a march one day, inquired of us the whereabouts of our Division General; and, while we were answering his inquiries, we had an opportunity of observing one of the handsomest Generals in the Confederate army.–His full American whiskers, long, brown, and beat; his steady, genial, and earnest eye; his fine and full forehead; his Gr[eco] Roman nose, and regular mouth; all these present a lost ensemble rarely equalled in manly symmetry and chastened energy.

Gen. Magruder is one of the hardest men to describe that we have encountered lately. He impresses one as gruff, abrupt, in a way jocular, decidedly headstrong, rudely kind, and brusque. We saw him first on his way to superintend the storming of the fifty-gun battery on the Malvern Hill — the strongest position on this peninsula.

Battle of Malvern Hill – where Magruder attacked