I’ve been reading Radley’s Rebel Watchdog: The Confederate States Army Provost Guard. In the chapter dealing with the problems of straggling, and the efforts to deal with it, I ran across this incident, involving Stonewall Jackson (who had the reputation of being a humorless, hard-nosed disciplinarian) and Jubal Early. Only Early could get away with something like this:

After one tiring march the following message went to Jubal Early, one of his division commanders: “Gen. Jackson’s compliments . . . . . and he would like to be informed why he saw so many stragglers in rear of your division to-day.” Early’s reply made even Jackson laugh: “General Early’s compliments to General Jackson, and he takes pleasure in informing him that he saw so many stragglers in rear of my division today, probably because he rode in rear of my division.”