Digital, when your general is sitting he appears not with his base command, but with his base command plus whatever defensive bonuses he has. To continue my screenshot examples. Here is Alexios after attacking me and losing the battle, which ultimately cost him one command point (without any vices though, just a point - you lose them the same way as you gain them, adn as it was his first battle he happened to lose more battles than he won):





As you can see, no other vices and virtues other than the expert defender. The next screenshot is the Pechenegs invading Macedonia:



He still has 6 stars, which is the same as he had on the strategic map, illustrating my point. He does not need to be attacked for him to be defending, and he does not even need to be in war with a neighbour or anyone - the game interprets sitting idly in a province as defending it. I am not saying that your memory fails you, but if what happened to you was true, then it must be an error.