ga.

After the failure of the armies of Lee and Meade to bring about a
decisive battle at Mine Run, the Army of Northern Virginia established
its autumn and winter headquarters on a jutting spur of the great range
called Clarke's Mountain, Orange Court House lying only a few miles to
the west. The huge camp was made in a wide-open space, surrounded by
dense masses of pines and cedars. Tents were pitched securely, and,
feeling that they were to stay here a long time many of the soldiers
built rude log cabins.

General Lee himself continued to use his tent, which stood in the center
of the camp, the streets of tents and cabins radiating from it like the
spokes of a wheel. Close about Lee's own tent were others occupied by
Colonel Taylor, his adjutant general, Colonel Peyton, Colonel Marshall,
and other and younger officers, including Harry and Dalton. A little
distance down one of the main avenues, which they were pleased to call
Victory Street, the Invincibles were encamped, and Harry saw them almost
every day.

The troops were well fed now, and the brooks provided an abundance of
clear water. The days were still warm, but the evenings were cold, and,
inhaling the healing odors of the pines and cedars, wounded soldiers
returned rapidly to health.

It was a wonderful interval for Harry and his friends associated with him
so closely. Save for the presence of armies, it seemed at times that
there was no war. Deep peace prevailed along the Rapidan and the slopes
of the mountain. It was the longest period of rest that he and his
comrades were to know in the course of the mighty struggle. The action
of the war was now chiefly in the Southwest, where Grant, taking the
place of Rosecrans, was seeking to recover all that was lost at
Chickamauga.

Harry had another letter from his father, telling him that his own had
been received, and giving personal details of the titanic struggle on the
Chickamauga. He did not speak out directly, but Harry saw in his words
the vain regret that the great opportunity won at Chickamauga at such a
terrible price had not been used. In his belief the whole Federal army
might have been destroyed, and the star of the South would have risen
again to the zenith.

Here Harry sighed and remembered his own forebodings. Oh, if only a
Stonewall Jackson had been there! His mighty sweep would have driven
Thomas and the rest in a wild rout. A tear rose in his eye as he
remembered his lost h