simple and manly quality that he found in Lee, both worthy of republican
institutions. But he did not have time to think about it long. The
signs were multiplying that the advance would soon come. The North had
never ceased to resound with preparations, and Grant would march with
veterans. All the spies and scouts brought in the same report. Butler
would move up from Fortress Monroe toward Richmond with thirty thousand
men and Grant with a hundred and fifty thousand would cross the Rapidan,
moving by the right flank of Lee until they could unite and destroy the
Confederacy. Such was the plan, said the scouts and spies in gray.

Longstreet with his corps had returned from the West and Lee gathered his
force of about sixty thousand men to meet the mighty onslaught--he alone
perhaps divined how mighty it would be--and when he was faced by the
greatest of his adversaries his genius perhaps never shone more brightly.

May and the full spring came. It was the third day of the month, and the
camp of the Army of Northern Virginia was as usual. Many of the young
soldiers played games among the trees. Here and there they lay in groups
on the new grass, singing their favorite songs. The cooks were preparing
their suppers over the big fires. Several bands were playing. Had
it not been for the presence of so many weapons the whole might have
been taken for one vast picnic, but Harry, who sat in the tent of the
commander-in-chief, was writing as fast as he could dispatch after
dispatch that the Southern leader was dictating to him. He knew
perfectly well, of course, that the commander-in-chief was gathering
his forces and that they would move quickly for battle. He knew, too,
how inadequate was the equipment of the army. Only a short time before
he had taken from the dictation of his chief a letter to the President
of the Confederacy a part of which ran:

My anxiety on the subject of provisions for the army is so great that I
cannot refrain from expressing it to your Excellency. I cannot see how
we can operate with our present supplies. Any derangement in their
arrival or disaster to the railroad would render it impossible for me to
keep the army together and might force a retreat into North Carolina.
There is nothing to be had in this section for men or animals. We have
rations for the troops to-day and to-morrow. I hope a new supply arrived
last night, but I have not yet had a report.

Harry had thought l