dous scenes in the very center
of which he stood, regarded him with a fresh measure of respect and
admiration. He was the bulwark of the Confederacy, and he did not doubt
that on the morrow he would stop Grant as he had stopped the others.

The darkness increased, sweeping down like a great black pall over the
Wilderness. The battle in the center and on the left died. Lee and his
staff dismounting, prepared for the labors of the night.

CHAPTER XV

THE WILDERNESS

When night settled down over the Wilderness the two armies lay almost
face to face on a long line. The preliminary battle, on the whole,
had favored the Confederacy. Hill had held his ground and Ewell had
gained, but Grant had immense forces, and, though naturally kind of heart,
he had made up his mind to strike and keep on striking, no matter what
the loss. He could afford to lose two men where the Confederacy lost one.

Harry, like many others, felt that this would be the great Northern
general's plan. To-morrow's battle might end in Southern success,
but Grant would be there to fight the following day with undiminished
resolution. He was as sure of this as he was sure that the day would
come.

The night itself was somber and sinister, the heavens dusky and a raw
chill in the air. Heavy vapors rose from the marshes, and clouds of
smoke from the afternoon's battle floated about over the thickets,
poisoning the air as if with gas, and making the men cough as they
breathed it. It made Harry's heart beat harder than usual, and his head
felt as if it were swollen. Everything seemed clothed in a black mist
with a slightly reddish tint.

A small fire had been built in a sheltered place for the commander-in-
chief and his staff, and the cooks were preparing the supper, which was
of the simplest kind. While they ate the food and drank their coffee,
the darkness increased, with the faint lights of other fires showing here
and there through it. Around the muddy places frogs croaked in defiance
of armies, and, from distant points, came the crackling fire of
skirmishers prowling in the dusk.

Harry's horse, saddled and bridled, was tied to a bush not far away.
He knew that it was to be no night of rest for him, or any other member
of the staff. Lee would be sending messages continually. Longstreet,
although he had been marching hard, was not yet up on the right, and he
and his veterans must be present when the shock of Grant's mighty attac