would have shown the genius that Meade
lacked had it not been for his early death, for he too, like Pender,
would soon be riding to a soldier's grave. And then were Doubleday and
Newton and Hancock, a great soldier, a man of magnificent presence,
whose air and manner always inspired enthusiasm, soon to be known as
Hancock the Superb; Sedgwick, a soldier of great insight and tenacity;
Howard, a religious man, who was to come out of the war with only one
arm; Hunt and Gibbon, and Webb and Sykes, and Slocum and Pleasanton,
who commanded the cavalry, and many others.

These men foresaw the march of Lee into the North, and the people behind
them realized that they were no longer carrying the battle to the enemy.
He was bringing it to them. Apprehension spread through the North,
but it was prepared for the supreme effort. The Army of the Potomac,
despite Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, had no fear of its opponent,
and the veterans in blue merely asked for another chance.

On the following morning and the morning after, Ewell's corps followed
Longstreet in two divisions toward the general rendezvous at Culpeper
Court House, but Lee himself, although most of his troops were now gone,
did not yet move. Hill's corps had been held to cover any movement
of the Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg, and Lee and his staff
remained there for three days after Longstreet's departure.

The Invincibles had gone, but Harry and Dalton were just behind Lee,
who sat on his white horse, Traveler, gazing through his glasses toward
a division of the Army of the Potomac which on the day before had
crossed the Rappahannock, under a heavy fire from Hill's men.

But Harry knew that it was no part of Lee's plan to drive these men back
across the river. A. P. Hill on the heights would hold them and would
be a screen between Hooker's army and his own. So the young staff
officer merely watched his commander who looked long through his glasses.

It was now nearly noon, and the June sky was brilliant with the sun
moving slowly toward the zenith. Lee at length lowered his glasses and,
turning to his staff, said:

"Now, gentlemen, we ride."

Harry by some chance looked at his watch, and he always remembered that
it was exactly noon when he started on the journey that was to lead him
to Gettysburg. He and Dalton from a high crest looked back toward the
vast panorama of hills, valleys, rivers and forest that had held for
them so many thril