ound. On the right of the
stubble lay a great stretch of "barren," spotted with dwarf cedars, and
on the left of the cornfield stood a white farm-house, with orchards and
outbuildings; beyond, the creek had hollowed a ravine among the hills,
and the far distance was bounded by the mountains on the Rapidan. In the
immediate front, towered Cedar Mountain, with woods at its base; and
the roadway in which I stood, lost itself a little way on in the mazes
of the thicket. Looking down one of the rows of corn, I saw the first
corpse--the hands flung stiffly back, the feet set stubbornly, the chin
pointing upward, the features losing their sharpness, the skin
blackening, the eyes great and white--

"A heap of death--a chaos of cold clay."

Turning into the cornfield, we came upon one man with a spade, and
another man lying at his feet. He was digging a grave, and when we
paused to note the operation, he touched his cap:--

"Pardner o' mine," he said, indicating the body; "him and I fit side by
side, and we agreed, if it could be done, to bury each other. There
ain't no sich man as that lost out o' the army, private or
officer,--with all respect to you."

It was a eulogy that sounded as if more deserved, because it was homely.
There are some that I have read, much finer, but not as honest. At
little distances we saw parties of ten or twenty, opening trenches, the
tributary brook, only, dividing the Confederate and Federal fatigue
parties. Close to this brook, in the cornfield, lay a fallen trunk of a
tree, and four men sat upon it. Two of them wore gray uniforms, two wore
blue. The latter were Gens. Roberts and Hartsuff of the Federal army.
They were waiting for Gens. Stuart and Early, of the Confederate army:
and the four were to define the period of the armistice. The men in gray
were Major Hintham of Mississippi, and Lieut. Elliott Johnston of
Maryland. Hintham was a lean, fiery, familiar man, who wore the uniform
of several field-marshals. An ostrich feather was stuck in his soft hat
and clasped by a silver star upon a black velvet ground. A golden cord
formed his hat-band, and two tassels, as huge as those of drawing-room
curtains, fell upon his back. His collar was plentifully embroidered as
well as his coat-sleeves, and a black seam ran down his trousers. He
wore spurs of prodigious size, and looked, in the main, like a tragedian
about to appear upon the stage. The other man was young, stout, and good
humored; and