he talked sententiously, with a little vanity, but much
courtesy. The Federals had nothing to say to these, they dealt only with
equals in rank. It became a matter of professional ambition, now, to
obtain the greatest amount of information from these Confederates,
without appearing to depart from any conventionality of the armistice. I
got along very well till Chitty came up, and his interrogatives were so
pert and pointed that he very nearly spoiled the entire labor. Young
Johnston was a Baltimorean, and wished his people to know something of
him; he gave me a card, stated that he was one of Gen. Garnett's aids,
and had opened the armistice, early in the day, by riding into the
Federal lines with a flag of truce. By detachments, new bodies of
Confederate officers joined us, most of them being young fellows in gray
suits: and at length Gen. Early rode down the hillside and nodded his
head to our party.

It was the custom of our newspapers to publish, with its narrative of
each battle, a plan of the field; and in furtherance of this object,
having agreed to act for my absent friend, I moved a little way from the
place of parley, and laying my paper on the pommel of my saddle
proceeded to sketch the relative positions of road, brook, mountain, and
woodland. While thus busily engaged, and congratulating myself upon the
fine opportunities afforded me, a lithe, indurated, severe-looking
horseman rode down the hill, and reining beside me, said--

"Are you making a sketch of our position?"

"Not for any military purpose."

"For what?"

"For a newspaper engraving."

"Umph!"

The man rode past me to the log, and when I had finished my transcript,
I resumed my place at the group. The new comer was Major General J. E.
B. Stuart, one of the most famous cavalry leaders in the Confederate
army. He was inquiring for General Hartsuff, with whom he had been a
fellow-cadet at West Point; but the Federal General had strolled off,
and in the interval Stuart entered into familiar converse with the
party. He described the Confederate uniform to me, and laughed over some
reminiscences of his raid around McClellan's army.

"That performance gave me a Major-Generalcy, and my saddle cloth there,
was sent from Baltimore as a reward, by a lady whom I never knew."

Stuart exhibited what is known in America as "airiness," and evidently
loved to talk of his prowess. Directly Gen. Hartsuff returned, and the
forager rose, with a grim smile