the chiefs of
the commissariat, transport, ordnance, and medical departments, and
he spent many hours in consultation with his topographical engineer.
The great purpose for which Virginia stood in arms was ever present
to his mind, and despite his reticence, his staff knew that he was
occupied, day and night, with the problems that the future might
unfold. Existence at headquarters to the young and high-spirited
officers who formed the military family was not altogether lively.
Outside there was abundance of gaiety. The Confederate army, even on
those lonely hills, managed to extract enjoyment from its
surroundings. The hospitality of the plantations was open to the
officers, and wherever Stuart and his brigadiers pitched their tents,
dances and music were the order of the day. Nor were the men
behindhand. Even the heavy snow afforded them entertainment. Whenever
a thaw took place they set themselves to making snow-balls; and great
battles, in which one division was arrayed against another, and which
were carried through with the pomp and circumstance of war, colours
flying, bugles sounding, and long lines charging elaborately planned
intrenchments, were a constant source of amusement, except to
unpopular officers. Theatrical and musical performances enlivened the
tedium of the long evenings; and when, by the glare of the
camp-fires, the band of the 5th Virginia broke into the rattling
quick-step of "Dixie's Land," not the least stirring of national
anthems, and the great concourse of grey-jackets took up the chorus,
closing it with a yell

That shivered to the tingling stars,

the Confederate soldier would not have changed places with the
President himself.

There was much social intercourse, too, between the different
headquarters. General Lee was no unfrequent visitor to Moss Neck, and
on Christmas Day Jackson's aides-de-camp provided a sumptuous
entertainment, at which turkeys and oysters figured, for the
Commander-in-Chief and the senior generals. Stuart, too, often
invaded the quarters of his old comrade, and Jackson looked forward
to the merriment that was certain to result just as much as the
youngest of his staff. "Stuart's exuberant cheerfulness and humour,"
says Dabney, "seemed to be the happy relief, as they were the
opposites, to Jackson's serious and diffident temper. While Stuart
poured out his 'quips and cranks,' not seldom at Jackson's expense,
the latter sat by, sometimes unprepared with any repa