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foot of a tree, covered with his army cloak. As I aroused the sleeper, heslowly sat up on the ground and said, “Ah, Captain, you have returned, haveyou ? Come here and tell me what you have learned on the right.” Layinghis hand on me he drew me down by his side, and, passing his arm aroundshoulder, drew me near to him in a fatherly way that told of his warma Ud kindly heart. When I had related such information as I had secured forhhii, he thanked me for accomplishing his commission, and then said he^gi’etted that the young men about General Jackson had not relieved himannoyance, by finding a battery of the enemy which had harassed oura< ivauce, adding that the young men of that day were not equal to what they^ere when he was a young man. Seeing immediately that he was jesting and|* ls posed to rally me, as he often did young officers, I broke away from the.hi on me which he tried to retain, and, as he laughed heartily through thes tillness of the night, I went off to make a bed of my saddle-blanket, and,^nth my head in my saddle, near my horse’s feet, was soon wrapped in theneavy slumber of a wearied soldier.
. Some time after midnight I was awakened by the chill of the early morn-lQ g hours, and, turning over, caught a glimpse of a little flame 011 the slopea hove me, and sitting up to see what it meant, I saw, bending over a scantIlre of twigs, two men seated on old cracker boxes and warming their hands° Vei ' the little fire. I had but to rub my eyes and collect my wits to recog-the figures of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson . Who can tell thes t°ry 0 f that, quiet council of war between two sleeping armies ? Nothingle mains on record to tell of plans discussed, and dangers weighed, and afh'eat purpose formed, but the story of the great day so soon to follow.
It was broad daylight, and the thick beams of yellow sunlight came through
the
pme branches, when some one touched me rudely with his foot, saying:
II e t up, Smith, the general wants you! ” As I leaped to my feet the rhyth-lru<; click of the canteens of marching infantry caught my ear. Already inpotion ! What could it mean 1 In a moment I was mounted and at the side^ the general, who sat on his horse by the roadside, as the long line of ourjj?°Ps cheerily, but in silence as directed, poured down the Furnace road.Is cap was pulled low over his eyes, and, looking up from under the visor,^h lip s compressed, indicating the firm purpose within, he nodded to me,^ l( I hi brief and rapid utterance, without a superfluous word, as though allj. Ve distinctly formed in his mind and beyond question, he gave me orderst^ 1 0l11 ' wagon and ambulance trains. From the open fields in our rear, at® head of the Catliarpin road, all trains were to be moved upon that roadl ( ° |°dd’s Tavern, and thence west by interior roads, so that our troops would
del;
between them and the enemy at Clianeellorsville. My orders having beencfivered and the trains set in motion, I returned to the site of our night’sHV( mae, to find that General Jackson and his staff had followed the marcli-ltl ^' column.
Slow
Ft)-}.
and tedious is the advance of a mounted officer who has to pass, in
hif a
°w wood roads through dense thickets, the packed column of marching
^ntry, to be recognized all along the line and good-naturedly chaffed by