ur part, all was put in the last state of readiness for
battle. Surgeons were busy riding about selecting eligible places for
Hospitals, and hunting streams, and springs, and wells. Ambulances, and
ambulance men, were brought up near the lines, and stretchers gotten
ready for use. Who of us could tell but that he would be the first to
need them? The Provost Guards were busy driving up all stragglers, and
causing them to join their regiments. Ammunition wagons were driven to
suitable places, and pack mules bearing boxes of cartridges; and the
commands were informed where they might be found. Officers were sent to
see that the men had each his hundred rounds of ammunition. Generals and
their Staffs were riding here and there among their commands to see that
all was right. A staff officer, or an orderly might be seen galloping
furiously in the transmission of some order or message.--All, all was
ready--and yet the sound of no gun had disturbed the air or ear to-day.

And so the men stacked their arms--in long bristling rows they stood
along the crests--and were at ease. Some men of the Second and Third
Corps pulled down the rail fences near and piled them up for breastworks
in their front. Some loitered, some went to sleep upon the ground, some,
a single man, carrying twenty canteens slung over his shoulder, went for
water. Some made them a fire and boiled a dipper of coffee. Some with
knees cocked up, enjoyed the soldier's peculiar solace, a pipe of
tobacco. Some were mirthful and chatty, and some were serious and
silent. Leaving them thus--I suppose of all arms and grades there were
about a hundred thousand of them somewhere about that field--each to
pass the hour according to his duty or his humor, let us look to the
enemy.

Here let me state that according to the best information that I could
get, I think a fair estimate of the Rebel force engaged in this battle
would be a little upwards of a hundred thousand men of all arms. Of
course we can't now know, but there are reasonable data for this
estimate. At all events there was no great disparity of numbers in the
two opposing armies. We thought the enemy to be somewhat more numerous
than we, and he probably was. But if ninety-five men should fight with a
hundred and five, the latter would not always be victors--and slight
numerical differences are of much less consequence in great bodies of
men.

Skillful generalship and good fighting are the jewels of war. These
con