but the men with the muskets must do it--the infantry must do
the sharp work. So we watched all this posting of forces as closely as
possible, for it was a matter of vital interest to us, and all
information relating to it was hurried to the commander of the army. The
Rebel line of battle was concave, bending around our own, with the
extremities of the wings opposite to, or a little outside of ours.
Longstreet's Corps was upon their right; Hill's in the center. These two
Rebel Corps occupied the second or inferior ridge to the West of our
position, as I have mentioned, with Hill's left bending towards, and
resting near the town, and Ewell's was upon their left, his troops being
in, and to the East of the town. This last Corps confronted our Twelfth,
First, and the right of the Eleventh Corps. When I have said that ours
was a good _defensive_ position, this is equivalant to saying that that
of the enemy was not a good _offensive_ one; for these are relative
terms, and cannot be both predicated of the respective positions of the
two armies at the same time. The reasons that this was not a good
offensive position, are the same already stated in favor of ours for
defense. Excepting, occasionally, for a brief time, during some movement
of troops, as when advancing to attack, their men and guns were kept
constantly and carefully, by woods and inequalities of ground, out of
our view.

Noon is past, one o'clock is past, and, save the skirmishing, that I
have mentioned, and an occasional shot from our guns, at something or
other, the nature of which the ones who fired it were ignorant, there
was no fight yet. Our arms were still stacked, and the men were at ease.
As I looked upon those interminable rows of muskets along the crests,
and saw how cool and good spirited the men were, who were lounging about
on the ground among them, I could not, and did not, have any fears as to
the result of the battle. The storm was near, and we all knew it well
enough by this time, which was to rain death upon these crests and down
their slopes, and yet the men who could not, and would not escape it,
were as calm and cheerful, generally, as if nothing unusual were about
to happen. You see, these men were veterans, and had been in such places
so often that they were accustomed to them. But I was well pleased with
the tone of the men to-day--I could almost see the fore-shadowing of
victory upon their faces, I thought. And I thought, too, as I had se