with a little jockey rim, which he cocks upon one side of his
head, with an unsteady eye, that looks slyly at you and then dodges.
Gibbon, the youngest of them all, save Howard, is about the same size as
Slocum, Howard, Sykes and Pleasonton, and there are none of these who
will weigh one hundred and fifty pounds. He is compactly made, neither
spare nor corpulent, with ruddy complexion, chestnut brown hair, with a
clean-shaved face, except his moustache, which is decidedly reddish in
color, medium-sized, well-shaped head, sharp, moderately-jutting brow,
deep blue, calm eyes, sharp, slightly aquiline nose, compressed mouth,
full jaws and chin, with an air of calm firmness in his manner. He
always looks well dressed. I suppose Howard is about thirty-five and
Meade about forty-five years of age; the rest are between these ages,
but not many under forty. As they come to the council now, there is the
appearance of fatigue about them, which is not customary, but is only
due to the hard labors of the past few days. They all wear clothes of
dark blue, some have top boots and some not, and except the two-starred
straps upon the shoulders of all save Gibbon, who has but one star,
there was scarcely a piece of regulation uniform about them all. They
wore their swords, of various patterns, but no sashes, the Army hat, but
with the crown pinched into all sorts of shapes and the rim slouched
down and shorn of all its ornaments but the gilt band--except Sykes who
wore a blue cap, and Pleasonton with his straw hat with broad black
band. Then the mean little room where they met,--its only furniture
consisted of a large, wide bed in one corner, a small pine table in the
center, upon which was a wooden pail of water, with a tin cup for
drinking, and a candle, stuck to the table by putting the end in tallow
melted down from the wick, and five or six straight-backed rush-bottomed
chairs. The Generals came in--some sat, some kept walking or standing,
two lounged upon the bed, some were constantly smoking cigars. And thus
disposed, they deliberated whether the army should fall back from its
present position to one in rear which it was said was stronger, should
attack the enemy on the morrow, wherever he could be found, or should
stand there upon the horse-shoe crest, still on the defensive, and await
the further movements of the enemy.

The latter proposition was unanimously agreed to. Their heads were
sound. The Army of the Potomac would just