ero. He sincerely believed then and always that the
Confederacy would have won had he not fallen on that fatal evening at
Chancellorsville. It was an emotion with him, a permanent emotion with
which logic could not interfere.

Harry was conscious, too, that the long quiet on the Eastern front was
but a lull. There was nothing to signify peace in it. If the North had
ever felt despair about the war Gettysburg and Vicksburg had removed
every trace of it. He knew that beyond the blue ranges of mountains,
both to east and west, vast preparations were going forward. The North,
the region of great population, of illimitable resources, of free access
to the sea, and of mechanical genius that had counted for so much in
arming her soldiers, was gathering herself for a supreme effort. The
great defeats of the war's first period were to be ignored, and her
armies were to come again, more numerous, better equipped and perhaps
better commanded than ever.

Nevertheless, his mind was still the mind of youth, and he could not
dwell continuously upon this prospect. The camp in the hills was
pleasant. The heats had passed, and autumn in the full richness of its
coloring had come. The forests blazed in all the brilliancy of red and
yellow and brown. The whole landscape had the color and intensity that
only a North American autumn can know, and the October air had the
freshness and vitality sufficient to make an old man young.

The great army of youth--it was composed chiefly of boys, like the one
opposing it--enjoyed itself during these comparatively idle months.
The soldiers played rural games, marbles even, pitching the horseshoe,
wrestling, jumping and running. It was to Harry like Hannibal in winter
quarters at Capua, without the Capua. There was certainly no luxury
here. While food was more abundant than for a long time, it was of the
simplest. Instead of dissipation there was a great religious revival.
Ministers of different creeds, but united in a common object, appeared in
the camp, and preached with power and energy. The South was emotional
then and perhaps the war had made it more so. The ministers secured
thousands of converts. All day long the preaching and singing could be
heard through the groves of pine and cedar, and Harry knew that when
the time for battle came they would fight all the better because of it.
Yielding to the enemy was no part of the Christianity that these
ministers preached.

Harry al