I must pass by the efforts of
individuals, as heroic and soul-stirring as those of the old Cavaliers
renowned in story and song, where all the energies of life are centred
in one moment,--the spirited advance of regiments, the onset of
brigades; and the resistless charges of divisions. I can speak only of
the movements of corps, without dwelling upon those scenes which stir
the blood and fire the soul,--the hardihood, the endurance, the cool,
collected, reserved force, abiding the time, the calm facing of death,
the swift advance, the rush, the plunge into the thickest of the fight,
where hundreds of cannon, where fifty thousand muskets, fill the air
with iron hail and leaden rain!

THE GENERAL PLAN.

The army wintered between the Rappahannock and the Rapidan. There had
been a reduction and reconstruction of its corps,--an incorporation of
the First and Third with the Fifth and Sixth, with reinforcements added
to the Second. The Second was commanded by Major-General Hancock, the
Fifth by Major-General Warren, the Sixth by Major-General Sedgwick. No
definite statement of the number of men composing the army can be given,
for the campaign is not yet ended; and no aid or comfort, no information
of value to the enemy, can be tendered through the columns of the loyal
"Atlantic."

These three corps, with three divisions of cavalry commanded by General
Sheridan, composed the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major-General
Meade. The Ninth Corps, commanded by Major-General Burnside, was added
when the army took up its line of march.

There was concentration everywhere. General Gillmore, with what troops
could be spared from the department of the South, joined his forces to
those already on the Peninsula and at Suffolk; Sigel had several
thousand in the Shenandoah; Crook and Averell had a small army in
Western Virginia; while at Chattanooga, under Sherman and Thomas, was
gathered a large army of Western troops.

The _dramatis personae_ were known to the public, but the part assigned
to each was kept profoundly secret. There was discussion and speculation
whether Burnside, from his encampment at Annapolis, would suddenly take
transports and go to Wilmington, or up the Rappahannock, or the James,
or the York, uniting his forces with Butler's. Would Meade move
directly across the Rapidan and attack Lee in front, with every passage,
every hill and ravine enfiladed by Rebel cannon? Or would he move his
right flank along the B