ecks. They peered through
the shadows under the trees where the dead were piled and envied them
their sleep.

The armies paused next day to gird their loins for the crucial test.
Jackson was still in the Shenandoah Valley holding three armies at bay,
defeating them in detail. His swift marches had so paralyzed his enemies
that McDowell's forty thousand men lay at Fredericksburg unable to move.

Lee summoned Stuart.

When the conference ended the young Cavalry Commander threw himself into
the saddle and started Northward with a song. Determined to learn the
strength of McClellan's right wing and confuse his opponent, Lee had
sent Stuart on the most daring adventure in the history of cavalry
warfare. Stuart had told him that he could ride around McClellan's whole
army, cut his communications and strike terror in his rear.

With twelve hundred picked horsemen, fighting, singing, dare-devil
riders, Stuart slipped from Lee's lines and started toward
Fredericksburg.

On the second day he surprised and captured the Federal pickets without
a shot. He dreaded a meeting with the Cavalry. His father-in-law,
General Cooke, was in command of a brigade of blue riders. He thought
with a moment's pang of the little wife at home praying that they should
never meet. Let her pray. God would help her. He couldn't let such a
thing happen.

He suddenly confronted a squadron of Federal Cavalry. With a yell his
troops charged and cleared the field. They must ride now with swifter
hoofbeat than ever. The news would spread and avengers would be on their
heels. They were now far in the rear of McClellan's grand army. They had
felt out his right wing and knew to a mile where its lines ended.

They dashed toward the York River Railroad which supplied the Northern
army, surprised the company holding Tunstall's Station, took them
prisoners, cut the wires and tore up the tracks.

On his turn toward Richmond when he reached the Chickahominy River, its
waters were swollen and he couldn't cross. He built a bridge out of the
timbers of a barn, took his last horse over and destroyed it, as the
shout of a division of Federal Cavalry was heard in the distance.

With twelve hundred men he had made a raid which added a new rule to
cavalry tactics. He had ridden around a great army, covering ninety
miles in fifty-six hours with the loss of but one man. He had
established the position of the enemy, destroyed enormous quantities
of war material, captur