ty thousand men, repulsed more than eighty
thousand in the battle of Sharpsburg, was due to the hard fighting of
the smaller force, and the skill with which its commander manoeuvred
it.

VII.

LEE AND HIS MEN.

General Lee and his army passed the brilliant days of autumn in the
beautiful valley of the Shenandoah. This region is famous for its
salubrity and the beauty of its scenery. The mountain winds are pure
and invigorating, and the forests, which in the season of autumn
assume all the colors of the rainbow, inspire the mind with the most
agreeable sensations. The region, in fact, is known as the "Garden of
Virginia," and the benign influence of their surroundings was soon
seen on the faces of the troops.

A Northern writer, who saw them at Sharpsburg, describes them as
"ragged, hungry, and in all ways miserable;" but their forlorn
condition, as to clothing and supplies of every description, made no
perceptible difference in their demeanor now. In their camps along
the banks of the picturesque little stream called the Opequan, which,
rising south of Winchester, wanders through beautiful fields and
forests to empty into the Potomac, the troops laughed, jested, sang
rude camp-ballads, and exhibited a joyous indifference to their
privations and hardships, which said much for their courage and
endurance. Those who carefully considered the appearance and demeanor
of the men at that time, saw that much could be effected with such
tough material, and had another opportunity to witness, under
circumstances calculated to test it, the careless indifference, to the
past as well as the future, peculiar alike to soldiers and children.
These men, who had passed through a campaign of hard marches and
nearly incessant battles, seemed to have forgotten all their troubles
and sufferings. The immense strain upon their energies had left them
apparently as fresh and efficient as when the campaign begun. There
was no want of rebound; rather an excessive elasticity and readiness
to undertake new movements. They had plainly acquired confidence in
themselves, rightly regarding the event of the battle of Sharpsburg,
where they were so largely outnumbered, as highly honorable to them,
and they had acquired still greater confidence in the officers who
commanded them.

We shall hereafter speak more particularly of the sentiment of the
troops toward General Lee at this period of his connection with the
army. The great events of th