ate generals, but
particularly those of General Lee, any one accustomed to see European
armies in the field cannot fail to be struck with the great absence
of all the 'pomp and circumstance of war' in and around their
encampments. Lee's headquarters consisted of about seven or eight
pole-tents, pitched with their backs to a stake fence, upon a piece
of ground so rocky that it was unpleasant to ride over it, its only
recommendation being a little stream of good water which flowed
close by the general's tent. In front of the tents were some three
four-wheeled wagons, drawn up without any regularity, and a number
of horses roamed loose about the field. The servants, who were, of
course, slaves, and the mounted soldiers, called 'couriers,' who
always accompany each general of division in the field, were
unprovided with tents, and slept in or under the wagons. Wagons,
tents, and some of the horses, were marked 'U.S.,' showing that
part of that huge debt in the North has gone to furnishing even the
Confederate generals with camp equipments. No guard or sentries were
to be seen in the vicinity; no crowd of aides-de-camp loitering about,
making themselves agreeable to visitors, and endeavoring to save their
generals from receiving those who had no particular business. A large
farm-house stands close by, which, in any other army, would have been
the general's residence _pro tem_., but, as no liberties are allowed
to be taken with personal property in Lee's army, he is particular in
setting a good example himself. His staff are crowded together, two or
three in a tent; none are allowed to carry more baggage than a small
box each, and his own kit is but very little larger. Every one who
approaches him does so with marked respect, although there is none
of that bowing and flourishing of forage caps which occurs in the
presence of European generals; and, while all honor him, and place
implicit faith in his courage and ability, those with whom he is most
intimate feel for him the affection of sons to a father. Old General
Scott was correct in saying that, when Lee joined the Southern cause,
it was worth as much as the accession of twenty thousand men to the
'rebels.' Since then every injury that it was possible to inflict, the
Northerners have heaped upon him. Notwithstanding all these personal
losses, however, when speaking of the Yankees, he neither evinced
any bitterness of feeling, nor gave utterance to a single violent
expressio