he most
inclement nights I have ever known at this season of the year. It
rained without cessation, rendering the road by which our troops
marched to the bridge at Falling Waters very difficult to pass, and
causing so much delay that the last of the troops did not cross the
river at the bridge until 1 P.M. on the 14th. While the column was
thus detained on the road a number of men, worn down by fatigue, lay
down in barns, and by the roadside, and though officers were sent
back to arouse them, as the troops moved on, the darkness and rain
prevented them from finding all, and many were in this way left
behind. Two guns were left on the road. The horses that drew them
became exhausted, and the officers went forward to procure others.
When they returned, the rear of the column had passed the guns so far
that it was deemed unsafe to send back for them, and they were thus
lost. No arms, cannon, or prisoners, were taken by the enemy in
battle, but only such as were left behind under the circumstances I
have described. The number of stragglers thus lost I am unable to
state with accuracy, but it is greatly exaggerated in the dispatch
referred to.

I am, with great respect, your obedient servant,

R.E. LEE, _General_.

The solicitude here exhibited by the Southern commander, that the
actual facts should be recorded, is natural, and displayed Lee's
spirit of soldiership. He was unwilling that his old army should
appear in the light of a routed column, retreating in disorder, with
loss of men and munitions, when they lost neither.]

XXI.

ACROSS THE BLUE RIDGE AGAIN.

Lee moved his army to the old encampment on the banks of the Opequan
which it had occupied after the retreat from Sharpsburg, in September,
1862, and here a few days were spent in resting.

We have, in the journal of a foreign officer, an outline of Lee's
personal appearance at this time, and, as we are not diverted from
these characteristic details at the moment by the narrative of great
events, this account of Lee, given by the officer in question--Colonel
Freemantle, of the British Army--is laid before the reader:

"General Lee is, almost without exception, the handsomest man of
his age I ever saw. He is tall, broad-shouldered, very well made,
well set up--a thorough soldier in appearance--and his manners are
most courteous, and full of dignity. He is a perfect gentleman
in every respect. I imagine no man has so few enemies,