."

"Here's the dawn again," said Harry. "I can see the ghost of the sun
over there trying to break through, but as there's no wind now the fog's
going to hang heavy and long."

Breakfast was served once more to the waiting army on the heights,
and then the youths in gray saw that the Union army, having let the
night pass, was beginning to cross the river. When the dawn finally
came many regiments were already over and the wheels of the heavy cannon
were thundering on the bridges. But the Confederate army lay quiet on
the heights, although before morning it had drawn itself in somewhat,
shortening the lines and making itself more compact.

"Look how they pour over the bridges!" said Harry, who stood glass to
eye. "They come in thousands and thousands, regiments, brigades and
whole divisions. Why, George, it looks as if the whole North were
swarming down upon us!"

"They're a hundred and twenty thousand strong. We know that positively,
and they're as brave as anybody. But we're eighty thousand strong,
just sitting here on the heights and waiting. Harry, they'll cross
that river again soon, and when they go back they'll be far less than a
hundred and twenty thousand!"

He spoke with no sign of exultation. Instead it was the boding tone of
an old prophet, rather than the sanguine voice of youth.

The fog deepened for a little while, and then some of the marching
columns were hidden. Out of the mists and gloom came the quick music
of many bands, playing the Northern brigades on to death. Then the fog
lifted again, and along the heights ran the blaze of the Southern cannon
as they sent shot and shell into the black masses of the Union troops
crowding by Fredericksburg.

But as the echoes of the shots died away, Harry heard again the bands
playing, and from the great Northern army below came mighty rolling
cheers.

"The battle is here now, Harry," said Dalton, "and this is the biggest
army we've ever faced."

The Union brigades, black in the somber winter dawn, seemed endless to
Harry. From the point where he stood the advancing columns as they
crossed the river looked almost solid. He knew that men must be falling,
dead or wounded, beneath the fire of the Southern guns, but the living
closed up so fast that he could not see any break in the lines.

"You can't see any sign of hesitation there," said Dalton. "The
Northern generals may doubt and linger, but the men don't when once they
get the word.