ause at nine
o'clock that morning General Lee, mounted on his white horse, was upon
its crest awaiting his generals, to give them his last instructions.
Longstreet was already there, and, just as Jackson came, the fog thinned
away entirely and the sun began to blaze with a heat almost like that
of summer, rapidly thawing the hard earth.

The young officers on the different staffs reined back, while their
chiefs drew together. Yet for a few moments no one said anything.
Harry always believed that the veteran generals were moved as he was by
the sight below. The great banks of white fog were rolling away down
the river before the light wind and the brilliant sun.

Now Harry saw the Army of the Potomac in its full majesty. On the wide
plain that lay on the south bank of the Rappahannock nearly a hundred
thousand men were still advancing in regular order, with scores and
scores of cannon on their flanks or between the columns. The army which
looked somber black in the misty dawn now looked blue in the brilliant
sun. The stars and stripes, the most beautiful flag in the world,
waved in hundreds over their heads. The bands were still playing,
and the great batteries which they had left on Stafford Heights across
the river continued that incessant roaring fire over their heads at the
Southern army on its own heights. The smoke from the cannon, whitish in
color, drifted away down the river with the fog, and the whole spectacle
still remained in the brilliant sunlight.

Harry's respect for the Union artillery, already high, increased yet
further. The field was now mostly open, where all could see, and the
gunners not only saw their targets, but were able to take good aim.
The storm of shot and shell from Stafford Heights was frightful.
It seemed to Harry--again his imagination was alive--that the very air
was darkened by the rush of steel. Despite their earthworks and other
shelter the Southern troops began to suffer from that dreadful sleet,
but the little conference on Lee's Hill went on.

Longstreet, sitting his horse steadily, looked long at the dense masses
below.

"General," he said to General Jackson, "doesn't that myriad of Yankees
frighten you?"

"It won't be long before we see whether we shall frighten them," replied
Jackson.

General Lee said a few words, and then Jackson and Longstreet returned
to their respective divisions, Jackson, as Harry noted, showing not the
least excitement, although the res