arred veterans would sustain the proud prestige they had won.

Returning to our camp, we were put under regular discipline--drilling,
surgeon's call-guards, etc. We were being put in active fighting trim
and the troops closely kept in camp. All were now expecting every
moment the summons to the battlefield. None doubted the purpose for
which we were brought back to Virginia, and how well Longstreet's
Corps sustained its name and reputation the Wilderness and
Spottsylvania soon showed. Our ranks had been largely recruited by the
return of furloughed men, and young men attaining eighteen years of
age. After several months of comparative rest in our quarters in East
Tennessee, nothing but one week of strict camp discipline was required
to put us in the best of fighting order. We had arrived at our present
camp about the last week of April, having rested several days at
Charlottesville.

General Lee's Army was a day's, or more, march to the north and east
of us, on the west bank of the Rapidan River. It was composed of the
Second Corps, under Lieutenant General Ewell, with seventeen thousand
and ninety-three men; Third Corps, under Lieutenant General
A.P. Hill, with twenty-two thousand one hundred and ninety-nine;
unattached commands, one thousand one hundred and twenty-five;
cavalry, eight thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven; artillery,
four thousand eight hundred and fifty-four; while Longstreet had about
ten thousand; putting the entire strength of Lee's Army, of all arms,
at sixty-three thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight.

General Grant had, as heretofore mentioned, been made commander
in chief of all the Union armies, while General Lee held the
same position in the Confederate service. Grant had taken up his
headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, giving the direction of
this army his personal attention, retaining, however, General George
S. Meade as its immediate commander.

Grant had divided his army into three corps--Second, under Major
General W.S. Hancock; Fifth, Major General G.K. Warren; Sixth, Major
General John Sedgwick--all in camp near Culpepper Court House, while a
separate corps, under Major General A.E. Burnside, was stationed near
the railroad crossing on the Rappahannock River.

Lee's Army was divided as follows: Rodes', Johnston's, and Early's
Divisions, under Lieutenant General Ewell, Second Corps; R.H.
Anderson's, Heath's, and Wilcox's Divisions, under Lieutenant General
A.P. Hill, T