Harry saw that the commander-in-chief was holding a council at that hour,
nearer morning than midnight. A general kicked some of the pieces of
burned wood together and fanned them into a light flame, enough to take
away the slight chill that was coming with the morning. The men stood
around it, and talked a long time, although it seemed to Harry that Lee
said least. Nevertheless his tall figure dominated them all. Now and
then Harry saw his face in the starshine, and it bore its habitual grave
and impassive look.
The youth did not hear a word that was said, but his imaginative power
enabled him to put himself in the place of the commander-in-chief.
He knew that no man, however great his courage, could fail to appreciate
his position in the heart of a hostile country, with a lost field behind
him, and with superior numbers hovering somewhere in his rear or on
his flank. He realized then to the full the critical nature of their
position and what a mighty task Lee had to save the army.
One of his young comrades whispered to him that the Potomac, the barrier
between North and South, was rising, flooded by heavy rains in both
mountains and lowlands, and that a body of Northern cavalry had already
destroyed a pontoon bridge built by the South across it.
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