Such was the plan, said the scouts and spies in gray.
Longstreet with his corps had returned from the West and Lee gathered his
force of about sixty thousand men to meet the mighty onslaught--he alone
perhaps divined how mighty it would be--and when he was faced by the
greatest of his adversaries his genius perhaps never shone more brightly.
May and the full spring came. It was the third day of the month, and the
camp of the Army of Northern Virginia was as usual. Many of the young
soldiers played games among the trees. Here and there they lay in groups
on the new grass, singing their favorite songs. The cooks were preparing
their suppers over the big fires. Several bands were playing. Had
it not been for the presence of so many weapons the whole might have
been taken for one vast picnic, but Harry, who sat in the tent of the
commander-in-chief, was writing as fast as he could dispatch after
dispatch that the Southern leader was dictating to him. He knew
perfectly well, of course, that the commander-in-chief was gathering
his forces and that they would move quickly for battle. He knew, too,
how inadequate was the equipment of the army. Only a short time before
he had taken from the dictation of his chief a letter to the President
of the Confederacy a part of which ran:
My anxiety on the subject of provisions for the army is so great that I
cannot refrain from expressing it to your Excellency.
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