Harry had seen this letter before its sending, and he was not surprised
now when Lee was sending messengers to all parts of his army. With all
the hero-worshiping quality of youth he was once more deeply grateful
that he should have served on the staffs and been brought into close
personal relations with two men, Stonewall Jackson and Lee, who seemed
to him so great. As he saw it, it was not alone military greatness but
greatness of the soul, which was greater. Both were deeply religious--
Lee, the Episcopalian, and Jackson, the Presbyterian, and it was a piety
that contained no trace of cant.
Harry felt that the crisis of the great Civil War was at hand. It had
been in the air all that day, and news had come that Grant had broken up
his camps and was crossing the Rapidan with a huge force. He knew how
small in comparison was the army that Lee could bring against him,
and yet he had supreme confidence in the military genius of his chief.
He had written a letter with which an aide had galloped away, and then he
sat at the little table in the great tent, pen in hand and ink and paper
before him, but Lee was silent. He was dressed as usual with great
neatness and care, though without ostentation.
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