Nor was his plumage one bit less splendid. The yellow feather
stood in his hat. There was no speck or stain on the broad yellow sash
and his undimmed courage was contagious.
But Harry with his sensitive and imaginative mind, that leaped ahead,
knew their situation to be desperate. His opinion of Grant had proved to
be correct. Although he had found in Lee an opponent far superior to any
other that he had ever faced, the Union general, undaunted by his repulse
and tremendous losses in the Wilderness, was preparing for a new battle,
before the fire from the other had grown cold.
He knew too that another strong Union army was operating far to the south
of them, in order to cut them off from Richmond, and scouts had brought
word that a powerful force of cavalry was about to circle upon their
flank. The Confederacy was propped up alone by the Army of Northern
Virginia, which having just fought one great battle was about to begin
another, and by its dauntless commander.
The Southern admiration for Lee, both as the general and as the man,
can never be shaken. How much greater then was the effect that he
created in the mind of impressionable youth, looking upon him with
youth's own eyes in his moments of supreme danger! He was in very truth
to Harry another Hannibal as great, and better.
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