CHAPTER XLIV
BY THE OPEQUON
The battle of Sharpsburg was a triumph neither for blue nor grey, forNorth nor South. With the sinking of the sun ceased the bloody,prolonged, and indecisive struggle. Blue and grey, one hundred andthirty thousand men fought that battle. When the pale moon came up shelooked on twenty-one thousand dead and wounded.
The living ranks sank down and slept beside the dead. Lee on Travellerwaited by the highroad until late night. Man by man his generals came tohim and made their report--their ghastly report. "Very good, general.What is your opinion?"--"I think, sir, that we should cross the Potomacto-night."--"Very well, general. What is your opinion?"--"General Lee,we should cross the Potomac to-night."--"Yes, general, it has been ourheaviest field. What is your advice?"--"General Lee, I am here to dowhat you tell me to do."
Horse and rider, Traveller and Robert Edward Lee, stood in the palelight above the Antietam. "Gentlemen, we will not cross the Potomacto-night. If General McClellan wants to fight in the morning I will givehim battle again.--And now we are all very tired. Good-night.Good-night!"
The sun came up, dim behind the mist. The mist rose, the morningadvanced. The September sunshine lay like vital warmth upon the heightand vale, upon the Dunkard church and the wood about it, upon thecornfields, and Burnside's bridge and the Bloody Lane, and upon all thedead men in the cornfields, in the woods, upon the heights, beside thestream, in the lane. The sunshine lay upon the dead, as the prophet uponthe Shunamite's child, but it could not reanimate. Grey and blue, theliving armies gazed at each other across the Antietam. Both wereexhausted, both shattered, the blue yet double in numbers. The greywaited for McClellan's attack. It did not come. The ranks, lying down,began to talk. "He ain't going to attack! He's cautious."--"He's hadenough."--"So've I. O God!"--"Never saw such a fight. Wish thosebuzzards would go away from that wood over there! They're sodismal."--"No, McClellan ain't going to attack!"--"Then why don't weattack?"--"Go away, Johnny! We're mighty few and powerfullytired."--"Well, _I_ think so, too. We might just as well attack. Greatbig counter stroke! Crumple up Meade and Doubleday and Ricketts overthere! Turn their right!"--"'T ain't impossible! Marse Robert and OldJack could manage it."--"No, they couldn't!"--"Yes, theycould!"--"You're a fool! Look at that position, stronger 'n Thunder RunMountain, and Hooker's got troops he didn't have in yesterday! 'N thosethings like beehives in a row are Parrotts 'n Whitworths' 'n Blakeley's.'N then look at _us_. Oh, yes! we've got _spirit_, but spirit's got tohave a body to rush those guns."--"Thar ain't anything Old Jack couldn'tdo if he tried!"--"Yes, there is!" "Thar ain't! How _dast_ you saythat?"--"There is! He couldn't be a fool if he tried--and he ain'ta-going to try!"
The artillerist, Stephen D. Lee, came to headquarters on the knoll bySharpsburg. "General Lee sent for me. Tell him, please, I am here." Leeappeared. "Good-morning, Colonel Lee. You are to go at once to GeneralJackson. Tell him that I sent you to report to him." The officer foundStonewall Jackson at the Dunkard church. "General, General Lee sent meto report to you."
"Good, good! Colonel, I wish you to take a ride with me. We will go tothe top of the hill yonder."
They went up to the top of the hill, past dead men and horses, and muchwreckage of caissons and gun wheels. "There are probably sharpshootersin that wood across the stream," said Jackson. "Do not expose yourselfunnecessarily, colonel." Arrived at the level atop they took post in alittle copse, wildly torn and blackened, a wood in Artillery Hell. "Takeyour glasses, colonel, and examine the enemy's line of battle."
The other lifted the field-glass and with it swept the Antietam, and thefields and ridges beyond it. He looked at the Federal left, and helooked at the Federal centre, and he looked along the Federal right,which was opposite, then he lowered the glasses. "General, they have avery strong position, and they are in great force."
"Good! I wish you to take fifty pieces of artillery and crush thatforce."
Stephen D. Lee was a brave man. He said nothing now, but he stood amoment in silence, and then he took his field-glass and looked again. Helooked now at the many and formidable Federal batteries clustered likedark fruit above the Antietam, and now at the masses of blue infantry,and now at the positions, under artillery and musketry fire, which theConfederate batteries must take. He put the glass down again. "Yes,general. Where shall I get the fifty guns?"
"How many have you?"
"I had thirty. Some were lost, a number disabled. I have twelve."
"Just so. Well, colonel, I could give you a few, and General Lee tellsme he can furnish some."
The other fingered a button on his coat for a moment, then, "Yes,general. Shall I go for the guns?"
"No, not yet." Stonewall Jackson laid his large hands in their worn oldbrown gauntlets, one over the other, upon his saddle bow. He, too,looked at the Federal right and the guns on the heights like dark fruit.His eyes made just a glint of blue light below the forage cap. "ColonelLee, can you crush the Federal right with fifty guns?"
The artillerist drew a quick breath, let the button alone, and raisedhis head higher. "I can try, general. I can do it if any one can."
"That is not what I asked you, sir. If I give you fifty guns can youcrush the Federal right?"
The other hesitated. "General, I don't know what you want of me. Is itmy technical opinion as an artillery officer? or do you want to know ifI will make the attempt? If you give me the order of course I will makeit!"
"Yes, colonel. But I want your positive opinion, yes or no. Can youcrush the Federal right with fifty guns?"
The artillerist looked again, steadying arm and glass against a charredbough. "General, it cannot be done with fifty guns and the troops youhave here."
Hilltop and withered wood hung a moment silent in the air, sunny but yetwith a taste of all the powder that had been burned. Then said Jackson,"Good! Let us ride back, colonel."
They turned their horses, but Stephen Lee with some emotion began to putthe case. "You forced me, general, to say what I did say. If you sendthe guns, I beg of you not to give them to another! I will fight them tothe last extremity--" He looked to the other anxiously. To say toStonewall Jackson that you must despair and die where he sent you in toconquer!
But Jackson had no grimness of aspect. He looked quietly thoughtful. Itwas even with a smile of sweetness that he cut short the other'spleading. "It's all right, colonel, it's all right! Everyone knows thatyou are a brave officer and would fight the guns well." At the foot ofthe hill he checked Little Sorrel. "We'll part here, colonel. You go atonce to General Lee. Tell him all that has happened since he sent you tome. Tell him that you examined the Federal position. Tell him that Iforced you to give the technical opinion of an artillery officer, andtell him what that opinion is. That is all, colonel."
The September day wore on. Grey and blue armies rested inactive savethat they worked at burying the dead. Then, in the afternoon,information came to grey headquarters. Humphrey's division, pouringthrough the gaps of South Mountain, would in a few hours be atMcClellan's service. Couch's division was at hand--there were troopsassembling on the Pennsylvania border. At dark Lee issued his orders.During the night of the eighteenth the Army of Northern Virginia leftthe banks of the Antietam, wound silently down to the Potomac, andcrossed to the Virginia shore.
All night there fell a cold, fine, chilling rain. Through it the wagontrains crossed, the artillery with a sombre noise, the wounded who mustbe carried, the long column of infantry, the advance, the main, therear. The corps of Stonewall Jackson was the last to ford the river. Hesat on Little Sorrel, midway of the stream, and watched his troops goonward in the steady, chilling rain. Daybreak found him there,motionless as a figure in bronze, needing not to care for wind or sun orrain.
The Army of Northern Virginia encamped on the road to Martinsburg.Thirty guns on the heights above Boteler's Ford guarded its rear, andJeb Stuart and his cavalry watched from the northern bank atWilliamsport. McClellan pushed out from Sharpsburg a heavyreconnoissance, and on his side of the
river planted guns. Fitz JohnPorter, in command, crossed during the night a considerable body oftroops. These advanced against Pendelton's guns, took four of them, anddrove the others back on the Martinsburg road. Pendleton reported toGeneral Lee; Lee sent an order to Stonewall Jackson. The courier foundhim upon the bank of the Potomac, gazing at the northern shore. "Good!"he said. "I have ordered up the Light Division." Seventy guns thunderedfrom across the water. A. P. Hill in his red battle shirt advancing inthat iron rain, took, front and flank, the Federal infantry. He drovethem down from the bluff, he pushed them into the river; they showedblack on the current. Those who got across, under the shelter of theguns, did not try again that passage. McClellan looked toward Virginia,but made no further effort, this September, to invade her. The Army ofNorthern Virginia waited another day above Boteler's Ford, then withdrewa few miles to the banks of the Opequon.
The Opequon, a clear and pleasing stream, meandered through the lowerreaches of the great Valley, through a fertile, lovely country, as yetnot greatly scored and blackened by war's torch and harrow. An easy rideto the westward and you arrived in Winchester, beloved ofLieutenant-General T. J. Jackson and the 2d Army Corps. As the autumnadvanced, the banks of the Opequon, the yet thick forests that stretchedtoward the Potomac, the great maples, and oaks and gums and hickoriesthat rose, singly or in clusters, from the rolling farm lands, put on amost gorgeous colouring. The air was mellow and sunny. From thecamp-fires, far and near, there came always a faint pungent smell ofwood smoke. Curls of blue vapour rose from every glade. The land seemedbathed in Indian summer.
Through it in the mellow sunlight, beneath the crimson of the gums, thelighter red of the maples, the yellow of the hickories, the 2d ArmyCorps found itself for weeks back on the drill ground. The old Army ofthe Valley crowed and clapped on the back the Light Division and D. H.Hill's troops. "Old times come again! Jest like we used to do atWinchester! Chirk up, you fellows! Your drill's improving every day. OldJack'll let up on you after a while. Lord! it used to be _seven_ hours aday!"
Not only did the 2d Corps drill, it refitted. Mysteriously there camefrom Winchester a really fair amount of shoes and clothing. Only thefewest were now actually barefoot. In every regiment there went on, too,a careful cobbling. If by any means a shoe could be made to do, it wasput in that position. Uniforms were patched and cleaned, and every daywas washing day. All the hillsides were spread with soldiers' shirts.The red leaves drifting down on them looked like blood-stains, but theleaves could be brushed away. The men, standing in the Opequon, whistledas they rubbed and wrung. Every day the recovered from hospitals, andthe footsore stragglers, and the men detached or furloughed, came hometo camp. There came in recruits, too--men who last year were too old,boys who last year were not old enough. "Look here, boys! Thar goesFather Time!--No, it's Rip Van Winkle!"--"No, it's Santa Claus!--Anyhow,he's going to fight!" "Look here, boys! here comes another cradle. GoodLord, he's just a toddler! He don't see a razor in his dreams yet!Quartermaster's out of nursing-bottles!" "Shet up! the way thosechildren fight's a caution!"
October drifted on, smooth as the Opequon. Red and yellow leaves drifteddown, wood smoke arose, sound was wrapped as in fine wool, dulledeverywhere to sweetness. Whirring insects, rippling water, thewood-chopper's axe, the whistling soldiers, the drum-beat, thebugle-call, all were swept into a smooth current, steady, almostdroning, somewhat dream-like. The 2d Corps would have said that it was along time on the Opequon, but that on the whole it found the place apleasing land of drowsy-head.
Visitors came to the Opequon; parties from Winchester, officers from the1st Corps commanded by Longstreet and encamped a few miles to theeastward, officers from the headquarters of the commander-in-chief.General Lee came himself on Traveller, and with Stonewall Jackson rodealong the Opequon, under the scarlet maples. One day there appeared acluster of Englishmen, Colonel the Honourable Garnet Wolseley; theSpecial Correspondent of the _Times_, the Honourable Francis Lawley, andthe Special Correspondent of the _Illustrated London News_, Mr. FrankVizetelly. General Lee had sent them over under the convoy of anofficer, with a note to Stonewall Jackson.
MY DEAR GENERAL,--These gentlemen very especially wish to make youracquaintance. Yours,
R. E. LEE.
They made it, beneath a beautiful, tall, crimson gum tree, where on afloor of fallen leaves Lieutenant-General T. J. Jackson's tent waspitched. A camp-stool, a wooden chair, and two boxes were placed. Therewas a respectful silence while the Opequon murmured by, then GarnetWolseley spoke of the great interest which England--Virginia's mothercountry--was taking in this struggle.
"Yes, sir," said Jackson. "It would be natural for a mother to take aneven greater interest."
"And the admiration, general, with which we have watched yourcareer--the career of genius, if I may say so! By Jove--"
"Yes, sir. It is not my career. God has the matter in hand."
"Well, He knows how to pick his lieutenants!--You have the most idealplace for a camp, general! But, I suppose, before these coloured leavesall fall you will be moving?"
"It is an open secret, I suppose, sir," said the correspondent of the_Times_, "that when McClellan does see fit to cross you will meet himeast of the Blue Ridge?"
"May I ask, sir," said the correspondent of the _Illustrated News_,"what you think of this latest move on the political chess-board--I meanMr. Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation?"
"The leaves are," said Jackson, "a beautiful colour. I was in Englandone autumn, Colonel Wolseley, but I did not observe our autumn coloursin your foliage. Climate, doubtless. But what was my admiration wereyour cathedrals."
"Yes, general; wonderful, are they not? Music in stone. Should McClellancross, would the Fredericksburg route--"
"Good! good! Music in stone! Which of your great church structures doyou prefer, sir?"
"Why, sir, I might prefer Westminster Abbey. Would--"
"Good! Westminster Abbey. A soldier's answer. I remember that Iespecially liked Durham. I liked the Galilee chapel and the tomb of theVenerable Bede. St. Cuthbert is buried there, too, is he not?"
"I really don't remember, sir. Is he, Mr. Lawley?"
"I believe so."
"Yes, he is. You haven't got any cathedrals here, General Jackson, butyou've got about the most interesting army on the globe. WillMcClellan--"
"I like the solidity of the early Norman. The foundations were laid in1093, I believe?"
"Very probably, general. Has General Lee--"
"It has a commanding situation--an advantage which all of yourcathedrals do not possess. I liked the windows best at York. What do youthink, colonel?"
"I think that you are right, general. When your wars are over, I hopethat you will visit England again. I suppose that you cannot say howsoon that will be, sir?"
"No, sir. Only God can say that. I should like to see Ely andCanterbury." He rose. "Gentlemen, it has been pleasant to meet you. Ihear the adjutant's call. If you would like to find out how my men_drill_, Colonel Johnson may take you to the parade-ground."
Later, there arrived beneath the crimson gum four of Jeb Stuart'sofficers, gallantly mounted and equipped, young and fine. To-day theirusual careless dash was tempered by something of important gravity; iftheir eyes danced, it was beneath half-closed lids; they did not smileoutright, but their lips twitched. Behind them an orderly bore a longpasteboard box. The foremost officer was Major Heros von Borcke, ofGeneral Stuart's staff. All dismounted. Jackson came out of his tent.The air was golden warm; the earth was level before the tent, and on thecarpet of small bright leaves was yet the table, the chair, thecamp-stool, and the boxes. It made a fine, out-of-door room of audience.The cavalry saluted. Jackson touched the forage cap, and sat down. Thestaff officer, simple, big, and genuine, stood forward. "Major VonBorcke, is it not? Well, major, what is General Stuart about just now?"
"General, he is watching his old schoolmate, General McClellan. Mygeneral, I come on a graceful errand, a little gift from General Stuartbearing. He has so great
an esteem and friendship for you, general; heasks that you accept so slight a token of that esteem and friendship andhe would say affection, and he does say reverence. He says that fromRichmond he has for this sent--"
Major Heros von Borcke made a signal. The orderly advanced and placedupon the pine table the box. The other cavalry officers stepped a littlenearer; two or three of Stonewall Jackson's military family came alsorespectfully closer; the red gum leaves made a rustling underfoot.
"General Stuart is extremely kind," said Jackson. "I have a high esteemfor Jeb Stuart. You will tell him so, major."
Slowly, slowly, came off the lid. Slowly, slowly came away a layer ofsilver paper. Where on earth they got--in Richmond in 1862--the gay box,the silver paper, passes comprehension. The staff thought it lookedParisian, and nursed the idea that it had once held a ball gown. Slowly,slowly, out came the gift.
A startled sound, immediately suppressed, was uttered by the militaryfamily. Lieutenant-General T. J. Jackson merely looked a stone wall. Theold servant Jim was now also upon the scene. "Fo' de Lawd!" said Jim."Er new nuniform!"
Fine grey cadet cloth, gold lace, silken facings, beautiful brightbuttons, sash, belt, gauntlets--the leaves rustled loudly, but a chucklefrom Jim in the background and a murmured "Dat are sumpin' like!" wasthe only audible utterance. With empressement each article was liftedfrom the box by Major Heros von Borcke and laid upon the pine boardsbeneath Stonewall Jackson's eyes. The box emptied, Von Borcke, big,simple, manly, gravely beaming, stepped back from the table. "ForGeneral Jackson, with General Stuart's esteem and admiration!"
Stonewall Jackson, big, too, and to appearance simple, looked under theforage cap, smiled, and with one lean brown finger touched almosttimidly the beautiful, spotless cadet cloth. "Major von Borcke, you willgive General Stuart my best thanks. He is, indeed, good. All this," hegravely indicated the loaded table, "is much too fine for the hard workI'd have to give it, and I shall have it put away for the present. Butyou tell General Stuart, major, that I will take the best care of hisbeautiful present, and that I will always prize it highly as a souvenir.It is, I think, about one o'clock. You will stay to dinner with me, Ihope, major."
But the banks of the Opequon uttered a protest. "Oh, general!"--"Mygeneral, you will hurt his feelings."--"General, just try it on, atleast!" "Let us have our way, sir, just this once! We have been rightgood, haven't we? and we do so want to see you in it!"--"General Stuartwill certainly want to know how it fits--" "Please, sir,"--"_Gineral,Miss Anna sholy would like ter see you in hit!_"
Ten minutes elapsed while the Opequon rippled by and the crimson gumleaves drifted down, then somewhat bashfully from the tent came forthStonewall Jackson metamorphosed. Triumph perched upon the helms of thestaff and the visiting cavalry. "Oh!--Oh!--" "General Stuart will be sohappy!" "General, the review this afternoon! General, won't you reviewus _that way_?"
He did. At first the men did not know him, then there mounted a wildexcitement. Suppressed with difficulty during the actual evolutions, itburst into flower when the ranks were broken. The sun was setting in aflood of gold; there hung a fairy light over the green fields and theOpequon and the vivid woods. The place rang to the frolic shouting. Ithad the most delighted sound. "Stonewall! Stonewall Jackson! Stonewall!Stonewall! Old Jack! Old Jack! Old Jack!"
Old Jack touched his beautiful hat of a lieutenant-general. LittleSorrel beneath him moved with a jerk of the head and a distendednostril. The men noticed that, too. "He don't know him either! Oh, Lord!Oh, Lord! Ain't life worth while? Ain't it grand?--Stonewall!Stonewall!"
On went the gold October, passing at last in a rain and drift of leavesinto a russet November. The curls of wood smoke showed plainer down theglades, the crows were cawing, the migratory birds going south, but thedays were yet mild and still, wrapped in a balm of pale sunshine, afaint, purplish, Indian summer haze. The 2d Corps was hale and soberlyhappy.
It was the chaplain's season. There occurred in the Army of NorthernVirginia a religious revival, a far-spread and lasting deepening offeeling. For many nights in many forest glades there were "meetings"with prayer and singing. "Old Hundred" floated through the air. Fromtents and huts of boughs came the soldiers. They sat upon the earth,thick carpeted now with the faded leaves, or upon gnarled, out-croppingroots of oak and beech. Above shone the moon; there was a touch of frostin the air. The chaplain had some improvised pulpit; a great fire, orperhaps a torch fastened to a bough, gave light whereby to read theBook. The sound of the voice, the sound of the singing, blended with thevoice of the Opequon rushing--all rushing toward the great Sea.
"Come, humble sinner, in whose breast A thousand thoughts revolve--"
It made a low thunder, so many soldiers' voices. Always, on thesenights, in some glade or meadow, with some regiment or other, there wasfound the commander of the 2d Corps. Beneath the cathedral roof of theforest, or beneath the stars in the open, sat Stonewall Jackson,worshipping the God of Battles. Undoubtedly he was really and deeplyhappy. His place is on the Judean hills, with Joab and David and Abner.Late in this November there came to him another joy. In North Carolina,where his wife had gone, a child was born to him, his only child, adaughter.
In the first half of October had occurred Jeb Stuart's brilliantMonocacy raid, two days and a half within McClellan's lines. On thetwenty-sixth McClellan began the passage of the Potomac. He crossed nearBerlin, and Lee, assured now that the theatre of war would be east ofthe Blue Ridge, dispatched Longstreet with the 1st Corps to Culpeper. Onthe seventh of November McClellan was removed from the command of theArmy of the Potomac. It was given over to Burnside, and he took theFredericksburg route to Richmond.
The Army of the Potomac numbered one hundred and twenty-five thousandmen and officers and three hundred and twenty guns. At Washington werein addition eighty thousand men, and up and down the Potomac twentythousand more. The Army of Northern Virginia in all, 1st and 2d Corps,had seventy-two thousand men and officers and two hundred andseventy-five guns. Lee called Stonewall Jackson to join Longstreet atFredericksburg.
On the twenty-second the 1st Corps quitted, amid smiles and tears, manya "God keep you!" and much cheering, Winchester the beloved. Out swungthe long column upon the Valley pike. Advance and main and rear, horseand foot and guns, Stonewall Jackson and his twenty-five thousand tookthe old road. The men were happy. "Old road, old road, old road, howdydo! How's your health, old lady? Haven't you missed us? Haven't youmissed us? We've missed _you_!"
It was Indian summer, violet, dream-like. By now there had been burningand harrowing in the Valley; war had laid his mailed hand upon theregion. It was not yet the straining clutch of later days, but it wasbad enough. The Indian summer wrapped with a soft touch of mourningpurple much of desolation, much of untilled earth, and charredroof-tree, and broken walls. The air was soft and gentle, lying balmyand warm on the road and ragged fields, and the haze so hid thedistances that the column thought not so much of how the land wasscarred as of the memories that thronged on either side of the Valleypike. "Kernstown! The field of Kernstown. There's Fulkerson's wall.About five hundred years ago!"
Stonewall Jackson, riding in the van, may be supposed to have had hismemories, too. He did not express them. He was using expedition, and hesent back orders. "Press forward, men! Press forward." He rode quietly,forage cap pulled low; or, standing with Little Sorrel on some waysideknoll, he watched for a while his thousands passing. Stuart's gaypresent had taken the air but once. Here was the old familiar,weather-worn array, leaf brown from sun and wind and dust and rain,patched here and patched there, dull of buttons, and with the lace wornoff. Here were the old boots, the sabre, the forage cap; here were theblue glint of the eye and the short "Good! good!" as the men passed. Themarching men shouted for him. He nodded, and having noted whatever itwas he had paused to note, shook Little Sorrel's bridle and stifflygalloped to the van again.
Past Newtown, past Middletown, on to Strasburg--the Massanuttons loomedahead, all softly colou
red yet with reds and golds. "Massanutton!Massanutton!" said the troops. "We've seen you before, and you've seenus before! Front Royal's at your head and Port Republic's at your feet."
"In Virginia there's a Valley, Valley, Valley! Where all day the war drums beat, Beat, Beat! And the soldiers love the Valley Valley, Valley! And the Valley loves the soldiers, Soldiers, soldiers!"
Past Strasburg, past Tom's Brook, past Rude's Hill--through the stillNovember days, in the Indian summer weather, the old Army of the Valley,the old Ewell's Division, the Light Division, D. H. Hill's Division,moved up the Valley Pike. All were now the 2d Corps, Stonewall Jacksonriding at its head. The people--the people were mostly women andchildren--flocked to the great highroad to bring the army things, towave it onward, to say "God bless you!"--"God keep you!"--"God make youto conquer!"
The 2d Corps passed Woodstock, and Edenburg, and Mt. Jackson, and cameto New Market, and here it turned eastward. "Going to leave you,"chanted the troops. "Going to leave you, old road, old road! Take careof yourself till we come again!"
Up and up and over Massanutton wound the 2d Corps. The air was still,not cold. The gold leaves drifted on the troops, and the red. From thetop of the pass the view was magnificent. Down and down wound the columnto the cold, swift Shenandoah. The men forded the stream. "Oh,Shenandoah! Oh, Shenandoah! when will we ford you again?"
Up and up the steeps of the Blue Ridge to Fisher's Gap! All the air wasdreamy, the sun sloping to the west, the crows cawing in the mountainclearings. The column was leaving the Valley, and a silence fell uponit. Stonewall Jackson rode ahead, on the mountain path, in the last goldlight. At the summit of the pass there was a short halt. It went by in astrange quietness. The men turned and gazed. "The Valley of Virginia!The Valley of Virginia! _Which of us will not see you again?_"
The Alleghenies lay faint, faint, beneath the flooding light. The sunsent out great rays of purple and rose. Between the mountain ranges thevast landscape lay in shadow, though here and there a high hilltop, amountain spur had a coronet of gold. The 2d Corps, twenty-five thousandmen, high on the Blue Ridge, looked and looked. "Some of us will not seeyou again. Some of us will not see you again, O loved Valley ofVirginia!" _Column Forward! Column Forward!_