His baggage train was over
sixty miles long and would have stretched the entire distance to
Richmond.
By the spring of 1864 when he reached the Rapidan Lee's army had been
recruited again to its normal strength of sixty-two thousand.
A great religious revival swept the Southern camps during the winter
and its meetings lasted into the spring almost to the hour of the
opening guns of the Wilderness campaign. Had whispers from the Infinite
reached the souls of the ragged men in grey and told them of coming
Gethsemane and Calvary?
Certain it is that though Lee's army were ragged and poorly fed their
courage was never higher, their faith in their Commander never more
sublime than in those beautiful spring mornings in April when they
burnished their bayonets to receive Grant's overwhelming host.
The Chaplain of Ned Vaughan's regiment was leading a prayer meeting in
the moonlight. An earnest brother was praying fervently for more
manhood, and more courage.
A ragged Confederate kneeling nearby didn't like the drift of his
petition and his patience gave out. He raised his head and called.
"Say, hold on there, brother! You're getting that prayer all wrong. We
don't need no more courage--got so much now we're skeered of ourselves
sometimes. What we need is provisions. Ask the Lord to send us something
to eat.
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