General Jackson for the first time told some of his young officers that they could lie down and rest.
"There can be no action before daylight," he said, "and it's best to be fresh and ready." He spoke to them with the grave kindness that he always used, save when some great fault was committed, and then his words burned like fire.
Harry and Dalton procured their blankets from their tents, wrapped them about their bodies and lay down on the dryest spots they could find, but they had no thought of sleep.

They permitted their limbs to relax, and that was a help to the nerves, but neither closed his eyes.
Those dark hours seemed an eternity to Harry.

The floating fog seemed to grow thicker and to enter his very bones.

He shivered and drew the blanket close.

Now, with his ears close to the earth, he was sure that he could hear the axes and the saws and the hammers beating on steel rivets on the other side of the Rappahannock.
The Confederate cannon still fired the signals of alarm at regular intervals, but the night and the fog always closed in again quickly over the flash that the discharge had made.