The tread of many men, the beat of horses' hoofs, and the clanking of guns melted into one musical note.
The sun crept slowly up, gilding thickets and forests with pure gold.
The sky was still an unbroken blue, save for the little white clouds that floated in its bosom.

The breeze of that May morning was wonderfully crisp and fresh.

It came tingling with life to the thousands, so many of whom were about to die.
It seemed to Harry as they went on through the thickets of the Wilderness that the Union scouts would never discover them, but Northern troops on an open eminence of Hazel Grove had seen a long column moving away through the thickets and made report of it to the Northern generals.

But these leaders did not understand it.

They had not grasped the great daring of Jackson's march.
They believed that Lee was merely extending his lines, but an hour before noon a battery opened fire from a hill upon the marching Confederate column.