Yet the countenance appeared gloomy, as if overcast with care.

Perhaps it was another omen! By the side of Johnston sat a small but muscular man, swarthy, and in early middle years.

His face and gestures when he talked showed clearly that he was of Latin blood.

It was Beauregard, the victor of Bull Run, now second in command here, and he made a striking contrast to the stern and motionless Kentuckian who sat beside him and who was his chief.
There was no uneasy play of Johnston's hands, no shrugging of the shoulders, no jerking of the head.

He sat silent, his features a mask, while he listened to his generals.
On the other side was Braxton Bragg, brother-in-law of Jefferson Davis, who could never forget Bragg's kinship, and the service that he had done fifteen years before at Buena Vista, when he had broken with his guns the last of Santa Anna's squares, deciding the victory.