"We'll crush Lee and Jackson, and next summer you and I, George, will be out on the western plains with Frank, watching the buffalo millions go thundering by!" They forded the Rapidan and rejoined their regiment with nothing to tell.

But it was cheerful about the fires.

Optimism reigned once more in the Army of Virginia.

McClellan had sent word to Pope that he would have plenty of soldiers to face the attack that now seemed to be threatened by the South.

Brigades from the Army of the Potomac would make the Army of Virginia invincible.
Dick having nothing particular to do, sat late with his comrades before one of the finest of the fires, and he read only cheerful omens in the flames.