The far end of the line of those keeping bivouac disappears into the distance, and the depths of the ranks behind them fade into the thick shadows.

The flag, a little above the line, catches the light.

One great tree overhead spreads its leafless half-lit arms through the gloom.
Behind all this is unmitigated black.

The composition reminds one of a Hiroshige study of midnight.

These men are certainly a part of the architecture of out of doors, and mysterious as the vault of Heaven.