He even remembered with a smile their long duel when Lee was retreating from Gettysburg, and particularly their adventure in the river.

Would that duel between them be renewed?
Intuition told him that Shepard was in the valley, and if Sheridan was worth ten thousand men the spy was worth at least a thousand.
The Invincibles were ready to the last man, and it did not require any great counting to reach the last.

Yet the two colonels, as they rode before their scanty numbers, held themselves as proudly as ever, and the hearts of their young officers, in spite of all the odds, began to beat high with hope.

The advance was to be made after dark, and their pulses were leaping as the twilight came, and then the night.
The march of the Southern army to deal its lightning stroke was prepared well, and, fortunately for it, a heavy fog came up late in the night from the rivers and creeks of the valley to cover its movements and hide the advancing columns from its foe.

When Harry felt the damp touch of the vapor on his face his hopes rose yet higher.