A vast drinking followed.

The water was clear, running over clean pebbles, and a thousand men knelt and drank again and again.

Then the horses were allowed to drink their fill, which they did with mighty gurglings of satisfaction, and the men cooked their midday meal.
Meanwhile they talked of Sheridan.

All expected battle and then battle again when they joined him, and they looked forward to a great campaign in the valley.

That valley was not so far away.