The fog made the clothes of the men of the column
in the roadway seem of a luminous quality. It
imparted to the heavy infantry overcoats a new colour,
a kind of blue which was so pale that a regiment might
have been merely a long, low shadow in the mist.
However, a muttering, one part grumble, three parts
joke, hovered in the air above the thick ranks, and
blended in an undertoned roar, which was the voice
of the column.
The town on the southern shore of the little river
loomed spectrally, a faint etching upon the grey cloud-masses
which were shifting with oily languor. A long
row of guns upon the northern bank had been pitiless
in their hatred, but a little battered belfry could
be dimly seen still pointing with invincible resolution
toward the heavens.
The enclouded air vibrated with noises made by hidden
colossal things. The infantry tramplings, the
heavy rumbling of the artillery, made the earth speak
of gigantic preparation. Guns on distant heights
thundered from time to time with sudden, nervous roar,
as if unable to endure in silence a knowledge of hostile
troops massing, other guns going to position.
These sounds, near and remote, defined an immense battle-ground,
described the tremendous width of the stage of the
prospective drama. The voices of the guns, slightly
casual, unexcited in their challenges and warnings,
could not destroy the unutterable eloquence of the
word in the air, a meaning of impending struggle which
made the breath halt at the lips.
The column in the roadway was ankle-deep in mud.
The men swore piously at the rain which drizzled upon
them, compelling them to stand always very erect in
fear of the drops that would sweep in under their coat-collars.
The fog was as cold as wet cloths. The men stuffed
their hands deep in their pockets, and huddled their
muskets in their arms. The machinery of orders
had rooted these soldiers deeply into the mud, precisely
as almighty nature roots mullein stalks.
They listened and speculated when a tumult of fighting
came from the dim town across the river. When
the noise lulled for a time they resumed their descriptions
of the mud and graphically exaggerated the number of
hours they had been kept waiting. The general
commanding their division rode along the ranks, and
they cheered admiringly, affectionately, crying out
to him gleeful prophecies of the coming battle.
Each man scanned him with a peculiarly keen personal
interest, and afterward spoke of him with unquestioning
devotion and confidence, narrating anecdotes which
were mainly untrue.
