“It was in Mississippi;—Grant somewhere near, but nobody knew how near;—all of us scattered over a few hills and marshes, keeping pretty good lookout, but yet knowing that nobody could be within a day’s march of us. In comes Spaulding in haste to headquarters, to the general’s tent. In he comes, pale and excited, and he brings a piece of news that was indeed alarming! He had been on a hill overlooking the river—I forget its name—there’s such an infinity of rivers in this country! Anyhow he had seen the most amazing thing, and that was what he had come like lightning back to the camp to tell the general about. A column of the enemy was crossing the river—they had laid pontoons and they were crossing by them and by a ford as well. It was a large force—a division undoubtedly, possibly a corps. Artillery was crossing as he looked. The ford was black with infantry, and there was cavalry on the farther bank. A man on a great black horse was directing. On this side was a man on a very tall grey horse, a man with a bloody handkerchief tied round his head under his hat. The troops saluted him as they came out of the water. All were crossing very silently and swiftly. Spaulding had run all the way from the hill; he had to put his hand to his side as he talked, he was so breathed.—Well, immediately there was activity enough at headquarters, but still activity with a doubt, it was so amazing! What were the pickets doing—to say nothing of the cavalry? Well, the long roll was beaten, and everybody scurried to arms, and off went two aides at full speed to the hilltop to examine that thief in the night-time crossing, and Spaulding went behind the one on the strongest horse. He was just as calm and sure. ‘Yes, it’s amazing, but it’s so! I think the man on the black horse is Grant. I couldn’t see the face of the man on the grey horse—only the bloody cloth around his head.‘ Well, they got there, all the fuss behind them of the regiments forming—they got to the hilltop and there was the river sure enough before them, just as the aides knew it would be. ‘Now, you see!’ says Spaulding, for he had been hurt by the way everybody, even the general, said, ‘Impossible!’—‘See what?’ say the aides. ‘Are you mad?’ asks Spaulding impatiently. ‘The bridge and the ford and the crossing guns and infantry, the man on the black horse and the man on the grey with the cloth around his head.’—One of the aides rides down the hillside toward the river and finds a picket. ‘Have you seen anything unusual up or down or across the river?’ ‘No,’ says the picket, or words to that effect. ‘Have you?”—Well, that aide goes back and he takes Spaulding by the shoulders and shakes him. And then the two, they stand on either side of him, and the one says, ‘Look now, and pretty quick about it, and tell us what you see!’—‘You damned fools,’ says