So they lay in their camps on the Rapidan, in that cold winter of 1863--a little army of ragged and hungry men, with gaunt faces, wasted forms, shoeless feet; with nothing to encourage them but the cause, past victories, and Lee’s presence. That was much; what was enough, however, was the blood in their veins; the inspiration of the great race of fighting men from whom they derived their origin. Does any one laugh at that? The winner will--but the truth remains. That ragged and famished army came of a fighting race. It was starving and dying, but it was going to fight to the last. When the cannon began to roar in May, 1864, these gaunt veterans were in line, with ragged coats, but burnished bayonets. When Lee, the gray cavalier, rode along their lines, the woods thundered with a cheer which said, “Ready!” XVI. HAMMER AND RAPIER. I pass to the great collision of armies in the first days of May. Why say any thing of that dark episode called “Dahlgren’s raid?” A full account would be too long--a brief sketch too short. And whatever our Northern friends may think, it is not agreeable to us to dwell on that outrage. Was that _war_? Was it civilized warfare to march in the darkness upon a city full of women and children--to plan the assassination of the Southern President and his cabinet; the destruction of the city by the torch; the release of the Federal prisoners at Belle Isle, to be let loose afterward with fire and sword on Richmond? Alas! all that was planned. The orders were captured, and exist still. Was that war? I repeat. Answer, friends of the North. Or, did you think us mere wild beasts? I omit all that, passing on to the real fighting. General Ulysses S. Grant had been appointed commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States, and had taken command in person of the army of the Potomac, confronting Lee on the Rapidan. Before the curtain rises, and the cannon begin to roar, let us glance at the relative numbers, and the programme of the Federal leader. Grant’s “available force present for duty, May 1, 1864,” was, according to the report of the Federal Secretary of War, 141,166 men. Lee’s force, “present for duty,” as his army rolls will show, was 52,626 men. That is to say, rather more than one-third of his adversary’s. Lee afterward received about 10,000 re-enforcements from Beauregard’s columns. Grant received about 50,000. With about 62,000 men Lee repulsed the attacks of Grant with about 200,000 men, from the Rapidan to Petersburg--inflicting a loss on his adversary, by the Federal statement of more than 60,000 men. These numbers may be denied, but the proof is on record.