A great religious revival swept the Southern camps during the winter and its meetings lasted into the spring almost to the hour of the opening guns of the Wilderness campaign. Had whispers from the Infinite reached the souls of the ragged men in grey and told them of coming Gethsemane and Calvary? Certain it is that though Lee's army were ragged and poorly fed their courage was never higher, their faith in their Commander never more sublime than in those beautiful spring mornings in April when they burnished their bayonets to receive Grant's overwhelming host. The Chaplain of Ned Vaughan's regiment was leading a prayer meeting in the moonlight. An earnest brother was praying fervently for more manhood, and more courage. A ragged Confederate kneeling nearby didn't like the drift of his petition and his patience gave out. He raised his head and called. "Say, hold on there, brother! You're getting that prayer all wrong. We don't need no more courage--got so much now we're skeered of ourselves sometimes. What we need is provisions. Ask the Lord to send us something to eat. That's what we want now----" The leader took the interruption in good spirit and added an eloquent request for at least one good meal a day if the Lord in his goodness and mercy could spare it. No persimmon tree was ever stripped without the repetition of their old joke. They all knew the words by heart, "Don't eat those persimmons--they're not good for you!" "I know it, man, I'm just doin' it to pucker my stomach to fit my rations!" Ned was passing the door of a cabin in which a prayer meeting of officers was being held. He was walking with his Colonel who was fond of a sip of corn whiskey at times. He was slightly deaf. The leader of the meeting called from the door: "Won't you join us in prayer, Colonel?" "Thank you, no, I've just had a little!" he answered innocently. Ned roared and the brethren inside the cabin joined the laugh. No body of men of any race ever marched to death with calmer faith than those ragged lines of grey now girding their loins for the fiercest, bloodiest struggle in the annals of the world. Lee allowed Grant to cross the Rapidan unopposed and penetrate the tangled wilds of the Wilderness. The Southerner knew that in these dense woods the effectiveness of his opponent's superior numbers would be vastly reduced. Longstreet's corps had not yet arrived from Gordonsville where he had been sent to obtain food, and he must concentrate his forces. The days were oppressively hot, as the men in blue tramped through the forest aisles of the vast Virginia jungle--a maze of trees, underbrush and dense foliage. A pall of ominous silence hung over this labyrinth of desolation, broken only by the chirp of bluebird or the distant call of the yellowhammer.