The word now came, and they went forward from Orange Court House toward
Fredericksburg to join Lee and Longstreet. When they marched toward the
Second Manassas they had suffered from an almost intolerable heat and
dust. Now they advanced through a winter that seemed to pour upon them
every variety of discomfort. Heavy snows fell, icy rains came and
fierce winds blew. The country was deserted, and the roads beneath the
rain and snow and the passage of great armies disappeared. Vast muddy
trenches marked where they had been, and the mud was deep and sticky,
covering everything as it was ground up, and coloring the whole army
the same hue. Somber and sullen skies brooded over them continually.
Not even Jackson's foot cavalry could make much progress through such a
sea of mud.

"A battle would be a relief," said Harry, as he rode with the
Invincibles, having brought some order to Colonel Talbot. "There's
nothing like this to take the starch out of men. Isn't that so, Happy?"

"It depresses ordinary persons like you, Harry," replied Langdon,
"but a soul like mine leaps up to meet the difficulties. Mud as an
obstacle is nothing to me. As I was riding along here I was merely
thinking about the different kinds we have. I note that this Virginia
mud is tremendously sticky, inclined to be red in color, and I should
say that on the whole it's not as handsome as our South Carolina mud,
especially when I see our product at its best. What kind of mud do you
have in Kentucky, Harry?"

"All kinds, red, black, brown and every other shade."

"Well, there's a lot of snow mixed with this, too. I think that at the
very bottom there is a layer of snow, and then the mud and the snow come