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Though none of the column commanders rode up to the ranks or

talked to the men (the commanders, as we saw at the council of

war, were out of humor and dissatisfied with the affair, and so

did not exert themselves to cheer the men but merely carried out

the orders), yet the troops marched gaily, as they always do when

going into action, especially to an attack. But when they had

marched for about an hour in the dense fog, the greater part of

the men had to halt and an unpleasant consciousness of some

dislocation and blunder spread through the ranks. How such a

consciousness is communicated is very difficult to define, but it

certainly is communicated very surely, and flows rapidly,

imperceptibly, and irrepressibly, as water does in a creek.