Generally he spoke in the careful, measured manner that was natural to him, but it was said that in Opelika, in Alabama, he had delivered a warning to the North, telling the Northern states that they would interfere with the Southern at their peril.
Harry and Arthur, despite their eagerness to see the town and the great men, were compelled to wait.

The Palmetto Guards went into camp on the outskirts, and their commander, Colonel Leonidas Talbot, late of the United States Army, was very strict in discipline.

His second in command, Major Hector St.Hilaire, was no whit inferior to him in sternness.

Harry had expected that this old descendant of Huguenots, reared in the soft air of Charleston, would be lax, or at least easy of temper, but whatever of military rigor Colonel Talbot forgot, Major St.Hilaire remembered.
The guards were about three hundred in number, and their camp was pitched on a hill, a half mile from the town.

The night, after a beautiful day, turned raw and chill, warning that early spring, even in those southern latitudes, was more of a promise than a performance.
But the young troops built several great fires and those who were not on guard basked before the glow.
Harry had helped to gather the wood, most of which was furnished by the people living near, and his task was ended.