The tall, gaunt, ugly man, telling his homely jokes, had more courage than anybody who had yet led the Union cause.
Harry often went down to Fredericksburg, where some houses still stood among the icy ruins.

A few families had returned, but as the town was still practically under the guns of the Northern army, it was left chiefly to the troops.
The Invincibles were stationed here, and Harry and Dalton got leave to spend Christmas day with its officers.

Nothing could bring more fully home to him the appalling waste and ruin of war than the sight of Fredericksburg.

Mud, ice and snow were deeper than ever in the streets.
Many of the houses had been demolished by cannon balls and fire, and only fragments of them lay about the ground.

Others had been wrecked but partially, with holes in the roofs and the windows shot out.
The white pillars in front of colonnaded mansions had been shattered and the fallen columns lay in the icy slough.