In the actual composition of the Confederate forces no marked change had taken place since the beginning of the war.  But the character of the army, in many essential respects, had become sensibly modified.  The men encamped on the Rappahannock were no longer the raw recruits who had blundered into victory at the First Manassas; nor were they the unmanageable divisions of the Peninsula.  They were still, for the most part, volunteers, for conscripts in the Army of Northern Virginia were not numerous, but they were volunteers of a very different type from those who had fought at Kernstown or at Gaines’ Mill.  Despite their protracted absence from their homes, the wealthy and well-born privates still shouldered the musket.  Though many had been promoted to commissions, the majority were content to set an example of self-sacrifice and sterling patriotism, and the regiments were thus still leavened with a large admixture of educated and intelligent men.  It is a significant fact that during those months of 1863 which were spent in winter quarters Latin, Greek, mathematical, and even Hebrew classes were instituted by the soldiers.  But all trace of social distinction had long since vanished.  Between the rich planter and the small farmer or mechanic there was no difference either in aspect or habiliments.  Tanned by the hot Virginia sun, thin-visaged and bright-eyed, gaunt of frame and spare of flesh, they were neither more nor less than the rank and file of the Confederate army; the product of discipline and hard service, moulded after the same pattern, with the same hopes and fears, the same needs, the same sympathies.  They looked at life from a common standpoint, and that standpoint was not always elevated.  Human nature claimed its rights.  When his hunger was satisfied and, to use his own expression, he was full of hog and hominy, the Confederate soldier found time to discuss the operations in which he was engaged.  Pipe in mouth, he could pass in review the strategy and tactics of both armies, the capacity of his generals, and the bearing of his enemies, and on each one of these questions, for he was the shrewdest of observers, his comments were always to the point.  He had studied his profession in a practical school.  The more delicate moves of the great game were topics of absorbing interest.  He cast a comprehensive glance over the whole theatre; he would puzzle out the reasons for forced marches and sudden changes of direction; his curiosity was great, but intelligent, and the groups round the camp-fires often forecast with surprising accuracy the manoeuvres that the generals were planning.  But far more often the subjects of conversation were of a more immediate and personal character.  The capacity of the company cook, the quality of the last consignment of boots, the merits of different bivouacs, the prospect of the supply train coming up to time, the temper of the captain and subaltern—­such were the topics which the Confederate privates spent