Historical characters, Lee commands the 2nd Cavalry and is dispatched by the War Department to deal with John Brown at Harper's Ferry. Stuart, who is in Washington, DC, "hawking his patent swordfrog" (pg. 295), is sent along as his aide-de-camp. Ahead of them march the U.S. Marines. Narrator Sir Harry Flashman, who later fights under Lee during the Civil War, calls him canny and imperturbable. Flashy notes that Stuart looks devilishly like himself—tall, handsome, and daring.