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Here was the first blunder of the new campaign. At length at eleven o'clock we moved again, taking the road to the Rapidan.
The rest of the army followed, and descended into Culpepper, from which position, when Longstreet was detached to the west, Lee retired, taking post behind the Rapidan. General Meade thereupon followed, and occupied Culpepper, his advance being about half-way between Culpepper Court-House and the river.
On the following day, as already stated, I visited General Meade, commanding the Army of the Potomac, at his headquarters at Brandy Station, north of the Rapidan. I had known General Meade slightly in the Mexican war, but had not met him since until this visit.
As well as I could, I repeated that Psalm I had said over the graves by the Rapidan. He looked at me with eyes as clear and honest as a child's. "'In death's dark vale I will fear no ill," he repeated after me. "That minds me of lang syne. I never feared muckle on earth, and I'll not begin now." I saw that the end was very near. The pain had gone, and there was a queer innocence in his lean face.
It was nearly six o'clock when at last they reached their destination, the little town of Rapidan, in New Jersey, and stopped before the Empress Hotel. Hawley had visited Rapidan once before, as a member of his college glee club, and he had recalled it instantly when Mead's disfigurement made sequestration imperative.
Cavalry Captures Navy. Complimented by Superiors. General Advance of the Army. Third Cavalry Battle at Brandy Station. Stuart's Cavalry Worsted at Culpepper Court House. Sharp Artillery Practice at Raccoon Ford, on the Rapidan. Special Duties and Special Dangers. Good Living Along the Hazel and Robertson Rivers. Important Reconnoissance and Raid. Hard Fighting and Narrow Escape.
East of the Mississippi we held substantially all north of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad as far east as Chattanooga, thence along the line of the Tennessee and Holston rivers, taking in nearly all of the State of Tennessee. West Virginia was in our hands; and that part of old Virginia north of the Rapidan and east of the Blue Ridge we also held.
Burnside, Sedgwick, and Warren had all kept up an assault during all this time; but their efforts had no other effect than to prevent the enemy from reinforcing his right from the troops in their front. I had, on the 5th, ordered all the bridges over the Rapidan to be taken up except one at Germania Ford. The troops on Sedgwick's right had been sent to enforce our left.
No sooner had the fact been discovered that General Burnside was making for Fredericksburg, than the Confederate commander, by a corresponding movement, passed the Rapidan and hastened in the same direction. As early as the 17th, two divisions of infantry, with cavalry and artillery, were in motion.
"The captain of the Rapidan has always selected all his own crew, sir." The head clerk had rested both hands, with fingers spread, on his chief's desk. His chief making no reply, the head clerk added: "And he rather resents interference from the office." The superintendent was playing idly with a paper knife. His gaze seemed to be directed to the lower buttons of his head clerk's waistcoat.
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