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Stuart moved with Hampton's cavalry division on the right of the advancing column General Fitz Lee having been left with his division to guard the front on the Rapidan and General Imboden, commanding west of the Blue Ridge, was ordered by Lee to "advance down the Valley, and guard the gaps of the mountains on our left." We have said that Lee's design was to bring General Meade to battle.
Shepard and other scouts and spies reported a day or two later that Jackson's army was on the Rapidan, one of the numerous Virginia rivers. Then Dick accompanied Colonel Winchester, who was sent by rail to Washington with dispatches. He did not find in the capital the optimism that reigned in the mind of Pope.
Our tradesmen and merchants want their Southern customers, and therefore, no matter what their crimes may have been, they are hushed up and condoned. But to return to my story. "Sherwood had made his disposition for an advance, and on the same day that the Army of the East commenced its movement to cross the Rapidan, his army moved out against Gen.
My mother's name was Lottie Virginia James, daughter of an Indian and a slave woman, born on the Rapidan River in Virginia about 1823 or 24, I do not know which; she was a woman of fine features and very light in complexion with beautiful, long black hair. She was purchased by her master and taken to South Carolina when about 15 years old. She was the private maid of Mrs.
Why tell the old, old story in its every stage? It was with a new, wild fear at heart she heard of Stonewall Jackson's leap for the Rapidan, of the grapple at Cedar Mountain where the Massachusetts men fought sternly and met with cruel loss.
The shrieks and screams of the poor wounded men who could not escape the flames were heartrending. "Darkness came on and the contest ceased. During the night Laws withdrew the rebel army to his old line of works and gave up the idea of driving Silent back across the Rapidan. Gen. Silent repaired to his headquarters, where he received the reports of the commanding officers.
To return to the more important events on the Rapidan. General Grant assumed the direction of the Army of the Potomac under most favorable auspices. Other commanders especially General McClellan had labored under painful disadvantages, from the absence of coöperation and good feeling on the part of the authorities. The new leader entered upon the great struggle under very different circumstances.
The cavalry from Ord's command will try tributaries would furnish us an easy line over which to bring all supplies to within easy hauling distance of every position the army could occupy from the Rapidan to the James River. But Lee could, if he chose, detach or move his whole army north on a line rather interior to the one I would have to take in following.
The military theory of the Federal commander having thus been set forth in his own words, it remains to notice his programme for the approaching campaign. He had hesitated between two plans "one to cross the Rapidan below Lee, moving by his right flank; the other above, moving by his left."
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.
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