502

JACKSON’S RAID AROUND POPE.

This extreme reticence was very uncomfortable and annoying to his sub-ordinate commanders, and was sometimes carried too far; but it was the realsecret of the reputation for ubiquity which he acquired, and which was sowell expressed by General McClellan in one of his dispatches: “I am afraidof Jackson ; he will turn up where least expected.”

Naturally our destination was supposed to be Waterloo Bridge , there toforce the passage of the river; but the road leading to Waterloo was passedand the northward march continued. The Rappahannock (locally the Hedge-man) is here confined in narrow limits by bold hills and rocky cliffs, andsome miles above the bridge there is a road through these crossing the riverat Hinson’s Mills. The picturesque surroundings of the ford at this place andthe cool bath into which the men plunged were not the less enjoyed becauseof the unexpected absence of opposition by the enemy; and after the inevit-able delay which accompanies any crossing of a watercourse by an army,Jackson’s corps stood on the same side of the river with the entire Federalarmy.

After crossing, Colonel Thomas T. Munford’s 2d Virginia Cavalry pick-eted the roads leading in the direction of the enemy, whose whole force,now confronting Longstreet alone, was massed within lines drawn fromWarrenton and Waterloo on the north to the Orange and Alexandria Rail-road (now called the Midland) on the south. But Jackson’s course was notdirected toward the enemy. We were marching toward the lower Valley ofVirginia, with our destination shrouded in mystery.

From the crossing at Hinson’s Mills, Jackson’s course still took the samedirection—through the little village of Orlean, along the base of a smallmountain which crops up in Fauquier County , and on to the little town ofSalem, where his “foot cavalry,” after a march of over twenty-six mileson a midsummer’s day, rested for the night. At dawn on the 26th the routewas resumed—this day at right angles with the direction of that of the pre-ceding, and now, with faces set to the sunrise, the troops advanced towardthe Bull Run Mountains, which loomed up across the pathway.

Thoroughfare Gap, of this range, is the outlet by which the Manassas GapRailroad, passing from the Shenandoah Valley, penetrates the last mountainobstruction on its way to tide-water. Marching along the graded bed of thisroad, between the spurs and cliffs which rise on either side, and refreshedby the cooler atmosphere of the mountain elevation, the Confederate troopspoured through the narrow pathway and streamed down into the plainbelow. Used to scanty diet, they had early learned the art of supplementingtheir slender commissariat, and the tempting corn-fields along 'which theypassed were made to pay tribute.

At Gainesville , on the Warrenton and Alexandria turnpike, we were over-taken by Stuart, who, with Fitz Lee’s and Robertson’s brigades, had crossedthe Rappahannock that morning and pursued nearly the same route withJackson; and our subsequent movements were greatly aided and influencedby the admirable manner in which the cavalry was employed and managedby Stuart and his accomplished officers.