Read Online Mr Lincoln's Army by Bruce Catton - Free Book Online

but Jackson had
too much artillery for them and they, too, were rebuffed; and after twilight
Hatch's division collided with Hood's Texans along the highway and had to
retreat in the darkness after a savage and confused encounter. A major in
Hatch's 76th New York, unhorsed and wounded, came limping back and met disorganized
troops in the dark and tried to rally them, only to find himself a prisoner of
war: the men belonged to the 2nd Mississippi and wore the Rebel gray.
    Meanwhile, off to the left, Porter was coming
up with his men. Pope thought Porter had a clear road ahead that would put him
on Jackson's flank and roll up his lines for keeps, and ordered him to attack
and win the day. But Porter discovered that his clear road was most effectively
blocked by thirty thousand sinewy Confederates under James Longstreet, who had
silently filed into line of battle around noon, all unseen, and who were now
lying in wait, fairly aching to be attacked. Longstreet was a counterpuncher,
and a deadly one, and he wanted nothing on earth that day quite so much as to
receive an attack by Porter, whom he outnumbered three to one. Porter, sensibly
enough, notified Pope of this obstruction and sat tight. But Pope simply
refused to believe him. His calculations (made God knows how) had convinced him
that Longstreet couldn't possibly reach the field for another twenty-four
hours, and he sent back word that Porter was wrong—there was nothing whatever
in front of him, the way to Jackson's unguarded flank was wide open, Porter
must attack at once. In the end, the attack was not made—to the salvation of
the army and the personal ruin of Fitz-John Porter—and long after dark Pope
sullenly recalled Porter and his men and brought them up to the main line along
the highway.
    When
morning came Pope gave way to his final, most disastrous delusion. The Texans
whom Hatch had bumped into the night before had withdrawn along toward
midnight, and Jackson had pulled back his own men in one or two places to make
his alignment more compact and had his troops snugly concealed in the woods
back of the railroad embankment. Pope was persuaded by all of this that Jackson
was in full retreat, and he triumphantly notified Washington that he had won a
great victory, and ordered an immediate pursuit, horse, foot, and guns. He had
his headquarters on an open knoll and he stood there this morning with his
generals, puffing a cigar, overflowing with good humor, exchanging jokes and
congratulations, while a small regiment of orderlies stood in the background
holding the generals' horses and the breeze whipped the flags and pennants.
McDowell was to be in general charge of the pursuit, and Porter, whose troops
were fresh, was to lead; Hatch and Reynolds would follow him, while Hooker and
Kearny would go along on a parallel road a couple of miles to the north. Orders
were to press the enemy vigorously all day. In vain Porter tried to convince
Pope that there was an ominous congregation of Rebels off to the south of the
highway, with nothing to indicate that they had departed. When Pope made up
his mind it stayed made up, and there was no room in it this morning for
anything but the conviction that the enemy was in flight. So the troops were
wheeled around and got into formation, the artillery came rumbling up, and the
pursuit began.
    It
was probably the briefest pursuit in history. The skirmish lines that went
combing through the meadows and groves very quickly discovered that something
was still waiting behind that railway embankment. Under Pope's concept of
things, that could be nothing more than a rear guard, left there to fight a
delaying action while the main body got safely away. So Porter, with deep
misgivings, pulled his men out into a battle line on the north side of the road
and sent them forward, through a tangle of little hillocks and gullies, across
a quiet country road, and on up a gradual rise toward the embankment and the
silent woods behind it. Reynolds