and cautious
Halleck, and so the former resigned, thus cutting short a career of
extraordinary brilliancy just on the eve of his greatest success. It was
a fatal mistake for Hooker. I have always believed that, had he remained
in command, the battle of Gettysburg would have been the Appomattox of
the Civil War. Such an opportunity as was there presented, he had never
had before. Even in the wilderness around Chancellorsville, where his
well laid plans miscarried through no fault of his own, he was stopped
only by a series of accidents from crushing his formidable adversary.
The dense woods prevented the cooperation of the various corps; the
audacity of Jackson turned defeat for Lee into temporary victory; and to
crown this chapter of accidents, Hooker himself was injured so as to be
incapacitated for command, at the very moment when quick action was
indispensable.

Now the conditions were changed. Jackson, the ablest of all the
confederate generals, was dead, and the army of the Potomac, greatly
reinforced, was to meet the army of Northern Virginia, materially
weakened, where they could have an open field and a fair fight. Every
step that Hooker had taken, from the time when he broke camp in Falmouth
until he, in a fit of disgust at Halleck's obstinacy, tendered his
resignation at Frederick, Maryland, had shown a comprehensive grasp of
the situation that inspired the whole army with confidence. The moment
that Lee decided to fight the army of the Potomac on grounds of its own
choosing, and to fight an offensive battle, he was foredoomed to defeat,
no matter who commanded the federal army. Hooker possessed the very
qualifications that Meade lacked--the same fierce energy that
characterized Sheridan--the ability to follow up and take advantage of a
beaten enemy. With Hooker in command, Gettysburg would have been Lee's
Waterloo.

Sunday, June 21, heavy cannonading in the direction of the passes in the
Blue Ridge mountains, proclaimed that the battle was raging.
Pleasanton's cavalry had encountered Stuart and Fitzhugh Lee at
Middleburg and a fierce engagement resulted. Our division left Fairfax
at an early hour, and all supposed that it would go towards the sound of
battle. Not so, however. Stahel, with as fine a body of horse as was
ever brought together, marched to Warrenton, thence to Fredericksburg,
scouting over the entire intermediate country, encountering no enemy,
and all the time the boom of cannon was heard, sh