Lee met his generals in council. The map drawn by Captain
Hotchkiss was produced, and the manoeuvre which had suggested itself
to Jackson was definitely ordered by the Commander-in-Chief. The
Valley army, at dawn on the 18th, was to cross the Rapidan at
Somerville Ford. Longstreet, preceded by Stuart, who was to cut the
Federal communications in rear of Culpeper Court House, was to make
the passage at Raccoon Ford. Jackson's cavalry was to cover the left
and front, and Anderson's division was to form a general reserve. The
movement was intended to be speedy. Only ambulances and ammunition
waggons were to follow the troops. Baggage and supply trains were to
be parked on the south side of the Rapidan, and the men were to carry
three days' cooked rations in their haversacks.

On Clark's Mountain, a high hill near Pisgah Church, Jackson had
established a signal station. The view from the summit embraced an
extensive landscape. The ravages of war had not yet effaced its
tranquil beauty, nor had the names of its bright rivers and thriving
villages become household words. It was still unknown to history, a
peaceful and pastoral district, remote from the beaten tracks of
trade and travel, and inhabited by a quiet and industrious people.
To-day there are few regions which boast sterner or more heroic
memories. To the right, rolling away in light and shadow for a score
of miles, is the great forest of Spotsylvania, within whose gloomy
depths lie the fields of Chancellorsville; where the breastworks of
the Wilderness can still be traced; and on the eastern verge of which
stand the grass-grown batteries of Fredericksburg. Northward, beyond
the woods which hide the Rapidan, the eye ranges over the wide and
fertile plains of Culpeper, with the green crest of Slaughter
Mountain overlooking Cedar Run, and the dim levels of Brandy Station,
the scene of the great cavalry battle,* (* June 9, 1863.) just
visible beyond. Far away to the north-east the faint outline of a
range of hills marks the source of Bull Run and the Manassas plateau,
and to the west, the long rampart of the Blue Ridge, softened by
distance, stands high above the Virginia plains.

August 17.

On the afternoon of August 17, Pope's forces seemed doomed to
inevitable destruction. The Confederate army, ready to advance the
next morning, was concentrated behind Clark's Mountain, and Lee and
Jackson, looking toward Culpeper, saw the promise of victory in the
careless att