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[285] through the Wilderness for a mile and a half, or two miles, reached the road on which Jackson had moved, struck the rear of his column, and began to take prisoners. Elated by his success, the result of which he communicated to Hooker, General Sickles asked for re-enforcements; and, at his request, Pleasonton's cavalry and two brigades of infantry were sent him. As one of these brigades was taken from the Twelfth Corps, and the other from the Eleventh Corps,1 holding the right of the general line, it is hardly to be supposed that Hooker would have made the detachment had he thought that flank was to be attacked. While this manoeuvre, under a false lead, was going on, Jackson was getting into position for his meditated blow. He had already reached the Orange plankroad, on which the Union line was drawn, and near the point at which it is crossed by the road from Germanna Ford; but, ascending a hill in the vicinity, he saw that disposition of the Union force by which its right flank was thrown sharply back in a crochet, extending northward and at right angles with the general line, which ran east and west. He, therefore, perceived that he would have to move further to his left, and further to the north, and, in order to strike the rear of Hooker's defensive position, would have to reach the old turnpike which runs parallel with and north of the plankroad.2 Turning, therefore, after a rapid reconnoitring glance, to one of his aids, he instantly said, ‘Tell my column to cross that road’3 (meaning, thereby, the plankroad, so as to move up and strike the old turnpike). Reaching the turnpike about five o'clock, Jackson saw the Union line in reverse, and had only to advance in order to
1 Williamson's brigade, of Slocum's corps, and Barlow's brigade, of Howard's corps.—Sickles' Evidence: Report on the Conduct of the War, second series, vol. i., p. 5.
2 The ‘old turnpike’ may, roughly speaking, be said to be parallel with the plankroad, though it really joins near Dondall's tavern, about two and a half miles west of Chancellorsville.
3 Cooke's Life of Stonewall Jackson, p. 251.
1866.
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