“It is believed,” he writes to the Assistant Secretary on May 8, “that a considerable force has been sent toward the Rappahannock and Shenandoah to move on Washington.  Jackson is reinforced strongly.  Telegraph McDowell, Banks, and Hartsuff (at Warrenton) to keep a sharp look-out.  Tell General Hitchcock to see that the force around Washington is in proper condition.”

It was indeed unfortunate for the North that at this juncture the military affairs of the Confederacy should have been placed in the hands of the clearest-sighted soldier in America.  It was an unequal match, Lincoln and Stanton against Lee; and the stroke that was to prove the weakness of the Federal strategy was soon to fall.  On May 7 Jackson westward marched in the following order:  Edward Johnson’s regiments led the way, several miles in advance; the Third and Second Brigades followed; the Stonewall, under General Winder, a young West Point officer of exceptional promise, bringing up the rear.  “The corps of cadets of the Virginia Military Institute,” says Dabney, “was also attached to the expedition; and the spruce equipments and exact drill of the youths, as they stepped out full of enthusiasm to take their first actual look upon the horrid visage of war, under their renowned professor, formed a strong contrast with the war-worn and nonchalant veterans who composed the army."* (* Dabney volume 2 page 65.)

Eighteen miles west of Staunton a Federal picket was overrun, and in the pass leading to the Shenandoah Mountain Johnson captured a camp that had just been abandoned.  The Federal rear-guard fired a few shells, and the Confederates went into bivouac.  Johnson had marched fourteen and Jackson twenty miles.

That night Milroy concentrated his whole brigade of 3700 men at M’Dowell, a little village at the foot of the Bull Pasture Mountain, and sent back in haste for reinforcements.  Fremont’s command was much strung out.  When Milroy had moved from Cheat Mountain through Monterey, twelve miles west of M’Dowell,* (* See ante, pages 185, 269, 275.) the remainder of the army had started up the South Branch Valley to reinforce him.  But snowstorms and heavy rains had much delayed the march, and Schenck’s brigade had not advanced beyond Franklin, thirty-four miles north of M’Dowell.  Fremont himself, with a couple of battalions, was approaching Petersburg, thirty-five miles from Franklin; and Blenker’s division, still further to the rear, had not yet quitted Romney.

May 8.

“On the following morning,” to quote from Jackson’s report, “the march was resumed, General Johnson’s brigade still in front.  The head of the column was halted near the top of Bull Pasture Mountain, and General Johnson, accompanied by a party of thirty men and several officers, with a view to a reconnaissance of the enemy’s position, ascended Sitlington’s Hill, an isolated spur on the left of the turnpike and commanding a full view of the village of M’Dowell.  From this