had implicit confidence in their leaders, and their morale was high.  They had not yet tasted defeat.  Whenever they had met the enemy he had abandoned the field of battle.  With such troops much might be risked, and if the staff was not yet thoroughly trained, the district in which they were now operating was far less intricate than the Peninsula.  As the troops marched westward from Richmond, with their faces towards their own mountains, the country grew more open, the horizon larger, and the breezes purer.  The dark forests disappeared.  The clear streams, running swiftly over rocky beds, were a welcome change from the swamps of the Chickahominy.  North of Gordonsville the spurs of the Blue Ridge, breaking up into long chains of isolated hills, towered high above the sunlit plains.  The rude tracks of the Peninsula, winding through the woods, gave place to broad and well-trodden highways.  Nor did the marches now depend upon the guidance of some casual rustic or terrified negro.  There were many in the Confederate ranks who were familiar with the country; and the quick pencil of Captain Hotchkiss, Jackson’s trusted engineer, who had rejoined from the Valley, was once more at his disposal.  Information, moreover, was not hard to come by.  The country was far more thickly populated than the region about Richmond, and, notwithstanding Pope’s harsh measures, he was unable to prevent the people communicating with their own army.  If the men had been unwilling to take the risk, the women were quite ready to emulate the heroines of the Valley, and the conduct of the Federal marauders had served only to inflame their patriotism.  Under such circumstances Jackson’s task was relieved of half its difficulties.  He was almost as much at home as on the Shenandoah, and although there were no Massanuttons to screen his movements, the hills to the north, insignificant as they might be when compared with the great mountains which divide the Valley, might still be turned to useful purpose.

August 7.

On August 7, starting late in the afternoon, the Confederates marched eight miles by a country track, and halted at Orange Court House.  Culpeper was still twenty miles distant, and two rivers, the Rapidan and Robertson, barred the road.  The Robertson was held by 5000 or 6000 Federal cavalry; five regiments, under General Buford, were near Madison Court House; four, under General Bayard, near Rapidan Station.  East of the railway two more regiments held Raccoon Ford; others watched the Rappahannock as far as Fredericksburg, and on Thoroughfare Mountain, ten miles south-west of Culpeper, and commanding a view of the surrounding country as far as Orange Court House, was a signal station.

August 8.

Early on the 8th, Ewell’s division crossed the Rapidan at Liberty Mills, while the other divisions were ordered to make the passage at Barnett’s Ford, six miles below.  A forced march should have carried the Confederates to within striking distance of Culpeper, and a forced march was almost imperative.  The cavalry had been in contact; the advance must already have been reported to Pope, and within twenty-four hours the whole of the Federal army, with the exception of the division at Fredericksburg, might easily be concentrated in a strong position.