the troops which had issued from the forest, but the whole Confederate line was shaken.  The normal, though less brilliant, course would have been to have re-established the front, and not till that had been done to have ventured on the counter-stroke.  Jackson, with that quick intuition which is possessed by few, saw and seized his opportunity while the Federals were still pressing the attack.  One of Hill’s brigades was sent to support the centre, and, almost in the same breath, six others, a mass of 7000 or 8000 men, were ordered to attack the enemy’s right, to outflank it, and to roll back his whole line upon Ewell, who was instructed at the same moment to outflank the left.  Notwithstanding some delay in execution, Ewell’s inability to advance, and the charge of the Federal cavalry, this vigorous blow changed the whole aspect of the battle within a short half-hour.  Conceived in a moment, in the midst of wild excitement and fierce tumult, delivered with all the strength available, it cannot be judged otherwise than as the mark of a great captain.  Few battles, indeed, bear the impress of a single personality more clearly than Cedar Run.  From the first cannon-shot of the advanced guard until the last volley in the midnight forest, one will directed every movement.  The field was no small one.  The fight was full of startling changes.  It was no methodical conflict, but a fierce struggle at close quarters, the lines swaying to and fro, and the ground covered with confused masses of men and guns, with flying batteries and broken regiments.  But the turmoil of battle found a master.  The strong brain was never clearer than when the storm raged most fiercely.  Wherever his presence was most needed there Jackson was seen, rallying the fugitives, reinforcing the centre, directing the counterstroke, and leading the pursuit.  And he was well supported.  His subordinate generals carried out their orders to the letter.  But every order which bore upon the issue of the battle came from the lips of one man.

If Northern writers have overlooked the skill with which Jackson controlled the fight, they have at the same time misunderstood his action two days later.  His retreat to Gordonsville has been represented as a flight.  He is said to have abandoned many wounded and stragglers, and to have barely saved his baggage.  In all this there is not one word of truth.  We have, indeed, the report of the Federal officer who conducted the pursuit.  “The flight of the enemy after Saturday’s fight was most precipitate and in great confusion.  His old camp was strewn with dead men, horses, and arms...A good many (Federal) prisoners, wounded in Saturday’s fight, were found almost abandoned.  Major Andrews, chief of artillery to General Jackson, was found, badly wounded, at Crooked Run, in charge of an assistant surgeon.”  It is hardly necessary to say that General Buford, the officer thus reporting, had not been present at the battle.  He had been out off with his four regiments by the advance of the