replied that the enemy had a large magazine at Brandy Station, which might easily be captured, and that the intervening district promised an abundance of ripening corn and green apples.  It was decided, however, that such fare, on which, it may be said, the Confederates learned afterwards to subsist for many days in succession, was too meagre for the work in hand.  Jackson, runs the story, groaned so audibly when Lee pronounced in favour of postponement, that Longstreet called the attention of the Commander-in-Chief to his apparent disrespect.

August 18.

Be this as it may, had it been possible to adopt Jackson’s advice, the Federal army would have been caught in the execution of a difficult manoeuvre.  On the morning of the 18th, about the very hour that the advance should have begun, Pope was informed by a spy that the Confederate army was assembled behind Clark’s Mountain and the neighbouring hills; that the artillery horses were harnessed, and that the troops were momentarily expecting orders to cross the river and strike his rear.  He at once made preparations for retreat.  The trains moved off to seek shelter behind the Rappahannock, and the army followed, leaving the cavalry in position, and marching as follows:—­

Reno by Stevensburg to Kelly’s Ford. 
Banks and McDowell by Culpeper Court House and Brandy Station to the
Rappahannock railway bridge. 
Sigel by Rixeyville to Sulphur Springs.

August 19.

The march was slow and halts were frequent.  The long lines of waggons blocked every road, and on the morning of August 19 the troops were still at some distance from the Rappahannock, in neither condition nor formation to resist a resolute attack.

August 20.

The movement, however, was not discovered by the Confederates until it had been more than four-and-twenty hours in progress.  General Lee, on August 19, had taken his stand on Clark’s Mountain, but the weather was unfavourable for observation.  Late in the afternoon the haze lifted, and almost at the same moment the remaining tents of the Federal army, fifteen miles away to the north-west, suddenly vanished from the landscape, and great clouds of dust, rising high above the woods, left it no longer doubtful that Pope had taken the alarm.  It was too late to interfere, and the sun set on an army baffled of its prey.  In the Confederate councils there was some dismay, among the troops much heart-burning.  Every hour that was wasted brought nearer the junction of Pope and McClellan, and the soldiers were well aware that a most promising opportunity, which it was worth while living on green corn and apples to secure, had been allowed to slip.  Nevertheless, the pursuit was prompt.  By the light of the rising moon the advanced guards plunged thigh-deep into the clear waters of the Rapidan, and the whole army crossed by Raccoon and Somerville Fords.  Stuart, with Robertson’s and Fitzhugh Lee’s brigades, pressed forward