11 A.M.

About 11 A.M. a battery was ordered into action on the Hazel Grove heights.

12.15 P.M.

The fire caused some confusion in the Confederate ranks; the trains were forced on to another road; and shortly after noon, General Sickles, commanding the Third Army Corps, was permitted by Hooker to advance upon Catherine Furnace and to develop the situation.  Birney’s division moved forward, and Whipple’s soon followed.  This attack, which threatened to cut the Confederate army in two, was so vigorously opposed by Anderson’s division astride the plank road and by the 23rd Georgia at the Furnace, that General Sickles was constrained to call for reinforcements.  Barlow’s brigade, which had hitherto formed the reserve of the Eleventh Corps, holding the extreme right of the Federal line, the flank at which Jackson was aiming, was sent to his assistance.  Pleasonton’s cavalry brigade followed.  Sickles’ movement, even before the fresh troops arrived, had met with some success.  The 23rd Georgia, driven back to the unfinished railroad and surrounded, lost 300 officers and men.  But word had been sent to Jackson’s column, and Colonel Brown’s artillery battalion, together with the brigades of Archer and Thomas, rapidly retracing their steps, checked the advance in front, while Anderson, manoeuvring his troops with vigour, struck heavily against the flank.  Jackson’s train, thus effectively protected, passed the dangerous point in safety, and then Archer and Thomas, leaving Anderson to deal with Sickles, drew off and pursued their march.

These operations, conducted for the most part in blind thickets, consumed much time, and Jackson was already far in advance.  Moving in a south-westerly direction, he had struck the Brook road, a narrow track which runs nearly due north, and crosses both the plank road and the pike at a point about two miles west of the Federal right flank.  The Brock road, which, had Stoneman’s three divisions of cavalry been present with the Federal army, would have been strongly held, was absolutely free and unobstructed.  Since the previous evening Fitzhugh Lee’s patrols had remained in close touch with the enemy’s outposts, and no attempt had been made to drive them in.  So with no further obstacle than the heat the Second Army Corps pressed on.  Away to the right, echoing faintly through the Wilderness, came the sound of cannon and the roll of musketry; couriers from the rear, galloping at top speed, reported that the trains had been attacked, that the rear brigades had turned back to save them, and that the enemy, in heavy strength, had already filled the gap which divided the Confederate wings.  But, though the army was cut in two, Jackson cast no look behind him.  The battle at the Furnace made no more impression on him than if it was being waged on the Mississippi.  He had his orders to execute; and above all, he was moving at his best speed towards the enemy’s weak point.  He knew—­and none better—­that Hooker