He remembered Colonel Winchester's words earlier in the day, and, as the
darkness came, he began to wonder what Lee and Jackson were thinking.
He believed that two such redoubtable commanders must have formed a
plan by this time, and, perhaps in the end, it would be worth a hundred
thousand men to know it. But he could only stare into the darkness and
guess and guess. And one guess was as good as another.
The night seemed portentous to him. It was full of sinister omens.
He strove to pierce the darkness on the other shore with his eyes,
and see what was going on there, but he distinguished only a black
background and the dim light of fires.
Dick was not wrong. The Confederate commanders did have a plan and the
omens which seemed sinister to him were sinister in fact. Jackson with
his forces was marching up his side of the Rappahannock and the great
brain under the old slouch hat was working hard.
When Lee and Jackson found that the Union army on the Rapidan had slipped
away from them they felt that they had wasted a great opportunity to
strike the retreating force before it reached the Rappahannock, and that,
as they followed, the situation of the Confederacy would become most
critical.
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