Jackson meant to pass around his enemy's right, crossing the Bull Run
Mountain at Thoroughfare Gap, then strike the railway in Pope's rear.
Longstreet, one of the heaviest hitters of the South, meanwhile was to
worry Pope incessantly along the line of the Rappahannock, and when
Jackson attacked they were to drive him toward the northeast and away
from McClellan.
The hot August night was one of the most momentous in American history,
and the next few days were to see the Union in greater danger than it
has ever stood either before or since. Perhaps it was not given to the
actors in the drama to know it then, but the retrospect shows it now.
The North had not attained its full fighting strength, and the genius of
the two great Southern commanders was at the zenith, while behind them
stood a group of generals, full of talent and fearless of death.
Jackson had been directly before Sulphur Springs where Dick lay with the
division to which he belonged. But Jackson, under cover of the darkness,
had slipped away and the division of Longstreet had taken its place so
quietly that the Union scouts and spies, including Shepard himself,
did not know the difference.
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