Hooker did not see his "opening;" but Lincoln did. One of his
dispatches has been quoted--here is another as amusing and as
judicious.
"If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg," Lincoln wrote Hooker,
"and the tail of it on the Plank road, between Fredericksburg and
Chancellorsville, _the animal must be very slim somewhere--could you
not break him?_"
But Hooker could not. He did not even try. Lee's movements seemed to
paralyze him--his chief of staff wrote:--
"We cannot go boggling round, until we know what we are going after."
"Boggling round" exactly described the movements of Hooker. He was
still in a grand fog, and knew nothing of his adversary's intent, when
a terrific cry arose among the well-to-do farmers of Pennsylvania. The
wolf had appeared in the fold. Ewell was rapidly advancing upon
Harrisburg.
Behind came the veteran corps of Hill and Longstreet. The gorges of the
Blue Ridge were alive with bristling bayonets. Then the waters of the
Potomac splashed around the waists of the infantry and the wheels of
the artillery carriages. Soon the fields of Maryland and Pennsylvania
were alive with "rebels," come, doubtless, to avenge the outrages of
Pope and Milroy. Throughout those commonwealths--through Philadelphia,
New York, and Boston--rang the cry, "Lee is coming!"
To return to the cavalry.
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