Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/249

Rh with the locality, sketched for him the topography and the approaches to the Federal position, which were partly concealed by a forest along the eastern bluffs of the river. Generals Jackson and Johnson then rode up into the fields on the undulating top of the mountain, on the left, and from that locality further reconnoitered the ground Milroy had chosen for defense, observing at the same time arrangements for placing a battery on a cleared spur to the northeast of McDowell. Noticing this group of horsemen with but a line of skirmishers to protect them, Milroy sent a flanking party up the mountain side, through the woods on his right, to try andto [sic] capture these officers. Johnson reinforced his skirmishers and after a lively engagement the enemy retired. Concluding from this, and the appearance of things in the Federal camp, that no further attack would be made that day, Jackson gave instructions for the posting of Johnson's brigade in rear of the fields on the summit of the mountain south of the turnpike, and ordered the opening of a road by which artillery could be taken to the same position, expecting to attack the enemy the next morning unless they should attack him in his chosen position. At the same time he desired to await the movements of a flanking column which he had sent around to the left into the Bull Pasture valley, to ascend that valley and fall upon Milroy's right while he attacked in front. With these arrangements made and Johnson's brigade in position for attack or defense, and Taliaferro's and Campbell's brigades near at hand, Jackson sent his staff back to headquarters, at Wilson's on the Cow Pasture, intending himself soon to follow for refreshments and rest. In the meantime Schenck's brigade, which had left Franklin at 11 a. m. of the preceding day, had covered 34 miles in twenty-three hours and reached McDowell at 10 a. m. of the 8th, thus adding some 1,300 infantry, a battery of artillery and about 250 cavalry to Milroy's command, now in charge of the former as the senior in rank.

Informed by his scouts and skirmishers that the Confederate force was increasing and that there were indications of the moving of a flanking party, Milroy, with the approval of Schenck, at about half past three in the afternoon of the 8th, formed and moved forward a line of battle, composed of portions of his own and of Schenck's brigade, across the Bull Pasture and up the