Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/74

70 Run was a stream heading near Dowdall's tavern and running due north, but it was alleged that the saw mill was not locatable. Slocum and Howard are both said to have protested vigorously against a further refusal of the right wing, holding that the forest was impenetrable to troops, except by the roads, and it was consequently decided not to change their positions, but to strengthen them with breastworks and abatis.

Had General Lee chosen to remain behind his works and await an attack, it is difficult to speculate as to what would have been the outcome. But Lee believed that this was one of the occasions, "when the best defense is to attack." The question was where and how. His first inclination was to assault Hooker's left, which as we have seen swung off to the river, and covered the United States ford. To have commanded that ford would have meant Hooker's destruction, and General Jackson had that in mind when he was making his attack upon the other flank. But an examination of the ground by Lee's engineers pronounced an attack upon Meade's front impracticable, and the alternative was an attack at some other point.

It must have been an anxious hour when Lee and Jackson consulted over the situation. The story is now familiar of Fitz Lee's announcement that Hooker's right was unprotected by cavalry, and that the extremity of Howard's line "hung in the air." It came as an illumination. Maps were sought for, and the subject of roads eagerly investigated. Happily it was discovered that from Welford's Furnace, where Wright had been engaged during the afternoon, a narrow woods road recently opened led through the forest by a circuitous route to the Brock road, which in turn communicated with the plank and turnpike roads at a point beyond and west of Howard's right. It was midnight when the plans of Lee and Jackson were concluded, and it was determined the latter should lead the flanking column, while Lee would hold the front. When Lee asked Jackson what force he would require, the latter is said to have replied, he must have all of his three divisions, and when Lee said, "What will that leave to me," Jackson replied by pointing to McLaws and Anderson, to which Lee generously assented. The three