without effect upon the movements of the command. And another squadron
crossed sabres with the enemy at Shannon's.

Such prisoners as were captured by any of the parties, were paroled
at the time. A considerable number captured by Stoneman were sent to
Richmond in one party, with word that the Union cavalry was following
close upon them.

To quote Stoneman's own reasons, the six days' rations with which he
left camp, having now been consumed, (though it would seem that there
had been ample opportunity to collect as much more as was necessary
from the stores destroyed); Hooker not having come up as expected; vague
rumors having reached him of the defeat of the Army of the Potomac;
having accomplished, as he deemed, all that he was sent to do; Averell
having been withdrawn, thus leaving Lee ready to attack him,--Stoneman
sent Buford with six hundred and fifty picked men to the vicinity of
Gordonsville, and a small party out the Bowling-Green road, and marched
his main body to Orange Court House.

At noon of the 6th, he assembled his entire command at Orange Springs;
thence marched to Raccoon Ford, and crossed on the 7th.

On the 8th, the command crossed the Rappahannock at Kelly's, having to
swim about twenty yards.

Leaving Buford to guard the river from the railroad to Falmouth, he then
returned to camp.

During the latter part of the time occupied by these movements, the
roads had been in very bad order from the heavy rains of the 5th.

Hotchkiss and Allen say, with reference to this raid: "This failure is
the more surprising from the fact that Gen. Lee had but two regiments of
cavalry, those under W. H. Fitz Lee, to oppose to the large force under
Stoneman, consisting of ten or eleven thousand men. The whole country in
rear of the Confederate Army, up to the very fortifications of Richmond,
was open to the invader. Nearly all the transportation of that army was
collected at Guineas depot, eighteen miles from Chancellorsville, with
little or no guard, and might have been destroyed by one-fourth of
Stoneman's force."

And further:--

"Such was the condition of the railroads and the scarcity of supplies in
the country, that the Confederate commander could never accumulate more
than a few days' rations ahead at Fredericksburg. To have interrupted
his communications for any length of time, would have imperilled his
army, or forced him to retreat."

They also claim that this column seized all the property that