Ewell looked at him with his bright round eyes, bobbed his head and
swore. "By God! General Taylor! I do not know whether we are to march
north, south, east, or west, or to march at all!" There was shouting
down the line. "Either Old Jack or a rabbit!" Five minutes, and Jackson
came by. "You will march south, General Ewell."

The three brigades of Whiting, Hood, and Lawton, having, like the King
of France, though not with thirty thousand men, marched up the hill and
down again, found at Staunton lines of beautifully shabby Virginia
Central cars, the faithful, rickety engines, the faithful, overworked,
thin-faced railroad men, and a sealed order from General Jackson. "_Take
the cars and go to Gordonsville. Go at once._" The reinforcements from
Lee left the Valley of Virginia without having laid eyes upon the army
they were supposed to strengthen. They had heard its bugles over the
hilltops--that was all.

The Army of the Valley marched south, and at Waynesboro struck the road
through Rockfish Gap. Moving east through magnificent scenery, it passed
the wall of the Blue Ridge and left for a time the Valley of Virginia.
Cavalry went before the main body, cavalry guarded the rear, far out on
the northern flank rode Munford's troopers. At night picket duty proved
heavy. In the morning, before the bivouacs were left, the troops were
ordered to have no conversation with chance-met people upon the road.
"If anybody asks you questions, you are to answer, I don't know." The
troops went on through lovely country, through the June weather, and
they did not know whither they were going. "Wandering in the
wilderness!" said the men. "Good Lord! they wandered in the wilderness
for forty years!" "Oh, that was Moses! Old Jack'll double-quick us
through on half-rations in three days!"

The morning of the nineteenth found the army bivouacked near
Charlottesville. An impression prevailed--Heaven knows how or why--that
Banks had also crossed the Blue Ridge, and that the army was about to
move to meet him in Madison County. In reality, it moved to
Gordonsville. Here it found Whiting, Hood, and Lawton come in by train
from Staunton. Now they fraternized, and now the army numbered
twenty-two thousand men. At Gordonsville some hours were spent in
wondering. One of the chaplains was, however, content. The Presbyterian
pastor of the place told him in deep confidence that he had gathered at
headquarters that at early dawn the army would move to