erate divisions had disappeared into the darkness. The torch
had already been set to the captured stores; warehouses, trains,
camps, and hospitals were burning fiercely, and the dark figures of
Stuart's troopers, still urging on the work, passed to and fro amid
the flames. Of the value of property destroyed it is difficult to
arrive at an estimate. Jackson, in his official report, enumerates
the various items with an unction which he must have inherited from
some moss-trooping ancestor. Yet the actual quantity mattered little,
for the stores could be readily replaced. But the effect of their
destruction on the Federal operations was for the time being
overwhelming. And of this destruction Pope himself was a witness. The
fight with Ewell had just ceased, and the troops were going into
bivouac, when the Commander-in-Chief, anxious to ascertain with his
own eyes the extent of the danger to which he was exposed, reached
Bristoe Station. There, while the explosion of the piles of shells
resembled the noise of a great battle, from the ridge above Broad Run
he saw the sky to the north-east lurid with the blaze of a vast
conflagration; and there he learned for the first time that it was no
mere raid of cavalry, but Stonewall Jackson, with his whole army
corps, who stood between himself and Washington.

For the best part of three days the Union general had been completely
mystified. Jackson had left Jefferson on the 25th. But although his
march had been seen by the Federal signaller on the hills near
Waterloo Bridge,* (* Five messages were sent in between 8.45 A.M. and
11 A.M., but evidently reached headquarters much later. O.R. volume
12 part 3 pages 654-5.) and the exact strength of his force had been
reported, his destination had been unsuspected. When the column was
last seen it was moving northward from Orleans, but the darkness had
covered it, and the measure of prolonging the march to midnight bore
good fruit. For the best part of two days Jackson had vanished from
his enemy's view, to be found by Pope himself at Manassas Junction.*
(* There is a curious undated report on page 671, O.R. volume 12 part
3 from Colonel Duffie, a French officer in the Federal service, which
speaks of a column passing through Thoroughfare Gap; but, although
the compilers of the Records have placed it under the date August 26,
it seems evident, as this officer (see page 670) was at Rappahannock
Station on the 26th and 27th (O.R. volume 12 part.