ond, through Bowling Green, threatened by
Sedgwick, was retreating on Gordonsville.

11 A.M.

About 11 A.M. a battery was ordered into action on the Hazel Grove
heights.

12.15 P.M.

The fire caused some confusion in the Confederate ranks; the trains
were forced on to another road; and shortly after noon, General
Sickles, commanding the Third Army Corps, was permitted by Hooker to
advance upon Catherine Furnace and to develop the situation. Birney's
division moved forward, and Whipple's soon followed. This attack,
which threatened to cut the Confederate army in two, was so
vigorously opposed by Anderson's division astride the plank road and
by the 23rd Georgia at the Furnace, that General Sickles was
constrained to call for reinforcements. Barlow's brigade, which had
hitherto formed the reserve of the Eleventh Corps, holding the
extreme right of the Federal line, the flank at which Jackson was
aiming, was sent to his assistance. Pleasonton's cavalry brigade
followed. Sickles' movement, even before the fresh troops arrived,
had met with some success. The 23rd Georgia, driven back to the
unfinished railroad and surrounded, lost 300 officers and men. But
word had been sent to Jackson's column, and Colonel Brown's artillery
battalion, together with the brigades of Archer and Thomas, rapidly
retracing their steps, checked the advance in front, while Anderson,
manoeuvring his troops with vigour, struck heavily against the flank.
Jackson's train, thus effectively protected, passed the dangerous
point in safety, and then Archer and Thomas, leaving Anderson to deal
with Sickles, drew off and pursued their march.

These operations, conducted for the most part in blind thickets,
consumed much time, and Jackson was already far in advance. Moving in
a south-westerly direction, he had struck the Brook road, a narrow
track which runs nearly due north, and crosses both the plank road
and the pike at a point about two miles west of the Federal right
flank. The Brock road, which, had Stoneman's three divisions of
cavalry been present with the Federal army, would have been strongly
held, was absolutely free and unobstructed. Since the previous
evening Fitzhugh Lee's patrols had remained in close touch with the
enemy's outposts, and no attempt had been made to drive them in. So
with no further obstacle than the heat the Second Army Corps pressed
on. Away to the right, echoing faintly through the Wilderness, came
the sound of cannon