t do what he
thinks best.' Soon after this he slept."

So, leaving behind him, struggling vainly against the oppression of
his mortal hurt, the one man who could have completed the Confederate
victory, Pendleton rode wearily through the night. Jackson's fall, at
so critical a moment, just as the final blow was to be delivered, had
proved a terrible disaster. Hill, who alone knew his intention of
moving to the White House, had been wounded by a fragment of shell as
he rode back to lead his troops. Boswell, who had been ordered to
point out the road, had been killed by the same volley which struck
down his chief, and the subordinate generals, without instructions
and without guides, with their men in disorder, and the enemy's
artillery playing fiercely on the forest, had hesitated to advance.
Hill, remaining in a litter near the line of battle, had sent for
Stuart. The cavalry commander, however, was at some distance from the
field. Late in the evening, finding it impossible to employ his
command at the front, he had been detached by Jackson, a regiment of
infantry supporting him, to take and hold Ely's Ford. He had already
arrived within view of a Federal camp established at that point, and
was preparing to charge the enemy, under cover of the night, when
Hill's messenger recalled him.

When Stuart reached the front he found the troops still halted, Rodes
and Colston reforming on the open fields near Dowdall's Tavern, the
Light Division deployed within the forest, and the generals anxious
for their own security.

So far the attack had been completely successful, but Lee's lack of
strength prevented the full accomplishment of his design. Had
Longstreet been present, with Pickett and Hood to lead his splendid
infantry, the Third Corps and the Twelfth would have been so hardly
pressed that Chancellorsville, Hazel Grove, and the White House would
have fallen an easy prize to Jackson's bayonets. Anderson, with four
small brigades, was powerless to hold the force confronting him, and
marching rapidly northwards, Sickles had reached Hazel Grove before
Jackson fell. Here Pleasonton, with his batteries, was still in
position, and Hooker had not yet lost his head. As soon as Birney's
and Whipple's divisions had come up, forming in columns of brigades
behind the guns, Sickles was ordered to assail the enemy's right
flank and check his advance. Just before midnight the attack was
made, in two lines of battle, supported by strong