e front
and directed to open on the enemy. They were evidently taken by
surprise, and retired in the utmost confusion [?]. Seeing this,
General Heth was directed to advance his line until he reached the
run, and then to move by the left flank, cross at the ford, and
press the enemy. This order was being promptly obeyed, when I
perceived the enemy's skirmishers making their appearance on this
side of Broad Run, and on the right and rear of Heth's division.
Word was sent to General Cooke, commanding the right brigade of
Heth's division, to look out for his right flank, and he promptly
changed front of one of his regiments and drove the enemy back. . . .
In the meantime I sent back General Anderson to send McIntosh's
battalion to the front, and to take two brigades to the position
threatened and protect the right flank of Heth. . . . The three
brigades advanced in beautiful order and quite steadily, Cooke's
brigade, upon reaching the crest of the hill in their front, came
within full view of the enemy's line of battle behind the railroad
embankment (the Second Corps), and of whose presence I was unaware."( 3)

Hill was unexpectedly caught in a fatal trap. He was mistaken
about seeing any considerable portion of the Third Corps north of
Broad Run, or as to any of it being taken by surprise and retiring
in confusion. But for my halting my command to rest he would have
seen little of it. We had baffled the head of his column all day,
and had passed beyond danger for the time, and, according to his
report, we had killed and wounded many more than we had lost. The
stragglers he reported captured could not have been of my command,
as it left no men behind.

The fortuitous circumstance of Warren arriving at Bristoe with the
head of the Second Corps moving on a road paralleling the railroad,
just at the moment Hill was deploying his forces for an attack on
the Third Corps, led to a serious and bloody battle. When the rear-
guard of the Third Corps passed Bristoe Station, no part of the
Second was in sight. I saw no part of it until after Hill commenced
arraying his troops on the crest of the hills south of Broad Run.
Seeing a battle was on, and my own command too far on its way and
too much exhausted to be recalled in time to participate in it, I
dismounted from a tired horse and, with a single staff officer,
ate a lunch from my orderly's haversack ( 4) and watched the progress
of the engagement. It is a rare occurren