[235] following days, 19th and 20th, Hooker's and Franklin's grand divisions reached the Rappahannock, near which the entire Union army was now concentrated.
At the time the army began its march from Warrenton, Longstreet's corps was at Culpepper Courthouse, and Jackson's corps (with the exception of one division that had been transferred to the east side of the Blue Ridge) was still in the Shenandoah Valley. In this situation, nothing can be imagined easier than for Lee, by a simple manoeuvre towards Warrenton, to have quickly recalled Burnside from his march towards Fredericksburg. The line of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad is the real defensive line for Washington; and experience has proved that a hostile force might always, by a mere menace directed against that line, compel the Union army to seek its recovery. General Lee either felt himself to be not in condition to attempt any offensive enterprise at this time, or he was prevented from doing so by instructions from Richmond; for he adopted the less brilliant alternative of planting himself directly in the path of the Union army.1 So soon as Burnside's intention of moving towards Fredericksburg was fully disclosed, Jackson's corps was directed on Orange Courthouse, and Longstreet was instructed to march from Culpepper Courthouse on Fredericksburg, which point his van reached two days after Sumner's arrival at Falmouth. A few days afterwards, Jackson's corps also was called up to the Rappahannock, which Lee assumed as his new defensive line.2
Whatever may have been General Burnside's purpose in this transfer of the army, he could hardly have anticipated the result to which it conducted; for having voluntarily moved away from the hostile force, that much more than any geographical point was the proper objective of his efforts, he
