[760] the railway; the brigade of Jones charges them near the road; Fitzhugh Lee, who has called all his forces together, attacks them on the south. But Pleasonton re-forms his two divisions, shaken for a while, and repelling, right and left, the assaults of Stuart. reaches the hill of Fleetwood, and there firmly waits a new assault. The Confederates do not go after him, and, thanks to the obscurity, he is soon able to reach again, without any trouble, the Rappahannock bridge. During that struggle, Lee, observing that Meade is escaping him, makes his columns converge upon Culpeper; but when the most part of his forces is assembled in the neighborhood of this village the sound of the cannon, getting fainter, informs him that the Army of the Potomac has outstripped him. Despite his wish to follow it, he is obliged to halt all the afternoon at Culpeper to give time to distribute rations to the various corps—a necessary precaution in the exhausted country which he is crossing. It is only on the morning of the 12th that he will be able to order his columns forward, so as to renew the manoeuvre which he has just been performing. He will pass the upper Rappahannock as he has just crossed the Rapidan, and will still endeavor to outflank Meade's right. His objective point is Warrenton: if he reaches it without striking a blow, he will compel his adversary, while leaving the large railroad bridge at Rappahannock Station, either to fall back farther or give that offensive battle which they both seek to avoid.
Meade is in a suitable position to receive him at this time. All his army is stationed behind the Rappahannock, from Kelly's Ford on the south to Freeman's Ford on the north. This last ford is situated near the confluence of Hazel River and Hedgeman's River; the Third corps, which forms the rear-guard, occupies it rather late in the night after having passed the Rappahannock at Beverly Ford. But, through an unhappy inspiration, the Union general loses all the advantages of this situation. The vigor of Stuart's attack on Pleasonton and the clouds of dust which have been observed make him suppose, with reason, that the most part of the enemy's army is assembled at Culpeper. He wishes to be sure of it, believing, wrongly, that they will expect him there the following day; and, not daring to trust
