XVIII.
HOOKER'S PARRY.
The position of the Army of the Potomac is critical in the extreme.
But several circumstances come to the rescue. It is almost dark.
The rebel lines have become inextricably mixed. Colston, who has
gradually moved up to Rodes's support, is so completely huddled together
with this latter's command, that there is no organization left. Still
Jackson's veterans press on, determined to crush our army beyond
recovery, and drive it from United-States Ford. Stuart has in fact,
at his own suggestion, got orders to move his cavalry division in that
direction, and occupy the road to Ely's. A. P. Hill's division is still
intact in rear of the two leading lines, now shuffled into one quite
unmanageable mass, but still instinctively pushing forward.
So faulty have Hooker's dispositions been, in advancing his entire right
centre without filling the gap, that the only available troops to throw
into the breach, after the rapid destruction of the Eleventh Corps,
are Berry's division of the old Third. These hardened soldiers are
still in reserve on the clearing, north of headquarters.
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