Withdraw; cover the river, and prevent any force crossing.
Acknowledge receipt.'
"This was immediately done: as the last of the column was crossing,
between three and four o'clock, the orders to cross were countermanded,
and I was directed to hold a position on the south bank. The despatch
was dated 1.20 A.M., and was received at 3.20, as follows:--
"'Yours received, saying you could hold position. Order to withdraw
countermanded. Acknowledge both.'
"In explanation of this I should say that I had telegraphed to Gen. Hooker
that I could hold the position. He received it after he had ordered me
to cross over. But, receiving his despatch to cross, I had commenced
the movement; and, as I have said, I had very nearly taken my force over,
when the order to cross was countermanded. To return at that time was
wholly impracticable, and I telegraphed that fact to Gen. Hooker."
To place in juxtaposition Hooker's testimony and Sedgwick's, in no wise
militates against the latter.
There is one broad criticism which may fairly he passed upon Sedgwick's
withdrawal across the Rappahannock. It is that, with the knowledge that
his remaining in position might be of some assistance to his chief,
instead of exhibiting a perhaps undue anxiety to place himself beyond
danger, he could with his nineteen thousand men, by dint of stubborn
flghting, have held the intrenchments at Banks's Ford, against even Lee
with his twenty-four thousand.
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