during this unlucky gap of time that Lee occupied the ground which
Hooker's cavalry could have seized, and which should have been held at
all hazards.

Nor is this error excusable from ignorance of the terrain. For Hooker
had shown his knowledge of the importance of celerity; and his own
declared plan made Banks's Ford, still a half-dozen miles distant,
his one objective. In his testimony before the Committee on the Conduct
of the War, he thus refers to his plan: "As soon as Couch's divisions
and Sykes's corps came up, I directed an advance for the purpose,
in the first instance, of driving the enemy away from Banks's Ford,
which was six miles down the river, in order that we might be in closer
communication with the left wing of the army." And if the troops had
needed repose, a few hours would have sufficed; and, the succeeding
night being clear moonlight, a forward movement was then entirely
feasible.

Dating from this delay of Thursday, every thing seemed to go wrong.

More curious still is Hooker's conduct on Friday, when his three columns
came into presence of the enemy. What every one would have expected of
Fighting Joe was, that at this supreme moment his energy would have
risen to its highest pitch. It was a slight task to hold the enemy for
a few hours. Before ordering the columns back, Hooker should have gone
in person to Sykes's front. Here he would have shortly ascertained that
Jackson was moving around his right. What easier than to leave a strong
enough force at the edge of the Wilderness, and to move by his left
towards Banks's Ford, where he already had Meade's heavy column?
This would have kept his line of communication with United-States Ford
open, and, while uncovering Banks's Ford, would at the same time turn