A Fire in the Wilderness by John Reeves

Author:John Reeves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2021-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

TEN Robert E. Lee’s Enticing Opportunity

With Hancock’s troops fleeing to their Brock Road fortifications at midday, James Longstreet intended to capitalize on the enemy’s disorganization. He led a column of Rebel soldiers, who were moving easterly along the Orange Plank Road, in pursuit of the retreating Federals. Riding with him were his staff, orderlies, Brigadier General Joseph Kershaw, and Brigadier General Micah Jenkins. Schaff described Jenkins, who commanded a brigade in Longstreet’s First Corps, as “a sensitive, enthusiastic South Carolinian” and a “humble Christian.”1

When Lieutenant Colonel Moxley Sorrel, who had led the flanking movement that rolled up Hancock’s men moments earlier, met Longstreet’s party on the Plank Road, Jenkins threw his arm around his shoulder, and said, “Sorrel, it was splendid, we shall smash them now.”2 As the officers quickly congratulated themselves on the remarkable success of their attack, Jenkins told Longstreet, “I am happy; I have felt despair of the cause for some months, but am relieved, and feel assured that we will put the enemy back across the Rapidan before night.”3

As the party continued riding, Longstreet discussed his plan with the officers for following up on their stunning accomplishment. Jenkins’s and Kershaw’s men would attempt to break Hancock’s lines at Brock Road, while another force in the woods would attempt to swing around Hancock’s extreme left. “The order to me,” Kershaw wrote, “was to break their line and push all to the right of the road toward Fredericksburg. Jenkins’s brigade was put in motion by a flank in the plank road, my division in the woods to the right.”4

The men appeared exuberant and optimistic. They sensed they were about to win a stunning victory. The esteemed biographer of Robert E. Lee, Douglas Southall Freeman, wrote, “Longstreet believed that Grant’s army could be hurled back, a broken and confused mass, against the fords of the Rapidan. A triumph, Longstreet thought, akin to that which might have been won the previous year, if Jackson had not fallen, was now awaiting the army. A tragic morning was trending to a glorious noon!”5 While the officers finalized the plans, Longstreet’s aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Andrew Dunn, expressed concern that the First Corps commander was exposing himself to enemy fire. Longstreet replied, “That is our business.”6

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