An aide took me in and I gave him the message.

He did not show any emotion.

Several others were present, some of them staff officers as young as myself.
He turned to them and said, smiling a little: 'Well, I heard firing not long since, and I had concluded that it was about time for some of you young idlers to come and tell me what it was all about.

Go back to General Jackson, Mr.Dalton, and tell him that I send him no orders now.
He knows as well what to do in the face of the enemy as I do.' I brought this message, word for word, just as General Lee delivered it to me, and General Jackson smiled a little, just as General Lee had done.
It's my opinion, Harry, that Lee and Old Jack haven't the slightest fear of the enemy." Harry was convinced of it, too, but he felt also the steadily hardening quality of the Army of the Potomac.

Whatever Hooker might be he was neither dilatory nor afraid.