The words of the Northern officers had made him understand what he already suspected.

The whole fate of the Confederacy would waver in the balance on the morrow.

If Jackson were surrounded and overpowered, the South would lose its right arm.

Then the armies that engulfed him would join McClellan and pour forward in an overwhelming host on Richmond.
Their hoofbeats rang in a steady beat on the road, as they went forward on that long easy gallop which made the miles drop swiftly behind them.
The skies brightened, and the great stars danced in a solid sheet of blue.

They were in the gently rolling country, and occasionally they passed a farmhouse.