He strove to pierce the darkness on the other shore with his eyes, and see what was going on there, but he distinguished only a black background and the dim light of fires.
Dick was not wrong.

The Confederate commanders did have a plan and the omens which seemed sinister to him were sinister in fact.

Jackson with his forces was marching up his side of the Rappahannock and the great brain under the old slouch hat was working hard.
When Lee and Jackson found that the Union army on the Rapidan had slipped away from them they felt that they had wasted a great opportunity to strike the retreating force before it reached the Rappahannock, and that, as they followed, the situation of the Confederacy would become most critical.

They would leave McClellan and the Army of the Potomac nearer to Richmond, their own capital, than they were.

Nevertheless Lee, full of daring despite his years, followed, and the dangers were growing thicker every hour around Pope.
Dick, with his regiment, moved the next morning up the river.