Finding that it was still open to attack, and that no preparations had been made to receive him, he formed Rodes' and Colston's divisions two hundred yards apart, perpendicular to the plank road, with the road in the centre, and with Hill's division both on the plank road and turnpike as a support to the other two.
Fitz Lee's brigade of cavalry was left on the plank road to menace Howard from that direction.
It will be seen by a glance at the map that his lines overlapped that of the Eleventh Corps for a long distance, both in front and rear.

The first notice our troops had of his approach did not come from our pickets--for their retreat and his advance were almost simultaneous--but from the deer, rabbits, and other wild animals of the forest, driven from their coverts by his advance.

It is always convenient to have a scape-goat in case of disaster, and the German element in the Eleventh Corps have been fiercely censured and their name became a byword for giving way on this occasion.
It is full time justice should be done by calling attention to the position of that corps.

I assert that when a force is not deployed, but is struck suddenly and violently on its flank, resistance in _impracticable_.

Not Napoleon's Old Guard, not the best and bravest troops that ever existed, could hold together in such a case, for the first men assailed are--to use a homely but expressive word-- driven into a _huddle_; and a huddle cannot fight, for it has no front and no organization.