The disabling of Hooker could not, indeed, have been foreseen; but such an accident might happen to any commander upon any field; and there should have been somewhere some man with authority to have, within the space of three hours, brought into action some of the more than 30,000 men within sound, and almost within sight, of the battle then raging.

How the hours from Sunday noon till Monday night were wasted has been shown.

Hooker, indeed, reiterates that he could not assail the Confederate lines through the dense forests.

But Lee broke through those very woods on Sunday, and was minded to attempt it again on Wednesday, when he found that the enemy had disappeared.

The golden opportunity was lost, never to be recovered, and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia gained a new lease of life." It may not be out of place, as indicating the kind of service in which we were engaged, to quote the following letter, written after the retreat: "I am so cut, scratched, and bruised that I can hardly hold a pen in my hand.