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Buck Hill
Hours after his war council had agreed with his plans for a
big attack on Lee’s left flank nothing had happened. In fact, Pope was now
further from launching the attack than he had been before. The first of the
negative reports from the 9:00 hour that he had received had been Kearny’s,
which had alarmed him a great deal. “I should say,” Kearny had written, “That
the enemy all along have intended to force us by our right, and they have the
ground to do it.”
This note had spurred him to send his staff officer to
Ricketts asking for a reconnaissance. While the staffer was gone, Stevens had
arrived in person to plead his case and Pope had recommended he reconnoiter as
well. He hadn’t been gone long when the staffer returned from Ricketts and
repeated the skeptical picture he had gathered, then asked if Ricketts should
send another wave anyway. “No dammit,” Pope muttered through his cigar, “let
him go.”
McDowell had been omnipresent at headquarters since finding
his way back to the army, but he provided little help to Pope. When Stevens’
report came back, followed by more bleak news from Reynolds, he simply agreed
that the situation was difficult. Nothing happened at headquarters, as the two
men talked in circles trying to reason what to do.
Towards the end of the hour, Heintzelman arrived from seeing
to Hooker’s men (Kearny continued to freelance) and joined in the conversation.
Neither man seemed willing to direct the suddenly indecisive Pope, but both became
increasingly impatient as mid-day approached. Finally, McDowell offered himself
and Heintzelman as scouts, volunteering to go forward personally and scout out
where the Confederates were.
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