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choice offered to General Lee now was, to leave the favorable ground which he had chosen, and taking the aggressive, to dislodge them at a great cost: or else to await their attack, with the prospect of turning their retreat into a disaster if they attempted to cross Bull Run in his immediate front and retire without fighting.
He well knew that Pope would scarcely be so rash as to attempt the latter expedient; for the two armies were now at such close quarters, that there was no room for either to turn away without a deadly side blow from the other; and the Federal commander had been so obliging, as to manoeuvre himself into a position which had the stream immediately in its rear, with two practicable crossings for artillery, of which one was a stone arch which a few well directed round shot might have dismantled.
General Lee, therefore, calmly awaited the final strugple, standing on the defensive in his previous lines.
These formed a vast, obtuse fourchette, presenting its concavity toward the enemy.
The left of Longstreet did not touch the right of Jackson at the angle; but a space of half a mile between the two was occupied by an elevated ridge, which commanded the fonts of both wings.
This hill was now crowned with the artillery battalions of Shumaker of Jackson's corps, and S. D. Lee of Longstreet's, making an aggregate of thirty-six pieces.
From this arrangement it resulted, first, that the troops of Pope, operating within the jaws of the Confederate army, would naturally become more densely massed than their opponents, and would thus afford a more certain mark for their accurate fire; which no force on earth could ever face in close order, without murderous loss.
The second result was, that the superior momentum of the Federal masses must yet result only in a bloody failure, when hurled against either wing of the Confederates, because they could be enfiladed from the other wing.
By these dispositions, the battle was decided before it was fought.
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