Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 3.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[24] the latter would descend the Rapidan and the Rappahannock on the south side, until it met the enemy, who would thus be caught between two forces, each strong enough to hold him in check. It was a bold plan, but it possessed the inconvenience of not allowing the chief who had conceived it to direct its entire execution in person, as it compelled him to abandon one half of the army in order to follow the other. The plan, however, as will be seen presently, would no doubt have succeeded if the commanding general had not himself deviated from it. It was therefore a good plan, and reflected much credit on Hooker's talents. The latter, unfortunately, aggravated all the dangers by the part he assigned to his numerous cavalry. Instead of employing it in clearing the way for the complicated movements that his infantry was about to execute, and in watching those of the enemy, he sought to make it undertake a separate expedition, the object of which was to destroy Lee's communications with the capital of Virginia at a long distance back of Fredericksburg. Counting upon victory, he was thus taking precautions in order to render it more decisive; he even hoped, as we have observed before, that this expedition would throw sufficient confusion into the commissary department of the Southern army to compel it to beat a retreat before he had made an attack. This blunder deprived him of an indispensable instrument in the operations he was about to execute.

Before putting his army in motion when he found that the return of mild weather would render him once more free in his movements, Hooker tried to put the enemy on the wrong scent by means of certain demonstrations along the Lower Rappahannock. About the 21st of April, Doubleday's division proceeded as far as Port Conway, twenty-one miles below Fredericksburg, and made a feint of preparing to build a bridge; two days later, the 23d, a regiment, the Twenty-fourth Michigan, having actually effected a passage in boats, made its appearance in the village of Port Royal, on the right side of the river. At last, on the 27th of April, Hooker thought the moment had arrived for taking the field. His instructions were given with great clearness. The Eleventh and Twelfth corps, followed at a short distance by the Fifth, formed the right wing, and were directed to proceed at