Nov., 1863. |
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| Culpepper Court-House.2 |
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[108]
to and across the Rappahannock to Brandy Station, and the last named place was made a general depot of supplies for the Army of the Potomac.
Meade lay quietly between the Rappahannock and the Rapid Anna until late in the month,
watching for a favorable opportunity to advance on his foe. It might have been more prudent for him to have gone into winter quarters, but the impatience and clamor of the public, because of the seeming unfruitfulness of the whole summer and autumn campaigns since the Battle of Gettysburg, and Meade's own eagerness to act, made him resolve to strike a blow so soon as a wise prudence would allow.
So, when the bridge over the Rappahannock, which he destroyed on his retreat,1 had been rebuilt, and his communication with his supplies and the capital
were full and perfect, he planned a forward movement of great boldness, and proceeded to put it into execution.
The strength of Lee's army was now weakened by expansion over a large surface.
His right, composed of Ewell's corps (was resting on the Rapid Anna at Morton's Ford (leaving all the lower fords of that stream uncovered), and extending to Liberty Mills, west of Orange Court-House; and Hill's corps was distributed in cantonments for winter, along the railway, from a little south of the latter point to Charlottesville, leaving wide gaps between the two corps.
Lee had also constructed, for the defense of his right flank, a line of intrenchments along Mine Run, whose course is perpendicular to the Rapid Anna from Bartley's Run to its mouth, at Morton's Ford.
Meade quickly perceived Lee's weak points, and determined to attempt to turn his right, and, sweeping around toward Orange Court-House, overwhelm Ewell, turn the works' on Mine Run, and, thrusting his army between the two corps of his antagonist, destroy them in detail, and secure an effectual lodgment at Orange and Gordonsville.
This movement would involve the perilous measure of cutting loose from supplies.
Meade took the risk.
Providing his troops with ten days rations, he moved forward at six o'clock
1 See page 103.
2 this is a view of the building which gave name to one of the pleasantest villages in Virginia before the war broke out, and which was made famous by the stirring scenes of that war which occurred in its neighborhood. The old Court-House walls and its whole external structure survived the war, but its interior was destroyed; and when, in October, 1866, the writer visited and sketched it, it was yet a mere shell, and presented the appearance given in the picture.
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