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The Federal general's designs were well conceived.
He proposed to march three of his corps up the Rappahannock twenty-seven miles, cross them at Kelly's Ford, add to them one corps which should cross below at United States Ford, and with these four corps make a great turning column, which should move down on Lee's left rear, while the remaining three corps, constituting his left wing, should cross à la Burnside in Lee's front at Fredericksburg, hold him steady by the menace of a direct attack, and when he was manoeuvred out of his intrenchments, pursue him. In order to make the blow more effective, Stoneman was directed to make a wide detour well around the Southern left and rear, throw ten thousand sabers between Lee and Richmond, breaking up his communications, stopping his supplies, and be in a position to obstruct the Confederate retreat until Hooker could deliver a final blow.
The Union cavalry were put in motion as early as the 13th of April to cross the upper fords of the Rappahannock.
Mr. Lincoln, who was alive to all that was going on, telegraphed Hooker: “The rain and mud were, of course, to be calculated upon.
General Stoneman is not moving rapidly enough to make the expedition come to anything.
He has now been out three days, two of which were unusually fair weather, and all free from hindrance by his enemy, and yet he is not twenty-five miles from where he started.
To reach his point he has still sixty to go. By arithmetic how many days will it take him to do it?”
The general impatience for a move was prevalent everywhere.
Even the Union General Peck, at Suffolk, hoping to be relieved from Longstreet's presence, wired urging it, to which Hooker replied on April 21st: “You must be patient with me. I must play with these devils before I can spring.”
On the 27th Hooker's turning column of the Eleventh, Twelfth, and Fifth Corps began its march, while two divisions of Couch's Second Corps were sent to United States Ford, between Kelly's and Fredericksburg.
On the night of the 28th and the morning of the 29th the right wing crossed the Rappahannock River, marched under Hooker's immediate command in two columns for the Rapidan, crossing that stream at Germania and
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