The two armies fight a series of…
August 1862 CE
Together, these skirmishes keep the attention of both armies along the river.
Heavy rains have swollen the river and Lee is unable to force a crossing.
Pope considers an attack across the river to strike Lee's right flank, but he is also stymied by the high water.
By this time, reinforcements from the Army of the Potomac are arriving from the Peninsula: Major General Samuel P. Heintzelman's III Corps, Maj. Gen. Fitz-John Porter's V Corps, and elements of the VI Corps under Brigadier General. George W. Taylor.
Lee's new plan in the face of all these additional forces outnumbering him is to send Jackson and Stuart with half of the army on a flanking march to cut Pope's line of communication, the Orange & Alexandria Railroad.
The Hotchkiss journal shows that Jackson, most likely, originally conceived the movement.
In the journal entries for March 4 and 6 1863, General Stuart tells Hotchkiss that "Jackson was entitled to all the credit" for the movement and that Lee thought the proposed movement "very hazardous" and "reluctantly consented" to the movement.
Pope will be forced to retreat and can be defeated while moving and vulnerable.
Jackson departs on August 25 and will reache Salem (present-day Marshall) in the evening.