76 THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. than the cannonade, and arrived at the critical hour and at the critical pl®. Some persons thought then, and think still that if instead of Sumner alone, all the di visions of the right wing had been ordered to cross the river the order could have been executed. It is easy to see what must have happened, if instead of 15,000, 50,000 men had been thrown upon Johnston’s flank. But Sumner’s bridge, no doubt, would not have sufficed for the passage of such a force. At midnight the rear of liis column was still struggling slowly to cross this rude structure against all the difficulties of a roadway formed of trunks which slipped and rolled under the horses’ feet, of a muddy morass at either end, and of a pitchy dark night rendered darker still by the density of the forest. But several other bridges were ready to be thrown across at other points. Not a moment should have been lost in fixing them, and no regard should have been paid to the efforts of the enemy to prevent this from being done. Johnston had paraded a brigade ostentatiously as a sort of scare-crow at the points which were most fitting for this enterprise ; but the stake was so vast, the .esult to be sought after so important, the occasion so unexpected and so favorable for striking a decisive blow, that in our judgment nothing should have prevented the army from attempting this operation at every risk. Here again it paid Hie penalty of that American tardiness which is more marked in the character of the army than in that of its leader. If was not till seven in the evening that the resolution was taken of throwing over all the bridges and passing the whole army over by daybreak to the right bank. It was too late. Four hours had been lost, and the opportunity, that moment which is ever more fugitive in war than in any other occupation of life, had taken wing. The flood on which Johnston had vainly count J and which bad not interfered with the passage ol Sumner, came, on in the night. The river suddenly rose two feet and continued to rise very rapidly, carrying away
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