On the evening of June 23d, General Lee had evidently decided that it was time to send Stuart, with three brigades, to join Ewell, whether the Federal Army was moving northward or not, and he amended his instructions of the 22d as follows: "If General Hooker's army remains inactive you can leave two brigades to watch him, and withdraw with the three others."
Taking these two orders together we see that Stuart was instructed, on June 23d, to join Ewell with three brigades of cavalry without further delay, and without reference to whether General Hooker was or was hot moving northward.
In his letter of June 23d, after giving General Stuart instructions to move at once to join General Ewell, General Lee further says: "But should he (General Hooker) not appear to be moving northward I think you had better withdraw this side of the mountain to-morrow night (June 24th), to cross at Shepherdstown next day, and move over to Fredericktown."
These were General Lee's final instructions to Stuart, but General Lee then goes on to say: "You will, however, be able to judge whether you can pass around their army without hindrance (italics mine), doing them all the damage you can, and cross the river east of the mountains. In either case, after crossing the river, you must move on and feel the right of Ewell's troops, collecting information, provisions, etc."
If I am right in this construction of General Lee's final instructions to him, General Stuart was going contrary to them when he left Rectortown on the night of June 24th, in his attempt to pass through Hooker's army while it was still inactive.
Neither General Lee nor General Longstreet seem to have contemplated Stuart's passing through Hooker's army while it remained inactive; for they wrote only of his going around in rear of it, as Stuart finally did. Was not this because they were hourly expecting Hooker's arm}' to begin moving northward, closing the gaps between the several corps, which would make an attempt to pass through it abortive and cause the delay which actually occurred? for when Stuart encountered Hancock's Corps at Haymarket, he first moved back to Buckland and then made a wide detour through Fairfax County, which caused serious delay.
