personal baggage and papers of the commander, and got back in safety. These papers informed Lee of Pope's plans and dispositions. Jackson, being thwarted at Sulphur Springs, moved still farther up the south bank of the Rappahannock, crossed the headwaters, and turned Pope's right. He passed through Thoroughfare Gap in the Bull Run Mountains on the 26th, destroyed Bristoe Station on the Orange and Alexandria railroad, and sent out Stuart to Manassas Junction, where prisoners were taken and a large amount of commissary stores fell into his hands. Pope knew exactly the size of Jackson's force, and the direction it had taken in its flank march; for Col. J. S. Clark, of Banks's staff, had spent a day where he had a plain view of the enemy's moving columns, and carefully counted the regiments and batteries. But from this point the National commander, who had hitherto done reasonably well, seemed suddenly to become bewildered. He explains in his report that his force was too small to enable him to extend his right any further without too greatly weakening his line, and says he telegraphed the facts repeatedly to Washington, saying that he could not extend further West without losing his connections with Fredericksburg. He declares he was assured on the 21st, that if he could hold the line of the river two days longer he should be heavily reinforced, but that this promise was not kept, the only troops that were added to his army during the next four days being seven thousand men under Generals Reynolds and Kearny. [Illustration: THE SEAT OF MILITARY OPERATIONS IN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER, 1862.] Lee, whose grand strategy was correct, had here blundered seriously in his manoeuvres, dividing his army so that the two parts were not within supporting distance of each other, and the united enemy was between. An ordinarily good general, standing in Pope's boots, would naturally have fallen in force upon Jackson, and could have completely destroyed or captured him. But Pope out-blundered Lee, and gave the victory to the Confederates.