While Early was engaged in considering this plan, he sent Gordon, accompanied by Major Hotchkiss of the engineers, to the signal station on the crest of Three Top Mountain to examine the position of the Union army and to study the details of the proposed movement. From this height these officers looked down upon the country about Cedar Creek as upon an amphitheatre and saw the Union camps as in a panorama. Every feature was in plain view; they counted the tents; they noted the dispositions for attack; they made out the exact situation of the various headquarters; and casting careful glances into the shadowy depths of the Shenandoah, winding about the foot of the mountain far below them, they perceived that the flank of Three Top afforded a footing for the passage of the infantry at least. Upon this information Early was not long in deciding upon his course. Under cover of the night he would send the divisions of Gordon, Ramseur, and Pegram,(4) all under the command of Gordon, over the Shenandoah near Fisher's Hill, across the ox-bow, to the foot of Three Top. Thence picking his way over the foot of the mountain, Gordon in two columns was to cross the river a second time at McInturff's Ford, just below the mouth of Cedar Creek and at Bowman's Ford, several hundred yards below. There he would find himself on the flank and in easy reach of the rear of Crook, and indeed of the whole Union army, with nothing but a thin line of pickets to hinder the rush. While Gordon was thus stealthily creeping into position for his spring, Early meant to take Kershaw and Wharton upon the valley road and quietly to gain a good position for assailing Crook and Emory in front, as soon as the rifles of Gordon should be heard toward the rear. Rosser was to drive in the cavalry on the right of the Union army, while Lomax, from the Luray, was expected to gain the valley road somewhere near Newtown, so as to cut off the retreat. Everything that could jingle or rattle was to be left behind, and the march was to be made in dead silence, while, as the rumble of the guns would be sure to reveal the movement, the whole of the artillery was massed at Strasburg, all ready to gallop to the front as soon as the battle should begin. A closer study of the trail showed Gordon that it would be possible, however difficult and risky, for dismounted troopers to lead their horses over the path already marked out for his infantry. Accordingly the cavalry brigade of Payne was added to Gordon's column, and after surprising and making good the passage of the fords, the first duty of these horsemen was to ride straight to Belle Grove House and capture Sheridan. Early supposed Sheridan to be still present in command.