On September 7, 1863, the day that the first elements of Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee began to leave Chattanooga, far away in central Virginia other Confederate soldiers were stirring as well. That morning, Georgians of Brig. Gen. Henry L. Benning’s brigade left their camps along the Rappahannock River and marched to Guiney’s Station on the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad. There they boarded trains that would carry them southward to an unknown destination. Benning’s men were not alone. Brig. Gen. Jerome B. Robertson’s Texas Brigade also left their camps near Fredericksburg that morning, taking the road toward Port Royal and ultimately to the same railroad at Milford Station, nine miles south of Guiney’s. Ultimately, the two remaining brigades of Maj. Gen. John B. Hood’s division, those of Brig. Gens. Evander M. Law and George T. Anderson, would follow Benning’s and Robertson’s men. Nor were they the only units of the Army of Northern Virginia with movement orders that day. Couriers also sped to the four brigades of Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws’ division with orders to prepare several days’ rations and be ready to march early next morning. Speculation was rife in the brigades of Brig. Gens. Joseph B. Kershaw, Benjamin G. Humphreys, Goode Bryan, and William T. Wofford, but none knew their destination with certainty. Nevertheless, those generally aware of events transpiring in Tennessee guessed that they were en route to Chattanooga. Certain it was that most of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s First Corps was heading by rail toward a fight.1

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