an hour
before noon
It seemed to Harry as they went on through the thickets of the Wilderness that the Union scouts would never discover them , but Northern troops on an open eminence of Hazel Grove had seen a long column moving away through the thickets and made report of it to the Northern generals . But these leaders did not understand it . They had not grasped the great daring of Jackson 's march . They believed that Lee was merely extending his lines , but an hour before noon a battery opened fire from a hill upon the marching Confederate column . Harry and Dalton heard shrapnel whizzing over their heads . After the first involuntary shiver they regained the calm of youthful veterans and rode on in silence . But the fire of the Northern artillery was damaging , even at great range .