flanking movements are as old as infantry warfare. Bold risk taking is not a tactical maneuver. Without a local farmer showing Lee an unmapped road, Jackson’s devastating flank attack against the XI Corp. might not have happened.
If it had been delayed until the next morning, it would have fallen on empty space. XI Corp had been ordered to withdraw from it’s position and return to Hookers position.
Which, incidentally, was where Jackson drove it.
I know USMA grads and they tell me they study the Civil War and Lee/Jackson in particular. I’ve met German Army Officers and they tell me the same thing. I actually was a tour guide for some of them at the Petersburg battlefield.