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We fought a terrific battle here yesterday with the combined forces of the enemy, which lasted with continuous fury from daylight until after dark, by which time the enemy was driven from the field, which we now occupy.
Our troops are too much exhausted to push matters, but I shall do so in the course of the morning, as soon as FITZ-JOHN PORTER's corps come up from Manassas.

The enemy is still in our front, but badly used up.

This is an episode that still puzzles me, as the cognitive dissonance on display is -- well, I suppose it's not unprecedented, as politicians, "journalists," and ideology driven zealots regularly operate in this counterfactual limbo. But it's still puzzling.

The three sentences above are perfect. In the first sentence, Pope reports that "the enemy was driven from the field, which we now occupy." In the third, he acknowledges that "The enemy is still in our front ...." Both cannot be true. As far as I know, Pope was sober when he wrote this. And he knew perfectly well that the Union troops on the 29th had not seized any portion of the confederate line, apart from a momentary melee late in the afternoon, which ended with the federals being thrown back.

Meanwhile Thoroughfare Gap had been forced after a stiff fight as Longstreet moved to the battlefield. Subordinate Union commanders on the Union left on the 29th knew perfectly well that there were a lot of confederates to their front; Longstreet had advanced to contact along the Warrenton Turnpike before pulling back for the night. Also on the 29th, Pope had expected Porter to attack Jackson's right, but Porter never arrived because the confederates in large force were blocking his approach up what is today Wellington Road.

My blank spot is how much of this information made its way to Pope, who had convinced himself that Jackson was retreating. The whole episode reeks of the later experience of XI Corps at Chancellorsville. Jackson's flank movement had been observed from Hazel Grove and a stiff skirmish had been fought around Catherine Furnace. Hooker wanted to believe that the confederates were retreating and interpreted these observations to fit his theory. A few hours later, federal scouts and pickets way out on the right along the Orange Turnpike kept reporting back up the chain of command that the woods to the west were filling up with rebels. Somehow there was a complete disconnect of operational intelligence with the wish fulfillment fantasies entertained at headquarters.

John Pope and Joe Hooker would have made excellent press secretaries for Joe Biden.