20. PLACE OF JACKSON'S ATTACK ON HOWARD 21. HOOKER'S NEW LINE OF INTRENCHMENTS 25. MAP-CHANCELLORSVILLE AND VICINITY 27. TAIL-PIECE-A PARROTT PROJECTILE 28. INITIAL LETTER-SEAL OF PENNSYLVANIA 45 72. ABATIS 46 73. PORTRAIT OF G. K. WARREN OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA.-BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.-SIEGE OF SUFFOLK, HILE a portion of the National troops were achieving important victories on the banks of the Lower Mississippi,' those composing the Army of the Potomac were winning an equally important victory," not far a July, 1863. from the banks of the Susquehannah. We left that army in charge of General Joseph Hooker, after sad disasters at Fredericksburg, encamped near the Rappahannock; let us now observe its movements from that time until its triumphs in the conflict at Gettysburg, between the Susquehannah and the Potomac rivers. During three months after General Hooker took command of the army, no active operations were undertaken by either party in the strife, excepting in some cavalry movements, which were few and comparatively feeble. This inaction was caused partly by the wretched condition of the Virginia roads, and partly because of the exhaustion of both armies after a most fatiguing and wasting campaign. The Army of the Potomac, lying at Falmouth, nearly opposite Fredericksburg, when Hooker took the command. was weak and demoralized. Despondency, arising from discouragement on account of recent disasters, and withering homesickness, almost universally prevailed, and desertions averaged two hundred a day. The relatives and friends of the soldiers, at home, were equally despondent, and these, anxious for the return of their loved ones, filled the express trains with packages 1 See the closing chapter of volume II. VOL. III.-80 2 Page 497, volume II. |