BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 33 National line, and the open space around Chancellorsville. This disposition of his left wing being made known to Lee during the night, he directed Stuart to incline to the right, while McLaws and Anderson, under Lee's immediate command, should move to the left so as to form a junction of the separated army. Such was the situation of the opposing forces on Sunday morning, the 3d of May, when, at dawn, Stuart advanced to the attack with the whole of Lee's left wing, under cover of artillery, and shouting, when he came in sight of the Nationals, "Charge, and remember Jackson!" He swung around his right, and seizing the elevation which the Eleventh Corps had been driven from on Saturday, he soon had thirty pieces of artillery in position there, and playing with destructive effect upon his antagonist. With a courage bordering on desperation, his men rushed down the road toward Chancellorsville, and charged heavily upon the National line fronting westward, composed of the corps of Sickles and the divisions of Berry and French, the last two supported by the divisions of Whipple and Williams. A severe struggle ensued. The right of the Confederates pressed back the Nationals and seized the commanding position at Hazel Grove, with four pieces of cannon, which were speedily brought to bear upon the Unionists with fearful effect. At the same time Stuart's left and center pressed heavily upon Sickles, who, when his ammunition began to fail, was driven back from the first line of works, and compelled to hold his position for a time with the bayonet. Around Fairview the battle raged furiously. The tide of success ebbed and flowed for more than an hour, while the result was doubtful. Sickles sent to Hooker for re-enforcements and ammunition, but when his messenger reached head-quarters he found the chief almost senseless, having been prostrated by a pillar of the Chancellor House, which had been struck by a cannon ball and thrown violently against him. The command had devolved on Couch (who withdrew head-quarters from the Chancellor House), and an hour -a most precious hour-passed by while the army was practically without a head. Sickles did not receive the needed re-enforcements. Meade was occupied by a force menacing his front. Reynolds was not called into action, and Howard's corps was unavailable. French had gallantly assailed Stuart's left, confused it, and captured several hundred of its men; but he was soon pressed back, and while Stuart was bearing heavily upon Sickles, Lee threw Anderson and McLaws upon Slocum and Meade. McLaws, press DARIUS N. COUCH. ing along the plank road from the direction of Fredericksburg, attacked Meade, when the skirmish line of Hancock's division repulsed him, while Anderson, bearing heavily upon Slocum, succeeded in joining Stuart by a thin line. VOL. III.-81 34 LEE TAKES CHANCELLORSVILLE. Lee's head-quarters were now near Lewis's Creek, southwest of Chancellorsville, from which he issued orders for his united army to make a general advance. Sickles and Slocum were both forced back by an overwhelming pressure. Presently the line gave way, and the division of Hancock, and a portion of Slocum's corps, under General Geary, alone held the point of the line in front of Chancellor's house. These troops gradually fell back, and fought gallantly at the angle of the roads. This line, too, soon began to bend. The Confederates fell furiously upon it, and broke it, and at ten o'clock in the morning, after a struggle for six hours, they took possession of Chancellorsville. The mansion had been beaten into a ghastly ruin by the Confederate artillery. Couch had withdrawn the army to a position. northward of it, where he formed a new line, of V or redan shape, along the roads leading to Elly's and United States Fords, the right resting on the Rapid Anna, the left on the Rappahannock, and the apex at Bullock's house. On this line were the fresh troops of Meade and Reynolds, which had not been called into the severe struggle during the morning. Hooker recovered,. and resumed command at noon. Lee's army was now united, and Hooker's was yet divided, Sedgwick and Gibbon, with an aggregate force of about thirty thousand men, being still near Fredericksburg. Hooker had vainly hoped for the appearance of these on Lee's flank and rear during the early morning struggle, and now they were separated from him by an army elated by victory. Lee, confident that. he might capture or disperse the forces of his antagonist, was about to follow up his triumph by attacking Hooker in his new position, when news came from Fredericksburg which instantly arrested his operations in that direction. Sedgwick was seriously menacing his flank and rear. So early as Saturday morning, Sedgwick had thrown his corps over the Rappahannock, at Franklin's crossing-place, and, after some skirmishing, had lain quietly until near midnight, when he received the order, already mentioned, to join the main army at Chancellorsville. He began the movement at This is a view of the ruins of the Chancellor House (called Chancellor's Villa, or Chancellorsville), as it appeared when the writer sketched it, in June, 1866. 12 THE HEIGHTS OF FREDERICKSBURG CAPTURED. a 35 once. General Warren arrived at two o'clock in the morning to hasten it, but it was daylight before the head of Sedgwick's column entered Fredericksburg. He was soon afterward joined by General Gibbon, of Couch's corps, with about six thousand troops, who had been left at Falmouth, and had crossed on pontoons just below the rapids and ford at that place. a May 3, 1863. General Early, with his own division, and Barksdale's brigade of McLaws's division, were on the heights to oppose Sedgwick. Barksdale occupied a position on Marye's Hill and behind a stone wall at the foot of it, precisely as he had done in December, when Burnside's troops were there repulsed. On the crest were three companies of the Washington artillery, and Early occupied the range to the right of them. They felt quite secure in their advantageous position, and their sense of safety was increased when a portion of Newton's division, sent by Sedgwick to attack Barksdale, was repulsed, and driven back into the town in shattered columns. A flanking movement by General Howe on the left, and General Gibbon on the right, was equally unsuccessful, but not so disastrous, when Sedgwick determined to form powerful assaulting parties, and storm the Confederate works along their entire occupied line. Two storming columns were formed from Newton's division, one of four, and the other of two regiments; and another, of four regiments, under Colonel Burham, of the Sixth Maine, was directed to move up the plank road, and to the right of the others, directly against the rifle-pits at the foot of Marye's Hill. General Howe, with three storming parties under the command, respectively, of General Neil and Colonels Grant and Seaver, was ordered to move simultaneously upon the Confederate works on the left, near Hazel Run. The storming parties moved at near eleven o'clock in the morning. The onset was furious, and was gallantly resisted. Steadily the Nationals moved on, in defiance of a galling fire from artillery and small arms, driving Barksdale from his shelter at the stone wall, scaling Marye's Hill, seizing the riflepits and batteries, and capturing full two hundred prisoners, at the cost to Sedgwick of about a thousand men, the Sixth Maine first planting the National flag upon the captured works in token of triumph. Howe had, at the same time, carried the Confederate works on the left, under a heavy fire of artillery; and in a short time after the movement began, the entire ridge was in possession of the Nationals, Early and his shattered columns were flying southward, and the plank road was opened to Sedgwick from Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville. This was the startling intelligence that reached Lee, just as he was about to attack Hooker in his new position. Sedgwick immediately re-formed his brigades after his victory, and leaving Gibbon at Fredericksburg, marched along the plank road toward Chancellorsville. Lee, at the same time, ventured again to divide his army while in front of his foe, and sent General McLaws with four brigades to meet Sedgwick. Wilcox had already hastened from Banks's Ford, and throwing 1 See page 498, volume II. The column of four regiments, on the right, was commanded by Colonel Spear, of the Sixty-first Pennsylvania, and was composed of his own regiment and the Forty-third New York, supported by the Sixtyseventh New York and Eighty-second Pennsylvania. The left column, of three regiments, was commanded by Colonel Johns, of the Seventh Massachusetts, and was composed of his own regiment and the Thirty-sixth New York 36 BATTLE AT SALEM CHURCH. his little force across the plank road, essayed to delay the progress of the Nationals. He fell back while skirmishing, and finally made a stand at Salem Church, on Salem Heights, toward which both Sedgwick and McLaws had been hastening, and where the latter had already arrived, and was forming a line of battle perpendicular to the road, and getting artillery in position. The church' was filled with Wilcox's SALEM CHURCH. troops, and made a sort of a citadel, and so also was a school-house near by. Sedgwick advanced briskly, and before McLaws could complete his battle-line, the former threw forward Brooks's division, which was moving up the plank road, and on each side of it, the First New Jersey on the right, and the brigade of General Bartlett on the left. Newton's division followed, in support of Brooks's, and Sedgwick's artillery was posted at a toll-gate in the rear. A sanguinary conflict quickly ensued. Bartlett dashed forward, captured the school-house garrison, and, with furious onset, drove the Confederates, and seized the crest of the hill. The triumph and possession was brief. Wilcox soon drove him back, released the school-house prisoners, and seized their custodians, and, with General Semmes, pushed the Nationals. back to Sedgwick's reserves, near the toll-gate, where the well-served batteries of Williston, Rigby, and Parsons, under Colonel Tompkins, checked the pursuers. The conflict had been short, sharp, and sanguinary, and increased Sedgwick's loss in the morning at Fredericksburg to about five thousand men. Wearied and disheartened, the National troops, like their foes, slept on their arms that night, with little expectation of being able to advance in the morning. Hooker, at the same time, seemed paralyzed in his new position. His army was being beaten in detail, and the result of the battle at Salem Church, only seven miles from him, had rendered a junction of Sedgwick with the main army almost impossible. To make that impossibility absolute was now Lee's chief care. 1863. Sedgwick found himself in a very critical situation on Monday morning." Lee, at an early hour, discovered that Hooker's position had "May 4, been much strengthened, and he considered it necessary to drive. Sedgwick across the Rappahannock, if possible, before making another attack on the main body of the Nationals. For this purpose, Early, who had concentrated his forces, changed front, and proceeded to attempt the recapture of the Heights of Fredericksburg; and Anderson's three remaining brigades were sent to re-enforce McLaws, on Sedgwick's front. Hooker, apprised of Sedgwick's peril, desired him not to attack unless the main army should become engaged; to keep open his communications, with a view to the salvation of his army, at all hazards; and not to cross the Rappahannock, if he could avoid it. He was compelled to be governed by circumstances rather than orders. At an early hour in the day he was cut off from Fredericksburg by Early, who had marched swiftly, and, with superior force, had recaptured the heights there. At noon, Anderson arrived with his re-enforcements, and took position on Early's left, by which Sedgwick was inclosed 1 A brick building on the south side of the plank road, about four miles from Fredericksburg. FIELD OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. 37 on three sides. Every moment his position became more perilous. The day wore away with nothing more serious than skirmishing, until about six REGION OF MILITARY OPERATIONS FROM THE 27TH OF APRIL TO THE 6TH OF MAY, 1863. o'clock, when the Confederates made a general attack. Sedgwick's forces, after a short but obstinate defense, gave way, and he retired toward Banks's |