was dark and rainy. At ten o'clock, in the midst of gloom, discomfort, and universal despondency, the humiliating retreat commenced. The hazardous passage was safely effected. A fortunate sudden rise of the river prevented Lee from pursuing. From this short, inglorious, disastrous campaign, our troops returned to their old camping-ground, on the left bank of the Rappahannock.

General Stoneman's cavalry raid was heroically conducted. He destroyed an immense amount of rebel property, and marched almost within sight of the spires of Richmond. The disaster which General Hooker had encountered prevented him from deriving any special advantage from this gallant raid. On the 6th of May, General Hooker issued a proclamation to his troops, closing with the following words :

renown.

"The events of last week may swell with pride the heart of every officer and soldier of this army. We have added new lustre to its former We have made long marches, crossed rivers, surprised the enemy in his intrenchments, and, wherever we have fought, have inflicted heavier blows than we have received. We have taken from the enemy five thousand prisoners; fifteen colors; captured and brought off seven pieces of artillery; placed hors du combat eighteen thousand of his chosen troops; destroyed his dépôts filled with vast amounts of stores; deranged his communications; captured prisoners within the fortifications of his capital, and filled his country with fear and consternation. We have no other regret than that caused by the loss of our brave companions, and in this we are consoled by the conviction that they have fallen in the holiest cause ever submitted to the arbitrament of battle."

Still, notwithstanding the correctness of most of these statements, the battle of Chancellorsville must ever be regarded as a humiliation. We had unquestionably a larger force in the field than the rebels. We had thousands of men and acres of artillery which were not brought into action. At every point of contact the rebels outnumbered us, and drove us across the river. There was never a more decided patriot or a more heroic fighter than General Hooker. The preliminaries of the battle were conducted with consummate military ability. The soldiers fought with all the bravery which ever characterized the Army of the Potomac. The final discomfiture and retreat are inexplicable.

It is difficult to ascertain with accuracy the numbers engaged in this battle. The following estimate has been made:

The Committee on the Conduct of the War thus account for the failure of General Hooker's campaign when in command of the Army of the Potomac :

"It would appear from all the testimony that there were three causes, perhaps four, which contributed much to render this campaign unsuccessful, after it had been so successfully begun. Those causes were, the stampede of the Eleventh Corps, on the 1st of May, by which the enemy were enabled to obtain possession of the ground which commanded the position of the Union army at Chancellorsville; then the injury which General Hooker sustained on the morning of the 3d of May, by which the army was deprived of the direction which was so necessary at that time; then the failure by General Sedgwick to carry out the orders he had received to fall upon the rear of Lee's forces early on the morning of the 3d; and the entire failure of the cavalry, under General Stoneman, to perform the part assigned to it, the severing of Lee's canmunications with Richmond."

The editor of the New York "Times" had such opportunities for obtaining reliable data that his estimate is not improbably the most correct.

The siege of Suffolk, and its gallant defence by Major-General John J. Peck, to which we shall refer in the next chapter, had an important bearing upon the campaign of Chancellorsville. It was one of those noiseless adventures of the war, upon which vast results depended, and was nevertheless nearly lost sight of, in the midst of the multiplicity of more imposing, yet not more heroic, events with which it was surrounded.

Among the many heroic regiments at the battle of Chancellorsville, none suffered more severely or fought more heroically, than the One Hundred and Fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, raised in part through the energy and trained by the skill of Colonel Arthur A. McKnight. It was, with its heroic leader, ever found ready for any needed post of danger.

Colonel McKnight was early cast upon his own exertions by the death of his father. As a son and brother he ministered tenderly to those dependent upon him. In 1861 he raised a company of three-months' men, in Brookville, in his native State, and after their discharge he interested himself deeply in the One Hundred and Fifth Pennsylvania, and was chosen colonel of the regiment. His discipline was strict, perhaps a little stern; but when in battle or review, his soldiers bore testimony by their conduct to the faithful iustructions of their commanding officer. Fair Oaks, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville witnessed their gallantry. At the latter place, Colonel McKnight, while leading his troops, was struck in the arm by a ball, which, passing through it, entered his head, near the left eye, and he was instantly killed. His heart was for his whole country. He was ready to suffer, to fight, to die for it, and he fell a noble sacrifice upon its altar.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE SIEGE OF SUFFOLK.

(May, 1863.)

DESIGNS OF THE REBEL GENERAL LONGSTREET.-EFFICIENCY OF UNION OFFICERS.-CAPTURE OF HILL'S POINT BATTERY.-TESTIMONY OF GENERAL DIX.-FORCES IN FRONT OF SUFFOLK.LEE'S FORCE AT CHANCELLORSVILLE.

THERE is a small stream, called the Nansemond, flowing from the northwest into one of the many inlets on the Virginia coast, near the mouth of the James River. Upon the banks of this stream is the little town of Suffolk. It was deemed a point of strategic importance, as it was situated at the junction of two railways-the Norfolk and Petersburg, and the Portsmouth and Weldon.

Major-General John J. Peck held this strategic point with a garrison of about fourteen thousand men. The leader and his intelligent soldiers alike appreciated the value of the post. General Peck had learned from a captured rebel mail of an intended surprise upon his forces, and also upon those at Fortress Monroe, by General Longstreet, one of the most able and daring of the rebel commanders. Longstreet's design was to make demonstrations upon Newbern, Little Washington, and other points in North Carolina hoping thus to draw the troops away from the main position he intended to attack. These feints upon the North Carolina towns were made, and General Foster, who was in command there, was compelled to call for reënforcements. As soon as Longstreet learned that troops had been sent to General Foster, he hurried on towards Suffolk.

General Peck was on the alert. It was indeed a fearful storm which was about to burst upon him. Longstreet, Hill, and Hood, with five divisions of the rebel army, came rushing upon our lines, expecting to sweep all resistance before them. They were met with solid shot, and bursting shells, and, bristling steel. Admiral Lee had sent up the Nansemond a few gunboats, which very efficiently coöperated in the defence. The firm resistance thus presented bitterly disappointed the rebels. They had

not cherished a doubt of their ability to cross the narrow Nansemond, seize the railroad in the rear of Suffolk, capture the city and its garrison, with all its vast stores, and then, after a holiday march, to occupy Portsmouth and Norfolk. It was now manifest that they must resort to a siege.

Longstreet's first object was to drive the gunboats from the river. This could apparently be easily accomplished, for the boats were small, constructed of wood, and the stream narrow, shallow, and crooked. Under cover of the night, they reared batteries at several points which commanded the stream, and placed heavy guns in position. Fortunately, the

river fleet, which consisted of but six armed tugs and ferry-boats, was commanded by two young officers-Captains Lee and Rowe-of bravery and skill equal to the emergence.

Brigadier-General Getty was intrusted with the command of the Nansemond River. Nobly he fulfilled his mission. With but five thousand men, he was to hold a river-line eight miles long, and prevent forty thousand men from crossing a stream too narrow to allow an ordinary steamer to turn around. In three days, by incredible exertions, he constructed bridges and corduroy roads over creeks, swamps, and ravines, to facilitate the rapid transportation of his troops from one point to another. As soon as rebel batteries were unmasked, General Getty, aided by Colonel Dutton, an efficient officer of engineers, would, during the night, have an opposing battery with rifle-pits constructed, which would immediately open a deadly fire upon the rebels.

About six miles from Suffolk, there was an elevated projection called Hill's Point. Here the rebels reared an earthwork, mounting five heavy rifled guns. From this point they effectually commanded the river. Our guns could only harmlessly bury their shot in the rebel parapet. One of our steamers, the Mount Washington, having been disabled by a battery higher up the stream, drifting down, grounded almost directly under the guns at Hill's Point. Thus crippled, Lieutenant Dawson maintained for six hours. one of the most desperate contests recorded, until the rising tide floated him off. Lieutenant Cushing, of the Commodore Barney, shared in this fight. As his little steamer came out from the unequal conflict, she showed the wounds of fifty-eight balls and bullets in her hull and machinery.

Matters now seemed desperate. Admiral Lee was compelled to order the gunboats to leave the Upper Nansemond. General Peck watched the rebels with such a sleepless eye, that they could not leave a point exposed without receiving a damaging blow. He worried them continually with reconnoissances and sorties, after driving back their outposts, until they reached their main lines, when our weak columns would stubbornly retire before superior numbers.

About this time there took place what may be called a very neat little affair, which was, nevertheless, an enterprise calling into exercise great soldierly sagacity and courage. The rebels had taken possession of a slight elevation on the Nansemond River, where they had erected a battery of five splendid brass guns. Four of these were twelve-pound howitzers, and one a twenty-four-pounder. Lieutenant Dawson proposed to General Peck a plan for the capture of the works on this eminence, called Hill's Point Battery. It seemed feasible, and met with the General's cordial approval, and it was most gallantly executed.

The battery was very advantageously situated at a bend of the stream, where it commanded, in both directions, reaches of the river for several miles. Lieutenant Dawson's design was to dislodge the rebels and relieve them of their guns. The Eighth Connecticut Regiment and six companies of the Eighty-ninth New York, consisting in all of but two hundred men, but as heroic a band of veteran soldiers as ever faced a battery, were marshalled for the enterprise. Under the command of Colonel John

E. Ward, of the Connecticut Eighth, they embarked on board the gunboat Stepping Stones. Their orders were:

once.

"When the boat touches the land, let every man spring ashore at Do not stop to call the roll or to form in line of battle, but rush impetuously forward the whole band, without regard to military order, directly upon the battery."

Cautiously the gunboat steamed up the narrow river, until it came within sight of the rebels. The foe was on the alert, with every gun shotted, and trained to blow the audacious steamer out of the water. Creeping slowly along beneath a bank which slightly sheltered them for a time, they crowded on all steam, and feigned that they were about to make a desperate attempt to run the battery. But suddenly, just as they emerged from the sheltering bluff, they turned the bow of the steamer towards the shore. The boat struck; the gang-planks were thrown out, and before the rebels could recover from their amazement, in less than "five seconds," every man sprang to the shore. Many of the soldiers, in their ardor, leaped up to their armpits in the water. There was not an instant of delay. Without any attempt at organization, officers and men all intermingled, they rushed along with loud cheers through a ravine, and, without the discharge of a single shot, charged upon the rear of the battery. The rebels had no time to turn their guns. They were so overwhelmed with consternation, that they attempted no resistance whatever, but threw up their hands, screaming, "Don't fire! don't fire; we cave, we cave!"

The battery was taken without the firing of a bullet or the infliction of the slightest wound. But the hardest task still remained. Within the sound of any one of those heavy guns, there was a rebel army of nearly thirty thousand men encamped. The tidings of the capture would speedily reach their ears. In addition to the guns captured, the patriot troops had taken one hundred and twelve rebel prisoners. The prisoners were sent on board the gunboat, and every man was immediately working with the utmost alacrity in removing the guns and military stores. The cannon were speedily trundled over a ploughed field to the bluff, and were hardly there, when the rebels came rushing on in great numbers, swarming through the woods. Quite a fierce battle ensued, the patriots driving back the foe with the guns and ammunition which had been just wrested from them. The captured guns were as by magic ranged around the bluff, and several howitzers were dragged by the marines from the gunboats on to the bank. A vigorous fire was opened upon the rebels wherever they ventured to show themselves in the woods. But they rapidly increased in numbers, pouncing down from their encampments upon the heroic little band, in strength which seemed to be irresistible. In the mean time reënforcements were sent to the patriots. They threw up redoubts, dug rifle-pits, and were soon so firmly established in the position which they had won, that no efforts of the foe could dislodge them. The chagrin of the rebels was excessive, and the exultation of the National troops correspondingly great. It was indeed a brilliant feat with but two hundred men to capture and hold a strong battery, while whole brigades of rebels were within