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Rebel forces posted below, as well as those above, began to swarm into Fredericksburg, and toward the fortified heights which encompassed it, evidently expecting a repetition of the scenes of December. They were destined to disappointment.

Major-General Howard's corps (the eleventh) had passed on beyond United States ford to Kelley's ford, on the Upper Rappahannock, twentyseven miles above Fredericksburg, where they crossed on a pontoon bridge, and were followed by Slocum's and Meade's corps. Howard's and Slocum's corps proceeded twelve miles south, to Germania ford, across the Rapidan, which they crossed by wading. Meade's corps took a road leading eastward, and crossed the Rapidan at Ely's ford. At Germania ford, a force of one hundred and fifty Rebel pioneers, who were building a bridge, were captured. Having crossed the Rapidan, both columns moved, as ordered, toward Chancellorsville, a large mansion situated at the junction of the turnpike from Gordonsville to Fredericksburg, with the Culpepper, Orange Court House, and Fredericksburg plank road, about ten miles west of Fredericksburg. Pleasanton's cavalry kept up a communication between the different corps, and protected them on either side from Rebel cavalry. By this movement, United States ford, eleven miles from Fredericksburg, and just below the mouth of the Rapidan, was opened, the Rebels flying from our cavalry, and Major-General Couch's corps (the second), which had lain at Falmouth up to this time, moved forward, crossed that ford, and approached Chancellorsville by a road running directly south from the ford. The third corps (Sickles') and the first (Reynolds') had been withdrawn from their position below Fredericksburg and followed Couch's corps to United States ford. As these corps drew near their destination, they took position around Chancellorsville as follows: Howard's lay upon the road by which they had come, occupying most of the space between Wilderness church, between four and five miles west of Chancellorsville, and Dowdall's tavern, two miles west of that place. Slocum's corps, passing Howard's, had camped around Dowdall's tavern; Sickles', coming from United States ford, had passed Chancellorsville and Dowdall's, and lay along a road extending southward from Dowdall's to the left, and in rear of Howard's; Meade's, which had been the first to reach Chancellorsville, was encamped around the Chancellor house, and to the right and left of it; Couch was posted along the road leading to United States ford, to guard it, while Reynolds, who was the last comer, was lying along the Rapidan, northwest of Chancellorsville, his left being about four miles from Howard's right. The sixth corps (Sedgwick's) had finally crossed below Fredericksburg, with the intention of flanking and capturing the heights which had been so formidable in December.

The movements by which Hooker had thus turned Lee's flank, and compelled him to move out of his fortifications and fight in the open field, were masterly, and, as it appeared, took Lee by surprise. The Union

troops reached Chancellorsville on Thursday evening, April 30. In the house at Chancellorsville was found a letter from Lee's chief of staff, General Taylor, dated at 4.29 P. M. of that day, in which he informs the Rebel officer in command at that post that General Lee had that moment heard that the Federal force was across Ely's ford, (they had crossed it eighteen hours before ;) that General Anderson-who commanded at United States ford with a couple of brigades-knew nothing of their arrival, and concludes by asking him "to come down immediately and consult the com manding general."

On Thursday night, April 30th, General Hooker issued the following order:

"HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, NEAR FALMOUTH, VIRGINIA,

'April 30, 1863. "It is with heartfelt satisfaction that the general commanding announces to the army that the operations of the last three days have determined that our enemy must ingloriously fly, or come out from behind their defences, and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits them.

"The operations of the fifth, eleventh, and twelfth corps have been a series of splendid successes.

"By command of Major-General HOOKER.

"S. WILLIAMS, Adjutant-General."

General Lee, though unquestionably outgeneraled by this brilliant and rapid movement, was too shrewd and experienced a commander to hesi tate long in his action. He did not probably comprehend at first the full magnitude of Hooker's plans; but he was strong enough to give battle on equal terms to General Hooker, even on ground of his own choosing, for he had, as it afterward appeared, withdrawn the greater part of the Rebel troops from Charleston, and had been reinforced by Longstreet's and Hill's divisions, which, as we have seen, had up to a few days before been operating in the vicinity of Suffolk. With these additions his force probably approached very nearly one hundred thousand men. He had also the two advantages, of great importance to a general in his position, of moving on the interior or shorter line, and of knowing thoroughly and minutely the topography of the region in which the impending battles were to be fought.

The Union troops, on Friday, were taking their positions and throwing up defences, with a view to resist more effectually the advance of the enemy; for it was General Hooker's design to make the battle at first a defensive one; to let Jackson, who, from the situation he was known to occupy, would be likely to be the first to assail him, throw himself upon his front, till he was thoroughly exhausted, and then to bring forward his strong reserves, perfectly fresh, and annihilate the Rebel army. To effect this purpose he had arranged his troops in the form of an irregular tri

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angle, of which the Rapidan and Rappahannock formed the base, the Gordonsville turnpike one of the sides, and Chancellorsville the apex-Howard's, Sickles' and Slocum's corps being on the right leg of the triangle, Meade's at the apex and along the left leg, and Couch extending along the left leg, to join Reynolds, whose corps formed the base. The extreme right, Howard's corps, should have joined Reynolds', but there was really a gap of four miles of a wooded region between them. Howard's corps had been, until recently, commanded by General Sigel; it was composed mainly of German regiments, though some of the regiments of one division were of American birth, and they were somewhat disaffected at the loss of their favorite commander. The three divisions of which the corps was composed were commanded by General Steinwehr, a gallant and experienced officer, General Devens, a Massachusetts officer of moderate reputation, and General Carl Schurz, who, though possessing undoubted bravery and resolution, perhaps lacked somewhat the experience to make him in all respects qualified to occupy, as he did at this time, the post of danger.

Before proceeding to narrate the events of the battle of Saturday, May 2d, it may be well to describe briefly the topographical character of the region in which the battle was fought. The turnpike from Fredericksburg to Gordonsville passed in this part of its route three prominent buildings, which we have already named, situated at about two miles distance from each other, viz: the Chancellor House, which was General Hooker's headquarters, ten miles west of Fredericksburg, and in the middle of a clearing of elliptical form about a mile in length, by half a mile in width. Beyond this, on all sides the country was broken and wooded, rising toward Fredericksburg, to the heights which overlook that city. Two miles west of this house was Dowdall's tavern, surrounded by undulating fields, but on the northern, eastern, and southern sides having heavy timber; within a moderate distance, on the west side, the land sloped down toward open ground, traversed by a small brook. Two miles farther west, in the midst of a dense forest, was a church known as " Wilderness Church," or as often as "Wilderness." On either side of this turnpike was a broken country, wooded, and with a dense undergrowth, and few clearings, and traversed by country roads, coming into the turnpike at a variety of angles.

There had been some skirmishing during the afternoon of Friday, May 1st, having mainly for its object the compelling the Rebel commander to develop his force, while at the same time it made the Union officers more familiar with the country, and the routes by which the enemy would approach to attack them.

All through Friday night General Howard heard a confused sound south and west of him in the woods-the rattle of wagons, the clatter of axes, men's voices, the low words of a multitude. Many supposed that Lee, finding himself flanked, was retreating to Gordonsville. It was

known that there was a country road, which had formerly been a turnpike, which branched from the Gordonsville and Fredericksburg turnpike, southward, five or six miles west of Fredericksburg, and crossed the Orange Court House and Fredericksburg plank road nearly at right angles, This road crossed the one running south from Dowdall's, on which Sickles' corps was posted, also at right angles. The movement of troops which Howard had heard on that Friday night was "Stonewall" Jackson's corps, with Longstreet's division, making in all a force of about forty thousand. They had passed along this old road to a point southwest of Wilderness church, and had, during that night and the next morning, cut a new road from the old road to the Gordonsville turnpike, and by a little after noon of Saturday, May 2d, were massed near and to the south of the Gordonsville pike, just west of Wilderness church. A part of his advance-guard occupied a ridge curving round to the road, running south from Dowdall's, and had thrown up some temporary earthworks and planted one or two batteries in the vicinity of that road.

General Sickles had moved down on this road in the afternoon of Saturday, his advance going nearly five miles south. In thus advancing, he had come in contact with Jackson's right wing, under General Longstreet, and the Rebel army train, and had found it intrenched. As he had but one division with him, and met a steady resistance, he sent back to General Howard asking for support, as he was going to attack the enemy. Howard sent word that he would support him, and sent a staff officer to ascertain the exact locality of his line of battle, that he might join it on the right. A few moments later, he received an order from General Hooker to send a brigade to General Sickles. In compliance with this order, he took his reserve, Bohlen's brigade, the best in his corps, conducted it in person to its position, and returned with all speed, but was, nevertheless, too late to arrest the panic which in that brief interval had seized his corps.

He had been suspicious, during the afternoon, that the Rebels were massing their troops to the southwest of his position, but was not aware that they had attained a location in which they could flank him. The eleventh corps had been placed in a position in which its three divisions formed three sides of a hollow square; the third division, General Carl Schurz, lying north and parallel to the Gordonsville pike; the second division, General Steinwehr, at right angles with them, and facing Jackson's troops; and the first division, General Devens, lying parallel with the third, below the Gordonsville pike. General Sickles' movement had left a break between this division, and Birney's division of his corps, and Bohlen's brigade from Howard's corps, which had just reinforced him.

General Howard, returning from General Sickles' line, about half-past six P. M., as we have said, heard the roar of the enemy's artillery; and soon after, on his extreme right, where General Schurz's division was in line, the rattle of musketry, and the yells of the Rebel soldiery. Putting

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his horse to a gallop, he soon reached the left, General Devens' division, which had also been attacked, and found both this and Schurz's, under the influence of the terrible panic, caused by the unexpected onset of more than three times their number, melting away, and despite the efforts of their officers, and the heroic conduct of some of the regiments, flying in sad and terrible disorder to Chancellorsville. Steinwehr's division held out longest, and struggled nobly to beat back the tide of panic-stricken men that was sweeping them down, but in vain, and they too were at last drawn into the current. Howard, left almost alone, begged, threatened, and strove with all his might to rally his men and retrieve their disgrace, but all in vain. With every yell of the enemy they fled the faster.

The news of this panic and retreat reached General Hooker a few minutes later, and mounting his horse, he was soon galloping at full speed to the scene of the disaster. He had no need to go far; the flying soldiers, who had now lost all self-possession in the agony of panic, were rushing toward Chancellorsville in hot haste, each believing himself but an arm's length from the Rebel force. To check this torrent of frightened men, and to drive back the advancing Rebel force in the full flush of victory, were the tasks required of the commanding general, and with a prompt decision he undertook them. Before him, and as yet unaffected by the panic, was General Berry's division of Sickles' corps, Hooker's own old division, with which he had fought through the battles of the Peninsula and Pope's campaign, and which had fought so nobly at Antietam and Fredericksburg. That division, now commanded by General Berry, was, in many respects, the finest in the army. To send this, his favorite division, into the breach to stay the onward rush of Stonewall Jackson's forty thousand veterans, was his determination, and very characteristic was his order to General Berry: "General, throw your men into the breachreceive the enemy on your bayonets-don't fire a shot-they can't see you!" The order was obeyed with a promptness and resolution which showed the thorough discipline as well as the heroism of the division. Forward they dashed, at the double-quickstep, but in perfect line, with their bayonets at a charge, in the fast gathering darkness, and as the Rebels rushed furiously onward their advance was summarily checked by the solid line of glittering steel, but not until the head of their columns had gone down under this gallant charge.

Meantime, General Hooker was exerting himself to stop the retreat of the eleventh corps, and brave officers and men were rendering him efficient aid in the attempt. Sickles had been promptly recalled, and did himself great honor by his zeal in checking the fugitives. The artillery of the corps, with the exception of seven or eight guns which they abandoned, was thundering down the road, as much panic-stricken as the infantry. About half-way from Dowdall's to Chancellorsville was a stone wall, extending from Scott's creek to the woods, with a gateway across the