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MOVEMENTS OF SEDGWICK'S CORPS.

527

day there was very little more heavy fighting along Hooker's lines; the Rebels attacked his positions several times, apparently by way of feeling his force, but retired at once when his artillery opened upon them.

Meantime, the sixth army corps (General Sedgwick's) which we left at Fredericksburg, had been busy. Reynolds' (the first) corps having recrossed the Rappahannock, and marched to United States ford on Saturday morning, to join the main army at Chancellorsville, only the sixth corps, which, however, was the strongest and perhaps the best disciplined in the army, was left for the attack on Fredericksburg. At a little past eleven, P. M., Saturday night, orders were issued to take Fredericksburg and effect a junction with General Hooker. The corps was at this time below Hazel run or creek, southeast of the town. Newton's division, with the light brigade under his command, led the advance, followed by Howe's and Brookes' divisions. The enemy's skirmishers contested the advance almost step by step, but were pushed back gradually to Hazel run, where they rallied for a desperate resistance, but a bold and furious charge, made by the sixty-seventh New York regiment, routed them, and the town was gained. The rifle-pits and batteries on the heights to the southwest of the city, around the Marye house, yet remained frowning upon them, and it was too late and too dark to attack them. The Union troops were therefore massed in town. At dawn of day, on Sunday morning, May 3d, four regiments were thrown forward, in open order, to reconnoitre the enemy's works, and see if they were occupied, as it had been reported that the Rebels had fled, leaving only a single regiment on picket. The reconnoitering force approached to within twenty paces of the earthworks, when, with a fierce yell, the Rebels unmasked themselves, and the whole hill between the Marye house and the Richmond and Fredericksburg railroad became a double girdle of flame. Their artillery opened at the same moment. The reconnoissance had accomplished its object, but full one third of the men engaged in it lay dead and wounded on that blood-stained slope. General Howe's division was now sent to the left, to attempt to storm the heights on the left of Hazel run, and orders sent to General Gibbon's division, of Couch's corps, which had remained at Falmouth to hold the camp there, to cross the Rappahannock and endeavor to gain the heights upon the right of the town. Neither of these attempts succeeded, but they prevented the concentration of the enemy upon General Newton in the centre, where the principal attack was to be made.

At eleven A. M. (just about the time the battle with General Hooker ceased) General Newton with his own division and the light brigade under his command moved forward to attack, General Brookes' division being held as a reserve, to support him if necessary. The three batteries of McCarthy, Butler, and Harris, opened with concentrated fire upon the Marye house, to prevent its being used as a shelter for the enemy's reserves. The division moved forward rapidly, with fixed bayonets; the

left, consisting of four regiments, was deployed, while the centre (two regiments) and the right (four regiments) marched in column. The attack lasted ten minutes, and was successful, the enemy being bayoneted in their rifle-pits, not having time to get away; but in that ten minutes the Union force lost a thousand men in killed and wounded.

As soon as General Newton had succeeded, General Howe, at the left, pushed the enemy vigorously, and after a short but sanguinary contest took the rifle-pits and heights on the left of Hazel run. Newton and Howe together took about eight hundred prisoners, and twelve guns, among them the battery of the famous Washington artillery.

After gaining these formidable and almost impregnable heights, General Sedgwick reformed his lines, placing Brookes' division in advance, and Newton's and Howe's following it, leaving Gibbon's division to garrison the just captured heights, and pushed forward toward Chancellorsville, where he was assured Hooker was hotly pressing the enemy. Lee, it will be remembered, had succeeded by the terrible struggle of Sunday morning in obtaining possession of the turnpike road to Fredericksburg; and as Sedgwick was marching rapidly in pursuit of the flying Rebels whom he had driven from Marye's hill,' he was suddenly confronted by the advance-guard of Lee's entire force, on Salem heights, strongly posted in earthworks in the timber on either side of the road, and the undergrowth filled with rifle-pits and abatis. General Brookes at once engaged them with his entire division, but was overpowered by their superior force, and compelled to retire, the enemy closely following. General Newton, just previous to this, had sent two regiments (the ninety-third and one hundred and second Pennsylvania) to protect the right, which seemed to be in danger, and which, if turned, would cut off the possibility of retreat to Banks' ford. These two regiments passed around the enemy's left without opposition, crossing a deep ravine with a stream in it, and to the top of the ridge, beyond which they met a most fearful volley from a hidden foe. To sustain this line many minutes was evidently impossible, and three more regiments (the seventh and tenth Massachusetts and second Rhode Island) were sent to support it. They arrived just in season to check the Rebel advance; and pouring a flanking fire on the enemy, who were advancing to push Brookes, they caused them to retire with terrible loss. As they retired, the Union troops advanced; but not deeming it advisable to enter the woods again with the force then at command, they held the west of the hill to which they first came till dark, having been strengthened by additional reinforcements, and in the evening were relieved by Shaler's (late Cochran's) brigade.

Sedgwick's corps bivouacked on the field, resupplying the stock of ammunition and food, obtaining knapsacks, and collecting their wounded, the number of whom in this second battle (of Salem heights) was very large. At dawn of day they again formed under arms, and rearranged

CRITICAL POSITION OF SEDGWICK'S CORPS.

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their lines, extending them to the right and toward the Rappahannock. The light brigade was sent to occupy the works which the Rebels had constructed at Banks' ford to oppose the crossing of Burnside's troops there in the winter. Skirmishing soon commenced, and continued until nine A. M., and the enemy seemed determined to ascertain what was the best point of attack. A lull of an hour ensued, during which General Sedgwick learned that during the evening previous Lee had sent a large force past his left and rear, and had repossessed himself of Marye's hill and the Fredericksburg heights, driving Gibbon into the city.

Sedgwick's position was a critical one. In his rear Fredericksburg was in the possession of the enemy; in front and on his left Lee's victorious troops interposed between him and the remainder of Hooker's army; and that army, with its six corps, had found the Rebel force fully its match. Only one way of escape remained, and from this the enemy were pushing vigorously to cut him off. He held as yet the line to Banks' ford, and his light brigade occupied the intrenchments built for the defence of that ford. Crossing there, he might yet fall into a snare, for there was apparently little to hinder the Rebels from crossing over to Falmouth and taking possession of the fortified Union camp, and thus placing his corps at their mercy.

General Sedgwick, however, was a brave and skilful general, and his decision was promptly made. Rearranging his lines, he placed his men in position to meet and hold the enemy at bay, from whichever point they might attack him. Newton was placed on the right, with his right wing on the Rappahannock and facing westward; Brookes in the centre and facing south; Howe on the left, facing eastward, and his left resting on the river. At four P. M. the enemy, who had been skirmishing throughout three charges, approached in force and attacked Newton's left, but were repulsed; then Brookes' centre and left, and were again repulsed; they then concentrated their forces against Howe, endeavoring to break his line, and force themselves between him and the river, to cut off his retreat by way of the ford. Brookes repulsed them, but they massed their forces, and hurled them against him with such fury that he was compelled to fall back a short distance, which he did in good order. Seeing this, they pressed him still harder, but Sedgwick sent up reinforcements, in such numbers, that, with the aid of his batteries, he drove them back with their ranks fearfully thinned, and then fell back to the ford, the Rebels not following closely; and having reached the fortifications at the ford he again turned and offered them battle. As they were evidently indisposed to engage, and offered no further annoyance, General Sedgwick commenced crossing the Rappahannock at two A. M. of the 5th with his corps, and by daylight had them all across in safety. In this campaign of less than three days he had lost nearly six thousand in killed and wounded, out of a force of not more than twenty-two thousand, but few or no

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