merely official, I solemnly declare my belief that this hindrance of the military, including maiming and murder, is due to the cause in which Mr. Vallandigham has been engaged, in a greater degree than to any other cause; and it is due to him personally in a greater degree than to any other one man.

These things have been notorious, known to all, and of course known to Mr. Vallandigham. Perhaps I would not be wrong to say they originated with his especial friends and adherents. When it is known that the whole burden of his speeches has been to stir up men against the prosecution of the war, and that in the midst of resistance to it he has not been known in any instance to counsel against such resistance, it is next to impossible to repel the inference that he has counseled directly in favor of it. With all this before their eyes, the convention you represent has nominated Mr. Vallandigham for Governor of Ohio, and both they and you have declared the purpose to sustain the National Union by all constitutional means; but, . . . unlike the Albany meeting, you omit to state or intimate that, in your opinion, an army is a constitutional means of saving the Union against a rebellion, or even to intimate that you are conscious of an existing rebellion being in progress with the avowed object of destroying that very Union.

Some months later the Federal Supreme Court, on appeal, affirmed the decision of Judge Leavitt. In October, after a long and exciting canvass, the people of Ohio elected the Administration candidate for Governor, John Brough, by more than one hundred thousand majority over Vallandigham. Of all the decisions in the case, this was the most effectual.

vol. ii.-12

CHAPTER XV.

1863.

Chancellorsville.

On giving General Hooker command of the Army of the Potomac, the President wrote him privately (January 26th):

I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I have done this upon what appear to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to which I am not quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave and skillful soldier, which, of course, I like. I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not an indispensable quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm; but I think that during General Burnside's command of the army you have taken counsel of your ambition and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country and to a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, in such way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the army and the government needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those Generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The Government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticising their commander,

and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us

victories.

The two other grand division commanders were at this time relieved, General Franklin being assigned to duty elsewhere. General Sumner, granted leave of absence at his own request, retired in greatly impaired health to his home in Syracuse, New York, where a few weeks later he died.

Hooker, having matured a plan of campaign for the reorganized army, ordered General Stoneman, chief of cavalry, to move, on the 13th of April, against General Fitzhugh Lee's brigade near Culpeper Courthouse; to capture Gordonsville; and to cut the Fredericksburg and Richmond Railway near Saxton's Station, in the immediate rear of the enemy, destroying track, telegraph, and bridges from that point towards Richmond. Hooker intended a nearly simultaneous advance of his infantry and artillery forces-about one hundred thousand men — feinting in front, while his real purpose was to turn the Confederate left. Stoneman started off very deliberately, and when at the end of the third day he had one of his divisions across the Rappahannock, he was brought to a check by heavy rains. Lincoln, learning the particulars from Hooker, on the evening of the 15th telegraphed at once in response:

The rain and mud, of course, were to be calculated upon. General S. is not moving rapidly enough to make the expedition come to anything. He has now been out three days,

two of which were unusually fair weather, and all three without hindrance from the enemy, and yet he is not twenty-five miles from where he started. To reach his point he has still sixty to go, another river, the Rapidan, to cross, and will be hindered by the enemy. By arithmetic, how many days will it take him to do it? I do not know that any better can be done, but I greatly fear it is another failure already. Write me often. I am very anxious.

Stoneman's movement was suspended and his forces returned to their encampment. After remaining quiescent for two weeks, Hooker resumed the execution of his plan of campaign. The weather was propitious and the army in excellent condition. The former grand divisions having been dispensed with, its seven corps and their commanders were: First, Reynolds; Second, Couch; Third, Sickles; Fifth, Meade; Sixth, Sedgwick; Eleventh, Howard; Twelfth, Slocum. In the preliminary movements of cavalry, Averill occupied Gordonsville, and Stoneman advanced to strike the railway between Fredericksburg and Richmond, as before designed. Howard's corps, followed by Slocum's, moved up the left bank of the Rappahannock; crossed it at Kelley's Ford during the night of the 27th-28th; and, turning southward, crossing the Rapidan at Germania Ford, advanced in the direction of Fredericksburg. Meade following by way of Kelley's Ford, crossed the Rapidan at Ely's. Hooker announced in a dispatch on the 30th:

The operations of the last three days have determined that our enemy must either ingloriously fly, or come out from behind his defenses and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits him. The operations of the Fifth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Corps have been a succession of splendid achievements.

Anderson, the Confederate General charged with guarding the fords, reported from Chancellorsville (to which place he had fallen back) on the 29th, and continued his retreat five miles farther towards Fredericksburg. As a menace to Lee while the flanking movements were in progress, Sedgwick, before Fredericksburg, had laid a pontoon bridge where Franklin crossed in December; Reynolds laid another a mile farther down, and both commanders made a feint of crossing. Couch, leaving Gibbon's division to guard the camp at Falmouth, moved up the river and crossed at the United States Ford, and Sickles followed later, crossing at Banks's Ford without resistance. After exchanging artillery shots with Jackson's batteries near Massaponax Creek, on the 30th, Reynolds withdrew, and joined the rest of the army across the river. Sedgwick remained in front of Fredericksburg.

Whatever the mystery about Hooker's subsequent conduct, his dispatch of Thursday makes it clear that his original purpose was to await, after crossing, the choice, of Lee between retreating or giving battle on ground of Hooker's own choosing. Preparation for one of these alternatives had been made by the work laid out for Stoneman. It was now necessary to be ready for the other. With headquarters at Chancellorsville, the name given to a cross-roads "tavern stand" eleven miles from Fredericksburg and five from United States Ford,- Hooker placed his six corps present in such position as to cover the fords on which his communications depended, and to repel assault in front and flank. His extreme right was held by Howard, with headquarters at Dowdall's tavern, two miles west of