the patriots were compelled to retreat. Lieutenant-Colonel McVickar, pierced by a bullet, fell dead. The patriots fled pell-mell through bushes and over fences and brush, pursued by an overpowering force. But soon they met reënforcements, and turned again upon their pursuers. Thus the battle surged. The loss of Colonel McVickar was a great calamity. He was a Scotchman, and a gallant soldier, who had enthusiastically drawn his sword in defence of free institutions. This intrepid band of two hundred men lost fifty of their number in these encounters,

Saturday morning dawned "so calm, so bright!" The brilliant hues of flowering shrubs charmed the cyc and filled the air with fragrance. The music of the robin and the wren blended with the strains which rose from military bands. The earth and the sky appeared in their brightest robes of beauty; and no one could gaze upon the scene of hill and vale, streamlet and overarching skies, and not feel that our Heavenly Father had given to us, his children, a magnificent inheritance-a home which man's wickedness has desolated with blood and woe.

All day on Saturday the rebels were crowding their masses along the plankroad from Fredericksburg. When within a few miles of Chancellorsville, they moved by a circuitous route, through the woods and behind the hills, to hurl their whole army in overpowering force upon the right wing of the National troops. This right wing, it will be remembered, consisted of the Eleventh Army Corps, mainly composed of Germans, under the heroic General Howard. There was an incessant series of brisk and bloody skirmishes during the whole day, both armies sending out reconnoissances to ascertain the position, and, if possible, the weak points of the other.

About five o'clock in the afternoon, General Howard was sitting upon the veranda of a house where he held his head-quarters, conversing with General Schurz, when a heavy gun was heard from the southwest. Inrtantly there came another report, followed by volleys of musketry. At the same moment two prisoners were brought in, who stated that the right of our line was hotly attacked; signals also from General Devins announced the same fact. General Howard and his staff instantly mounted their horses and galloped to the scene of action. General Lee had massed thirty thousand men, and had hurled them upon General Howard's Corps of but nine thousand. The odds was too great for any ordinary courage to withstand. A few rounds only were fired, when the patriot soldiers. conscious of their inability to oppose such masses, in a panic broke and fled. General Howard met the tumultuous mass of fugitives, as regiment after regiment gave way. It is cruel to condemn men for not fighting persistently one against three.

As the rebels came up, their overwhelming onset was directed against the first brigade of General Devins's command, under Colonel Von Gilsa, consisting of the Sixty-eighth and Forty-first New Jersey, both German. The rebel line was sufficiently long, not only to cover the patriot line, but also to overlap it on the right, so as to pour in a deadly fire from both flank and rear. General Howard had scarcely reached General Devins's head-quarters when he was met by his chief of staff, who informed him

VOL. II.-25

that the First Division had all given way.

The bullets were then humming like swarming bees through the air, and exploding shells were rending the forest. The most energetic efforts of General Howard could not stem the torrent of the fugitives.

General Schurz's regiments, which were located to support Colonel Von Gilsa, fell back fighting stubbornly. Several of his regiments lost severely. "Stonewall" Jackson led the attack with his accustomed impetuosity. General Howard and his officers did all that mortal valor could accomplish to arrest the panic-stricken throng, but all in vain.

It was a terrible scene. The bolt had descended like lightning from the cloud. The destruction of the whole army was menaced. Thirty thousand rebels with reckless courage were rushing upon nine thousand fugitives, pouring into the tumultuous throng incessant volleys of bullets and shells. It was like the whirlwind's rush and roar, as it sweeps the desert. Such are the chances of war. In one half-hour the whole aspect of the campaign was changed.

The military abilities of General Hooker were never more conspicuously displayed than in these trying moments. Instantly he was in the saddle

check the advance of the rebels.

and at the post of danger. Apparently as unagitated as if sitting at his tent-fire, he cast his eye over the wild scene before him, and promptly adopted measures to meet the crisis. The first thing to be done was to The broken columns of the army in indescribable confusion were rushing down upon the still stable lines, which were beginning to waver, threatening a universal rout. General Berry, one of the most heroic of men, just the man to be relied upon in such a crisis, chanced to be near with his division. He was General Hooker's favorite officer, and was in command of his old corps.

"General Berry," shouted the commander, "throw your men into the breach. Don't fire a shot. Receive the rebels on the bayonet."

It was a sight to make even an old man's blood leap in his veins. These highly-disciplined men advanced with unwavering ranks on the full run. A bristling array of glittering steel was at their breasts. They met the rushing sweep of rebels as the cliff meets the gale. At the same moment Generals Williams and Sickles threw themselves into the path, along which the fugitives were rushing headlong. Wagons, ambulances, horses, men, cannon, caissons, were all jumbled together in a struggling, terrified mass; while the triumphant rebels, hooting and yelling, were pouring a murderous fire into their bosoms-every shot dealing mutilation or death.

General Sickles, forcing his way on horseback through the tangled and convulsed mass, took his stand at a stone wall, over which the fugitives were leaping, and which extended for several rods across a narrow ravine from some hills on the one side, to the muddy bed of Scott's Creek on the other. On rushed the panic-stricken multitude. General Sickles first succeeded in stopping a cannon, drawn by six horses. With this force he commenced his blockade of the passage. Still loose horses were leaping the wall and the men were tumbling headlong over it, until, by herculean exertions, he succeeded in forming a barricade along the whole line. stampede was thus checked, and reason began to regain its sway.

The

At the same moment, General Pleasanton, with his cavalry and park of artillery, appeared upon the ridge on the right. The guns were instantly unlimbered, and an awfully destructive fire of grape and canister was opened upon the advancing rebels. The tide was turning in favor of the patriots. The fugitives recovered self-possession, and began to form in ranks. In a few moments there were twenty-five pieces of artillery on the ridge-cach gun, at every discharge, mowing down scores of the foe. The rebels halted, recoiled, and fled back to the intrenchments from which they had driven the Eleventh Army Corps. Captain Best, chief of artillery to General Sickles's Corps, soon had forty pieces of artillery in position ready to open their thunders. With such lightning-like rapidity was the aspect of the field again changed. The rout was turned almost into a victory. The rebels, under their renowned General "Stonewall" Jackson,* had swept on

General Thomas Jefferson Jackson was born in 1826, in Lewis County, Virginia. He was educated at the expense of the United States Government, at West Point, graduating in 1842, in the same class with Generals McClellan, Stoneman, Couch, and Foster. Entering the Second Artillery, he passed through the Mexican war, obtaining promotion for his gallantry at Contreras,

with courage never surpassed. The Germans, in a very pardonable panic, had broken.

It was now night: the roar of battle ceased. A portion of the Eleventh Corps had endeavored to escape eastward towards Chancellorsville, through a ravine, when General Sickles finally arrested them, as we have mentioned, at a stone wall. Another portion turned north, and made for the United States Ford across the Rappahannock, three miles distant. Through fields and forests and over fences they rushed along, abandoning twelve picces of artillery to the enemy. Many of them dashed into the stream and swam to the other side. General Hooker, as soon as possible, sent a body of guards to form a line across the roads and fields, and with sabre blows and bayonet thrusts, if needful, to stop every fugitive. Such was the state of affairs as the gloom of Saturday night settled around the contending troops,

The National army had met with a severe disaster. Its right flank had been turned, one of its most important divisions put to flight, eleven pieces of artillery captured, and the foe was in possession of the intrenched line from which he had driven the German troops. Throughout the night the rebels could be massing strong reënforcements there on our right flank, which, unless immediate and effectual dispositions were made to meet them, might still result in the ruin of the Patriot army. It was deemed needful, at all hazards, to drive back the foe. To accomplish this, notwithstanding the exhaustion of our troops, an immediate night attack was resolved upon.

In the darkness a new line of battle was formed. General Ward's Brigade of General Birney's Division, supported by Captain Best's batteries, were massed on the ridge on the right. General Birney was in position on the extreme left to support the assault. It was one hour be fore midnight when General Ward put his column in motion. With loud cheers, and the rattle of musketry and the roar of artillery, the midnight battle was ushered in. It was one of the most sublime scenes of the war. A brilliant moon rode high in the heavens. Not a breath of wind moved a leaf of the forest. Through the still air the thunders of the conflict surged along with appalling reverberations. The rebels, taken by surprise. were unable to resist the impetuous assault. They were driven back half a mile; our original ground was gained, and the exhausted but victorious troops slept upon their arms.

Till now the lines of our army had faced nearly south. But the success Churubusco, and Chepultepec. At the close of the war, he became professor of mathematics at the Military Institute of Lexington, Virginia. He is reputed to have been a man of eartest religious emotions. At the opening of the war by the rebels, it is said that this religious man had many qualms of conscience before he could yield to evil counsels, and raise his arm against the country which had nurtured him, and the Stars and Stripes beneath which he had so gloriously fought.

of war.

He cast in his lot with the rebels, and became one of the most determined, fearless, and able of the foes his country had to encounter. His brief career is almost unsurpassed in the annals At the battle of Bull Run, July, 1861, he was asked if he thought his troops, being raw, would stand. "Yes! like a stone wall," was his reply This, it is said, gave him the name of "Stonewall Jackson." He died at Fredericksburg, accidentally shot by his own troops. Patriotism, and humanity mourn that the reputation of a man of so many virtues should be sullied with the

crimes of rebellion and treason.

of the enemy in getting upon our extreme right had rendered a change of front necessary. As the light of the Sabbath morning dawned, the National troops were in battle-array, in double lines extending north and south, facing the west, about a mile west of Chancellorsville. The rebels were massed in unknown numbers, in and behind the woods beyond. The division of General Reynolds was on the extreme right, near the Rappahannock, General Slocum occupied the centre on the plank road. General Sickles held the extreme left, resting on Scott's Creek. During the night breastworks had been thrown up, and rifle-pits dug along our

whole line.

The sun was just rising, when the rebels, with the promptness and courage which marked all their movements, emerged in great force from the woods, and fell upon the two divisions commanded by General Sickles. Simultaneously with this attack, another body pushed down the plankroad and fell upon Berry's Division. Almost immediately the fighting became general along the whole centre and left wing of the army. As battalion after battalion became engaged, and battery after battery was brought into play, the roar became incessant and deafening. It was evident that a battle was inaugurated which would prove to be one of most terrible violence. The enemy had formed his whole available force into three columns of attack. Advancing with such overwhelming numbers, he seemed confident of his ability to crush the National troops. "Stonewall" Jackson, his name a host, led the assault. Never on battle-field did men face death with more recklessness than did the troops of Jackson, inspired by their fanatic, unflinching leader. In solid mass they plunged from the woods, receiving in their faces the storm of shot which burst from the lines of Berry and Birney, and Whipple and Williams.

With equal courage, it could not be superior, the National troops advanced to meet them. They came together as the dashing billows of an angry sea. Forty pieces of artillery, under the management of Captain Best, ploughed their ranks with grape and canister, and whole regiments melted away. Still the rebels, closing in, pushed on, their leaders resolved to gain the victory at whatever cost of human life. General Hooker, who was calmly watching the surges of the battle, ordered a portion of the troops under General French to make a flank attack upon the foc. For more than an hour General Sickles, with five thousand men, had kept at bay more than thirty thousand. It was now about seven o'clock, and the battle raged with great fury. In this portion of the field, the rebels were slowly pressing the National troops back through the ravine to which we have alluded in the fight of the previous day. The whole line of battle was about a mile in length. Falling back in good order, the patriots had made a determined stand behind the stone wall. During this fight General Berry fell, mortally wounded by a rifle-ball. Ile died universally lamented.*

* Major-General Iliram G. Berry was born in Thomaston, Maine. By the energies of his unaided arm he hewed out his own path to independence and distinction. His name will ever occupy a prominent position on the roll of noble men to whom his native State has given birth. He was one of the first to throw aside the implements of peaceful life and spring to arms, when