VIII.

THE CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN.

APRIL-MAY, 1863.

I.

THE ARMY UNDER HOOKER.

IN an army composed of citizens of a free country who have taken up arms from patriotic motives in a war they consider just, there is a perennial spring of moral renovation. Such armies have constantly exhibited an astonishing endurance, and, possessing a bond of cohesion superior to discipline, have shown their power to withstand shocks that would dislocate the structure of other military organizations.

The Army of the Potomac was of this kind. Driven hither and thither by continual buffets of fortune; losing its strength in unavailing efforts; changing its leaders, and yet finding no deliverance; misunderstood and unappreciated by the people whose battles it was fighting-it was not wonderful that it had lost in spirit. Yet, notwithstanding the untoward fortunes the Army of the Potomac had suffered, it could hardly be said to be really demoralized, for its heart was still in the war; it never failed to respond to any demand made upon it, and it was ever ready to renew its courage at the first ray hope.

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Such a day-spring came with the appointment of General Hooker to the chief command, and under his influence the tone of the army underwent a change that would appear astonishing, had not its elastic vitality been so often proved.

Hooker's measures of reform were judicious: he cut away the root of many evils; stopped desertion and its causes; did away with the nuisance of the "Grand Division" organization; infused vitality through the staff and administrative service; gave distinctive badges to the different corps ;* instituted a system of furloughs; consolidated the cavalry under able leaders, and soon enabled it not only to stand upon an equality with, but to assert its superiority over, the Virginia horsemen of Stuart.t

These things proved General Hooker to be an able administrative officer, but they did not prove him to be a competent commander for a great army; and whatever anticipation might be formed touching this had to be drawn from his previous career as a corps-commander, in which he had won the reputation of being what is called a "dashing" officer, and earned the sobriquet of "Fighting Joe." He had gained a great popularity both in the army and throughout the country-a result to which his fine soldierly appearance and frank manners had much contributed; nor was this diminished by a

* The germ of the badge designation was the happy thought of General Kearney, who, at Fair Oaks, ordered the soldiers of his division to sew a piece of red flannel to their caps, so that he could recognize them in the tumult of battle. Hooker developed the idea into a system of immense utility, and henceforth the different corps and divisions could always be distinguished by the red, white, or blue trefoil, cross, lozenge, star, etc.

† The cavalry of the army had hitherto had no organization whatever as a corps. It was organized by brigades or divisions and scattered among the grand division commanders. From the time of its consolidation it was able to act in its legitimate line, and underwent a great improvement. On the 16th of March, Hooker sent out an expedition of six mounted regiments and a battery, under General Averill, to engage the Confederate cavalry on Lee's left, holding position near Kelly's Ford. Forcing the passage of the Rappahannock at Kelly's Ford, on the morning of the 17th, by a spirited dash, in which twentyfour of the enemy were captured, Averill pushed forward, driving the enemy before him for four miles south of the river, when he became engaged with the Confederate cavalry brigade of Fitz Hugh Lee. A very brilliant passage at arms here ensued, both sides repeatedly charging with the sabre. Nothing decisive resulted; but the Union cavalry were much encouraged by the exploit. Averill's loss was eighty-four; that of the Confederates one hundred and seventy.-Fitz Lee: Report of Kelleysville.

habit he had of self-assertion, which, however, proved little, since it may be either the manifestation of impotent conceit, or the proud utterance of conscious power. Hooker had shown himself a pitiless critic of his predecessors in command: he was now to be tried in an ordeal whence no man had yet escaped unscathed.

The new commander judiciously resolved to defer all grand military operations during the wet season, and the first three months after he assumed command were well spent in rehabilitating the army. The ranks were filled up by the return of absentees; the discipline and instruction of the troops were energetically continued, and the close of April found the Army of the Potomac in a high degree of efficiency in all arms.* It numbered one hundred and twenty thousand ment (infantry and artillery), with a body of twelve thousand well-equipped cavalry, and a powerful artillery force of above four hundred guns. It was divided into seven corps-the First Corps under General Reynolds; the Second under General Couch; the Third under General Sickles; the Fifth under General Meade; the Sixth under General Sedgwick; the Eleventh under General Howard; and the Twelfth under General Slocum.

Lee's force was greatly inferior to that of his opponent; for

It was not without truth that Hooker, at this time, in his grandiose style, named it "the finest army on the planet."

This estimate is approximate; the data are as follows: The effective of the Fifth, Eleventh, and Twelfth corps was put by General Hooker, just before Chancellorsville, at forty-four thousand six hundred and sixty-one.-Report on the Conduct of the War, second series, vol. i., p. 120. The effective of the Sixth Corps is given by General Sedgwick (ibid., p. 95) as twenty-two thousand; and the effective of the First and Third corps, by the same authority, was thirty-five thousand. There remains the Second Corps, to which, if we give a minimum of eighteen thousand, there will result the aggregate of one hundred and nineteen thousand six hundred and sixty-one.

Pleasonton: Official Returns, May 27th.

§ Hunt: Report of Artillery Operations.

| Generals Franklin and Sumner both retired from the Army of the Poto mac after the change of commander. The latter was assigned to a command in the West, but died soon afterwards at his home in New York, lamented by the army and the country as the bravest of soldiers and purest of men.

relying on the strength of the line of the Rappahannock, he had, in February, detached two divisions, under Longstreet, to operate south of the James River,* and the remainder did not exceed an effective of fifty-five thousand men.t Hooker, therefore, was in a situation to attempt a bold enterprise, and the close of April found him ready to cross the Rappahannock and give battle.

II.

THE PASSAGE OF THE RAPPAHANNOCK.

The opposing armies had so long faced each other on the banks of the Rappahannock, that it may well be supposed there remained no point in the problem of the attack or defence of that line that had not been thoroughly considered. Since the battle of Fredericksburg and the subsequent attempts to pass the Rappahannock, Lee had made such dispositions as to guard all the available crossings of that stream. At the time the operations resulting in the battle of Chancellorsville began, he occupied in force the heights south of the Rappahannock from Skenker's Creek to United States Ford (a distance of about twenty-five miles), having continuous lines of infantry parapets throughout, and his troops so disposed as to be readily concentrated on any given point. Interspersed along these lines of intrenchments were batteryepaulements, advantageously located, for sweeping the hillslopes and bottom-lands over which an assailing force would have to march-the crests of the main hills being from threequarters of a mile to a mile and a half from the river's mar

* "General Longstreet, with two divisions of his corps, was detached for service south of James River in February, and did not rejoin the army until after the battle of Chancellorsville."-Lee: Report of Chancellorsville, p. 5.

The rolls of Lee's army showed, the 31st of March, 1863, a force of 60,298. But at the battle of Chancellorsville, the reports of the subordinates make it fully ten thousand less.

gin. To gain the immediate banks opposite the centre of the enemy's line was, however, practicable in several places where the high ground on the north side approached the stream and enabled artillery to command it; but the prospect of then gaining a footing on the heights was, from past experience, hopeless. The Confederate right flank was so disposed that Lee was secure against attack in that direction; while above his left, at United States Ford, the junction of the Rapidan with the Rappahannock involved the passage of the former also in any attempt to turn that flank. Indeed, the execution of a movement to turn the Confederate left by the Union army, at such a distance from its base, and with heavy ponton and artillery trains, and in face of means of in formation such as Lee had at his command, seemed very unlikely, and he gave himself very little concern about it.

Difficult as was the problem in all its aspects, and debarred as Hooker was from making a direct attack, the most promising enterprise was nevertheless an operation against Lee's left. This, after much cogitation, Hooker resolved to execute, and he formed a very bold plan of operation. He determined to make his main movement against the enemy's left by a strong column, that by a wide detour up the Rappahannock to Kelly's Ford (twenty-seven miles above Fredericksburg) should pass round Lee's flank to Chancellorsville; while he resolved to mask this turning operation by forcing the Rappahannock near Fredericksburg with a considerable body, and ostentatiously threatening direct attack. He expected that the successful execution of the turning operation would have the effect to cause Lee to abandon his defences along the Rappahannock, when battle might be given with great advantage. In co-operation with this attack, he prepared a powerful cavalry column of ten thousand sabres, destined to operate simultaneously on Lee's railroad communication with Richmond.

* Warren: Report of Engineer Operations connected with the Battle of Chancellorsville.