on Monday morning retook the heights of Fredericksburg, thus cutting off Sedgwick from communication with that place, and enveloping him on three sides.

*

To cut this knot, Lee resolved to further re-enforce the troops opposed to Sedgwick and drive him across the Rappahannock, thus eliminating from the problem one important factor. Accordingly, on Monday morning Anderson was directed to proceed with his remaining three brigades to join McLaws. Reaching Salem Heights about noon, he threw his force around on Sedgwick's left, with the view of cutting his command off from the river. The Confederates, however, met considerable delay in getting into position, and the attack was not begun till six o'clock, when it was made with great impetuosity-Sedgwick resisting with the utmost stubbornness, but forced to yield ground, especially on the left. Happily, darkness soon ensued to prevent the enemy's following up his advantage, and, under cover of night, Sedgwick safely withdrew his corps across the Rappahannock at Banks' Ford, where a ponton-bridge had been laid the day before.

Thus it was that Lee on Tuesday morning (May 5th) saw himself relieved from this menace in his rear; and having now but a single foe to cope with, he promptly recalled the divisions of McLaws and Anderson, united them with his main force at Chancellorsville, and resolved to give the remaining section of the Union army the coup de grâce. Preparations were made during the afternoon and evening to assail Hooker's position at daylight the following morning (Wednesday, May 6th). When daybreak, however, came, and the Confederate skirmishers advanced, it was found that the army had, during the night, withdrawn across the Rappahannock.

Hooker had determined, on Monday night, to recross the river; but when the question was submitted to the judgment of his corps-commanders, it was found that a majority of those present were in favor of an advance rather than a withdrawal. Hooker, however, had lost all stomach for fight.

* Lee: Report of Chancellorsville, f. 12.

Accordingly on Tuesday, the engineers were instructed to prepare a new line near the river to cover the crossing, and for this purpose they constructed a continuous cover and abatis, from the Rappahannock at Scott's Dam around to the mouth of Hunting Creek on the Rapidan, a distance of three miles. During the afternoon a heavy rain set in which lasted till late at night.

The movement to recross was begun by the artillery at dark of Tuesday, and was suddenly interrupted by a rise in the Rappahannock so great as to submerge the banks at the end of the bridges, which the current threatened to sweep away-a consummation most devoutly wished by many of the leading officers of the army, who were bitterly opposed to recrossing the river. But fate willed otherwise, and in the midst of a night as gloomy as the mood of the army, the troops filed across to the north bank.

The losses in the battle of Chancellorsville can be stated with accuracy. On the side of the Confederates, they made an aggregate of ten thousand two hundred and eighty-one.* On the Union side, they were seventeen thousand one hundred and ninety-sevent killed, wounded, and missing. The army left behind its killed, its wounded, fourteen pieces of artillery, and twenty thousand stand of arms.

It remains now to glance a moment at the operations of the cavalry column under Stoneman. As this was a powerful corps, numbering some ten thousand sabres, and as its movement was intended to precede by a fortnight the commencement of operations by the army, very important results were expected from it. But the cavalry was delayed a long time by the swollen condition of the upper Rappahannock, so that it did not cross till the time the infantry made the passage, April 29. Hooker then divided the command into two

* Lee: Report of Chancellorsville, p. 131.

+ Report on the Conduct of the War, second series, vol. i., p. 143. Of this number Lee claims five thousand prisoners, besides the wounded. He also claims the prize of seventeen standards, nineteen thousand and five hundred stand of arms, and much ammunition.--Lee: Report of Chancellorsville, p. 15.

columns, sending one, under General Averill, to move to Louisa Courthouse, threaten Gordonsville, and engage the Confederate mounted force, while the other, under General Buford, should break up the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad, destroying its bridges, etc.

The only mounted force the Confederates could oppose to these columns was a small brigade of two regiments under General W. H. F. Lee.* That officer fell back before the Union cavalry, which advanced on Louisa Courthouse, and proceeded to destroy the Virginia Central road. Stoneman divided Buford's force into six bodies, throwing them out ir all directions; but the important line of communications by the Fredericksburg and Richmond Railroad was not struck till the 3d of May, and the damage done it was very slight.t This is sufficiently shown by the fact that on the 5th the cars conveyed to Richmond the Confederate wounded and the Union prisoners‡ captured in the battle of Chancellorsville. The raid had, undoubtedly, the effect to alarm the country through which the columns moved, and much property was destroyed; but its military result, as bearing on the main operation, was quite insignificant.

* Report of General R. E. Lee on the Battle of Chancellorsville, p. 15; Re port of General Stuart, p. 38; Report of General W. H. F. Lee, p. 49.

"The damage done to the railroad was small and soon repaired, and the James River Canal was saved from injury."-Report of General Lee, p. 15.

Hooker's testimony: Report on the Conduct of the War, second series, vol. i., p. 140.

VIII.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.

The simple recital I have made of the operations attending the battle of Chancellorsville will have served to reveal the extraordinary character of that action, which, opening with an exhibition of grand tactics marked by masterly skill, sank into conduct so feeble and faulty, as to be almost beneath criticism.

1. It is in war as in life: a single false step often involves an endless train of swift-succeeding misfortune. This false step in the conduct of Hooker was that, having started out to fight an offensive battle, he reduced himself, at the very moment when action was above all imperative, to a perilous defensive. The strategic operation of crossing the Rappahannock merits all the praise it has received. It was accomplished with complete success, and resulted in placing at Chancellorsville on the night of Thursday, April 30, four corps, in a position on the rear of the left of the Confederate defensive line, with Lee's forces scattered down the Rappahannock, a distance of five-and-twenty miles. All the enemy between Hooker and Fredericksburg was a mere handful of a division. Then was the moment for a bold initiative on the part of Hooker. Then was the time for vigorous impulse and fiery action before his opponent recovered himself. By what prompting of chivalrous generosity, rare in war-and eclipsing forever the conduct of the commander of the English Guards, who at Fontenoy insisted on the French delivering the first fire—was it that in this situation he voluntarily resigned all the advantage of the surprise, and allowed Lee forty-eight hours to concentrate against him?

2. That delay at Chancellorsville from Thursday afternoon till Saturday afternoon undid all that had been accomplished.

It is true that the Wilderness is a region unfavorable for manoeuvring a large army; but it was as bad for Lee as for Hooker, and the latter is estopped from availing himself of this excuse by his own order, in which he declared it to be "ground of his own selection." Besides, this objection wholly disappears in face of the fact that the reconnoissances of Friday, May 1st, showed he might have pushed out beyond the woods, thus uncovering Banks' Ford, reducing the line of communications by twelve miles, and practically uniting both his wings, To the "special wonder" of all the commanders, he relinquished the fine position then gained, and stood on the defensive in the Wilderness.

3. But for a defensive battle the disposition of his army was faulty-the ground being commanded in front, and the right flank thrown out "in the air," whereas it might have been securely rested on the Rapidan. This afforded Lee his opportunity, and with consummate address, and a marvellous boldness, considering the disparity of his force, he on Saturday morning set on foot the execution of Jackson's flank march to attack the Union right. This is an operation usually condemned in war; but the conditions justified it, seeing that Jackson was able to mask his movement, and success crowned it.

4. During the whole of Saturday, while Jackson was executing his flank march, the Confederate commander held Hooker's fifty thousand men with the division of Anderson and part of McLaws-eight brigades, or twelve thousand men. Not a motion of offence was made by Hooker all this time.

5. After the disaster to the Eleventh Corps on Saturday night, Hooker made every thing to hinge on Sedgwick's advance to join him, which was to make the greater contingent on the lesser. His orders to Sedgwick, sent at ten o'clock of Saturday night, and received about midnight, were to move up from his position below Fredericksburg, take the heights, and move out by the plankroad towards Chancellorsville, distant fourteen miles. This move would, under the circumstances,