. very strong, as we had learned to our cost; but it might be turned, as Hooker proceeded to show. His army was still encamped at Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg. The 11th (Howard's) and 12th (Slocum's) corps moved up the river, but carefully avoiding observation from the hostile bank, so far as Kelly's ford; crossing. there the Rappahannock that night and next morningthe men wading up to their armpits and the Rapidan at Germania Mills, next day, moving thence rapidly on CHANCELLORSVILLE. The 5th (Meade's) corps followed; crossing the Rapidan at Ely's ford, lower down. Meantime, the 2d (Couch's) corps approached, so nearly as it might unobserved, to both the United States and Banks's fords, ready to cross when these should be flanked by the advance of the 11th, 12th, and 5th behind these fords to Chancellorsville. Resistance had been expected here; but none was encountered, as none worth mentioning had been above; and Couch crossed his corps" at the United States ford on pontoons, without the loss of a man. Gen. Hooker, at Morrisville, superintended the movement; following himself to Chancellorsville, where he established his headquarters that night. . 29th; and, before daylight, Brooks's division had crossed in boats and driven off the Rebel pickets; while Gen. Wadsworth in like manner led the advance of Reynolds's division; when three pontoon bridges were laid in front of Sedgwick, and every thing made ready for crossing in force. Now Sickles's (3d) corps was ordered to move" silently, rapidly to the United States ford, and thence to Chancellorsville, while part of the pontoons were taken up and sent to Banks's ford; Reynolds, after making as great a display as possible, and exchanging some long shots with the Rebels in his front, following, May 2d; raising Hooker's force at and near Chancellorsville to 70,000 men. Sedgwick, on the other side of the Rebel army, had his own corps, 22,000 strong; while Gen. Gibbon's division of the 2d corps, 6,000 strong, which had been left in its camp at Falmouth to guard our stores and guns from a Rebel raid, was subject to his order; raising his force to nearly 30,000. Thus far, Gen. Hooker's success had been signal and deserved. His movements had been so skillfully masked that Lee was completely deceived; and the passage of the Rappahannock had been effected, both above and below him, and all its fords seized, without any loss whatever. Never did a General feel more sanguine of achieving not merely a great but a crushing victory. "I have Lee's army in one hand and Richmond in the other," was his exulting remark to those around him as he rode up to the single but capacious brick house-at once mansion and tavern-that then, with its appendages, constituted Chancellorsville. But " April 30. LEE CONCENTRATES IN HOOKER'S FRONT. an amazing misapprehension of his real position and its perils. It reads as follows: "HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, "CAMP NEAR FALMOUTH, VA., 355 the order he issued thereupon evinces | skillfully made that he did not anticipate a crossing in force until it was too late to call on Lee for rëenforcements; and he had no choice but to fall back rapidly before our advancing columns to Chancellorsville, where a fourth brigade joined him; but, being still too weak to make head against an army, he obliqued thence five miles toward Fredericksburg, at the point where the two roads from Chancellorsville become "April 30, 1863. "It is with heartfelt satisfaction that the Commanding General announces to the army that 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 5th, 11th, and 12th corps have been a succession of splendid achievements. "By command of Maj.-Gen. HOOKER. "S. WILLIAMS, Ass't Adjt.-Gen." A General who has but eight days' provisions at hand, and these in the haversacks of his men, with a capricious river between him and his dépôts, and who has been obliged to leave behind most of his heavier guns, as well as his wagons, and is enveloped in a labyrinth of woods and thickets, traversed by narrow roads, and every foot of it familiar to his enemy, while a terra incognita even to his guides, has no warrant for talking in that strain. Never were a few "intelligent contrabands," who had traversed those mazes by night as well as by day, more imperatively needed; yet he does not seem to have even seasonably sought their services; hence, his general order just recited, taken in connection with his pending experience, was destined to lend a mournful emphasis to the trite but sound old monition, "Never halloo till you are out of the woods." The fords of the Rappahannock next above Fredericksburg had been watched by Gen. Anderson with three brigades, some 8,000 strong; but Hooker's dispositions were so one. Here Lee soon appeared from Fredericksburg, with the divisions of McLaws and the rest of Anderson's own. Jackson, with those of A. P. Hill and Rhodes (late D. H. Hill's), had been watching our demonstration under Sedgwick, below Fredericksburg; but, when Lee heard that Hooker had crossed in force above, he at once inferred that the movement below was a feint, and called Jackson away toward Chancellorsville, adding the division of Trimble to his command and impelling him on a movement against Hooker's extreme right; leaving only Early's division and Barksdale's brigade in front of Sedgwick on our remote left, and to hold the heights overlooking Fredericksburg, which he judged no longer likely to be assailed. Lee had been outgeneraled in the passage of the Rappahannock on his left, while he was watching for Hooker on his right; but he was not disconcerted. Leaving a very small force in his works on the Fredericksburg heights, he pushed his main body-at least 50,000 strong-down the Gordonsville plank and lateral roads to the point, half-way to Chancellorsville, where the old turnpike intersects the plank road; and was r CHANCELLORSVILLE Explanations: A. Positions held by Union troops previous to the movement. B. Positions held by Rebel troops previous to the movement. C. Position taken and held by Union troops, April 29. E. Farthest advance made by Union forces, May 1. here concentrated in time to watch G. Jackson's attack on the 11th corps, May 2. H. Position which Union forces retired to and intrenched, I. Heights at Fredericksburg carried by 6th corps, J. Advanced position attained by 6th corps. K. Interior line intrenched previous to retiring of Union L. Route pursued by Jackson's forces. A reconnoissance down the old pike for three miles toward Fredericksburg having developed no hostile force, Gen. Hooker ordered" an advance of Sykes's regulars (3d division, 5th corps) on that road, followed by part of the 2d corps; the 1st and 3d divisions of the 5th corps moving on a road farther north, in the direction of Banks's ford; the 11th, followed by the 12th, being thrown out westwardly from Chancellorsville, along the two roads, which are here, for a short distance, blended, but gradually separate. An advance of two or three miles toward Fredericksburg was meditated; but Sykes had hardly sharp-shooters, and the crests of the JACKSON ROUTS HOWARD'S CORPS. ridges occupied by his batteries, whence he opened on our left, upon our wagons in the cleared space around the Chancellorsville house, next morning." The 3d (Sickles's) corps, having arrived by a hard march from below Fredericksburg, had been mainly posted in reserve near our center, while Hooker, about daybreak, rode along his right, which he apprehended was too far extended, or not strongly posted, and which he found no wise prepared by earthworks and batteries for a flank attack; but he was assured by Slocum and Howard that they were equal to any emergency. Thus our army stood still, when, at 8 A. M., Birney, commanding Sickles's 1st division, which had been thrown well forward toward our right, between the 12th and the 11th corps, reported a continuous movement of Rebel forces along his front toward our right; whereupon, Sickles, at his own suggestion, was ordered by Hooker to push forward Birney's division, followed by another, to look into the matter. 357 Sunset found him thus far advanced, holding the road over which the Rebels were originally marching; his division formed in square, with his artillery in the center; Barlow's brigade of the 5th corps, which had advanced to support his right, being up with him; but Whipple's division of the 3d and one of the 12th corps, which were to have covered his left, being invisibly distant. Soon, panic-stricken fugitives from the 11th, now almost directly in Birney's rear, brought tidings of a great disaster. The Rebel movement to our right, along our front-which had been either culpably disregarded by Howard, or interpreted as a retreat of the Rebel army on Richmondhad culminated, a little before 6 P. M., in a grand burst of Stonewall Jackson, with 25,000 men, on the exposed flank of that corps. Emerging suddenly from the thick woods which enveloped that flank, and charging it from three sides, as it were, the Rebels caught some of our men preparing their suppers, with arms stacked, and gave them no time to recover. In a moment, the 1st division, Gen. Devens, was overwhelmed; its commander being among the the wounded, and one-third of his force, including every General and Colonel, either disabled or captured. Driven back in wild rout down the Chancellorsville road upon the position of Gen. Schurz, it was found that his division had already retreated-perhaps fled is the apter word— and an attempt made to rally and form here proved abortive; the 17th Connecticut, which bore a resolute part in the effort, had its Lt.-Col. killed and its Colonel severely woundSaturday, May 2. Birney, at 10 A. M., directed Clark's rifled battery to open on the Confederate wayfarers, which he did with great effect, throwing their column into disorder, and compelling it to abandon the road. The movement being evidently continued, however, on some road a little farther off, Sickles, at 1 P. M., directed Birney to charge the passing column; and he did so; bridging with rails a petty creek in his front, passing over his division and two batteries, and striking the rear of the Rebel column with such force that he captured and brought off 500 prisoners. ed. Back upon Steinwehr's division | Keenan, 8th Pennsylvania, he said, rolled the rabble rout, in spite of "You must charge into those woods Howard's frantic exertions; and, although a semblance of organization and consistency was here maintained, the great majority of the corps poured down to Chancellorsville and beyond, spreading the infection of their panic, and threatening to stampede the entire army. Sickles had been preparing to strike a still heavier blow than that of Birney, and had, to that end, obtained from Hooker Pleasanton's cavalry, perhaps 1,000 strong, with permission to call on Howard and Slocum for aid; when he was thunderstruck by tidings that Howard's corps was demolished. As he had heard no firing of consequence, he refused at first to credit the story; but he was soon constrained to believe it. Not only was the 11th corps gone, but the triumphant Rebels were in his rear, between him and headquarters; so that when, recalling Birney from his advanced position, he sent to Hooker for his 3d division, he was informed that it could not be sent-Hooker having been obliged to use it to arrest the progress of the enemy, and prevent their driving him from Chancellorsville. Sickles was in a critical position; but he had now his two divisions in hand, with his artillery-which had not been used in Birney's advance massed in a cleared field; where Pleasanton, coming in from the front with a part of his force, met the rushing flood of fugitives from the right, and was told that a charge of cavalry was required to stop the enemy's advance. (He had at most 500 men, wherewith to arrest a charge of 25,000, led by Stonewall Jackson.) Turning to Maj. with your regiment, and hold the Rebels until I can get some of these guns into position. You must do it, at whatever cost." "I will," was the calm, smiling response of the patriot, who well understood that the order was his death-warrant. Ten minutes later, he was dead, and a good part of his regiment lay bleeding around him; but their charge had stayed the Rebel rush, and enabled Pleasanton to get his own battery of horse artillery into position, his guns double-shotted with canister, and trained on the ground, 200 yards distant, over which the enemy must come on. clearing the field of fugitives, picking up what guns and ammunition he could from the wreck of the 11th corps, and adding these to Sickles's, he had them all properly posted and double-shotted, and was ready for his expected visitors. He had not long to wait. The woods in his front were by this time full of them; darkness was falling; and some of the enemy resorted to the unworthy stratagem (quite too common on either side) of displaying a false flag, and pretending to be friends. One of our gunners exclaimed, "General, that is our flag!” whereupon he sent forward an aid to ascertain. "Come on, we are friends !" was called out; and, in another moment, the woods blazed with musketry, and the Rebels charged out of them, rushing upon our guns; which that instant opened, and swept whole ranks of them away. Three charges were thus made one of them to within fifty yards of the guns-but each was repelled with great slaughter; though Pleasanton had no in |