other descriptions of iron-clads were exemplified in the Keokuk and Iron sides, the latter being an armour-plated frigate, with an armament of eighteen 10, 11, and 15-inch guns. It was to be a trial between new forces of tremendous power. The defences at Charleston had been materially strengthened by Gen. Beauregard, who had been assigned to the coast scrvice; and it was thought scarcely possible that any floating thing could breast unharmed the concentrated storm of heavy metal from the guns of Sumter, Moultrie, and Battery Bee, the three principal works in the throat of the harbour. A test was at last to be obtained of a long-mooted question, and iron-clads, which were claimed to be the most impenetrable vessels ever constructed, were to come within point-blank range of the most numerous and powerful batteries that had ever been used in a single engagement.

In the afternoon of the 7th April, the line of iron-clads, comprising seven Monitors, the Ironsides, and Keokuk, entered the channel, and passed Battery Bee, and along the front of Morris Island. No sound came from the batteries; not a man was seen on the decks of the iron-clads; the sea was smooth as glass, and thus calmly and majestically the whole line of vessels passed the outer batteries. At ten minutes after three, tlie fleet, having come within range, Fort Sumter opened its batteries, and, almost simultaneously, the white smoke could be seen puffing from the low sandhills of Morris and Sullivan's Islands indicating that the batteries there had become engaged. Five of the iron-clads forming in line of battle in front of Fort Sumter, maintained a very rapid return fire, occasionally hurling their fifteen-inch shot and shell against Fort Moultrie and minor batteries, but all directing their chief efforts against the east face of Fort Sumter. The firing became terrific. The Ironsides, from her position, engaged Fort Moultrie; Battery Bee mingled the hoarse thunder of its guns in the universal din, and the whole expanse of the harbour entrance, from Sullivan's Island to Cummings' Point, became enveloped in the smoke and constant flashes of the conflict. The iron-clads kept constantly shifting their position; but, whichever way they went, their ports always turned towards the battlements of Sumter, pouring forth their terrible projectiles against the walls of that famous stronghold.

Presently the Keokuk pushed ahead of her companions, placed herself within less than nine hundred yards of the fort, and seemed to challenge it to combat. A circle of angry flashes radiated towards her from all sides; she had made herself the target of the most powerful guns the Confeder ates could command. In a few moments, she was disabled, and crept slowly out of fire. The remainder of the fleet, more or less severely injured, withdrew, and in thirty minutes from the time when the first gun opened, the action was over, and a victory obtained, which went far to impeach the once dreaded power of the iron-clads of the enemy. Admiral

NAVAL ATTACK ON CHARLESTON.

369

Dupont, "convinced of the utter impracticability of taking the city of Charleston with the force under his command," retired to Port Royal, leaving the stranded, riddled wreck of the iron-clad Keokuk as evidence of his defeat. All his vessels had sustained serious injury. The Confederates, with but two death casualties, had driven off an iron-clad fleet, obtained a complete triumph, and destroyed the prestige of the description of vessel named after the Monitor, the first of its class.

24

CHAPTER XXII.

66

MILITARY SITUATION IN THE EARLY MONTHS OF 1863.-EARLY RESUMPTION OF THE CAMPAIGN IN VIRGINIA. THE NEW FEDERAL FAVOURITE, FIGHTING JOE HOOKER."-THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.-HOOKER'S PLAN OF OPERATIONS.-HIS FLAMING ADDRESS TO HIS TROOPS.-CRITICAL SITUATION OF GEN. LEE.-SURROUNDED BY AN ENEMY MORE THAN THREEFOLD HIS NUMBERS.-CALMNESS AND SELF-POSSESSION OF LEE.-HIS DELIBERATE DISPOSITIONS FOR ATTACK.-THE FLANK-MARCH OF STONEWALL JACKSON.-HOW HE EMERGED FROM THE WILDERNESS."-FALL OF STONEWALL JACKSON. THE IMPETUS OF THE CONFEDERATE ATTACK CEASES.-HOW. GEN. LEE RECEIVED THE NEWS OF JACKSON'S FALL. THE BATTLE IN FRONT OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.-HOOKER'S ARMY CRIPPLED AND DRIVEN. SEDGWICK'S ADVANCE FROM FREDERICKSBURG.-IT ARRESTS LEE'S PURSUIT OF HOOKER. THE FIGHT NEAR SALEM CHURCH.-SEDGWICK'S FORCE ROUTED.-HOOKER RETREATS ACROSS THE RIVER.—HIS TERRIBLE LOSSES.-CHANCELLORSVILLE, THE MASTERPIECE OF LEE'S MILITARY LIFE.-REFLECTIONS ON THE VICTORY.-STARTLING OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENTS AS TO THE NUMBERS OF CONFEDERATE ARMIES.-PARTICULARS OF THE DEATH OF JACKSON.-EXACT REPORT OF HIS LAST WORDS.-CHARACTER OF STONEWALL JACKSON. HIS GREAT AMBITION.-EARLY MISCONCEPTIONS OF THE MAN.-HOW HE WAS RIDICULED.—HIS DIFFERENCE WITH PRESIDENT DAVIS.-HIS RESIGNATION SENT IN, BUT RECALLED.-JACKSON'S MILITARY CAREER.-HIS GENIUS.-HIS PIETY. HIS EPICENE NATURE.—PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF THE HERO.-WHAT VIRGINIA OWES TO HIS MEMORY.

THE military situation in the spring months of 1863 may be described by a few general lines drawn through the country, and bounding the main theatres of the war. In Virginia either army was in view of the other from the heights overlooking the town of Fredericksburg, whilst the country between the Rappahannock and the Potomac was at various times visited by detachments of Stuart's daring cavalry. The army of Tennessee was tied to no special line of operations; it was embarrassed by no important point, such as Richmond requiring to be defended; it had thus greatly the advantage over the army of Virginia; and yet we have seen, and shall continue to see, that it was far inferiour in activity and enter prise to the latter, and that, while Gen. Lee was overthrowing every army that came against him, Bragg was idle, or constantly yielding up territory to a conquering foe. From March till June, in 1863, Gen. Bragg's forces remained idly stretching from Shelbyville to the right, while the Federals,

MILITARY SITUATION IN THE SPRING CF 1863.

371

holding a line from Franklin to Woodbury, again and again, afforded opportunities of attack on detached masses which the dull Confederate commander never used. West of the Alleghany Mountains the war had travelled steadily southward to Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. In Mississippi we held the line of the Tallahatchie and the town of Vicksburg, while Grant threatened the northern portion of the State, and McClernand menaced Vicksburg. West of the Mississippi the war had been pushed to the banks of the Arkansas River, the Federals held Van Buren, and Hindman's weak and shifting tactics opposed an uncertain front to further advance of the enemy in this distant territory.

The great campaign of 1863 was to open in Virginia. There were especial reasons at Washington for an early resumption of the campaign. The Democratic party was gaining strength, in the absence of any grand success in the war; and the term of service of many of the Federal soldiers in Virginia was so near expiration that it was thought advisable to try again the issue of battle at a period somewhat earlier in the year than the date of former operations against Richmond. A change of commanders, which had come to be the usual preliminary of the resumption of Federal campaigns, was not omitted.* Gen. Joe Hooker was raised from the

* Mr. Headley, a Northern authour, in his interesting work, “The Campaigns of Sherman and Grant," makes the following very just commentary on the Northern mania for a "change of commanders." Referring to the achievements of these two popular heroes of the war, he says:

"It is not to be supposed that they were the only two great generals the war had produced, or the only ones who were able to bring it to a successful issue. It is an errour to imagine, as many do, that the Government kept casting about for men fit to do the work these men did, and, after long searching, at length found them. Several were displaced, who would have, doubtless, succeeded in bringing us ultimate victory, had they been allowed a fair trial. The errour was in supposing that men, capable of controlling such vast armies, and carrying on a war of such magnitude and covering almost a continent in its scope, were to be found ready-made. They were not to leap forth, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, completely panoplied and ready for the service to which they were determined. A war of such magnitude, and covering the territories that ours did, would have staggered the genius of Napoleon, or the skill of Wellington, even at the close of their long experience and training. To expect, therefore, that officers, who had never led ten thousand men to battle, were suddenly to become capable of wielding half a million, was absurd. Both the army and the leaders, as well as the nation, had to grow by experience to the vastness of the undertaking. A mighty military genius, capable at once of comprehending and controlling the condition of things, would have upset the government in six months. Trammelled, confined, and baffled by ignorance and unbelief,' it would have taken matters into its own hand. Besides, such prodigies do not appear every century. We were children in such a complicated and widesweeping struggle; and, like children, were compelled to learn to walk by many a stumble. Greene, next to Washington, was the greatest general our revolutionary war produced; yet, in almost his first essay, he lost Fort Washington, with its four thousand men, and seriously crippled his great leader. But Washington had the sagacity to discern his military ability beneath his failure, and still gave him his confidence. To a thinking man, that was evidently the only way for us to get a competent general-one capable of planning and carrying out a great campaign. Here was our vital errour. The Government kept throwing dice for able commanders. It is true that experience will not make a great man out of a naturally weak one; but it is equally true that without it, a man of great natural military capacity will not be equal to vast responsibilities and

position of corps commander to that of general-in-chief, and appointed to take command of the fifth attempt against Richmond. He was an immense braggart. His popular designation was "Fighting Joe Hooker." He had made himself famous in the newspapers by his fierce criticisms of McClellan's campaigns; had predicted certain capture of Richmond under his own leadership; and was just the man whose boastful confidence might kindle anew the hopes of the credulous people of the North.

THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.

On the 27th of April Hooker began his grand movement over the Rappahannock. His great numerical force enabled him to divide his army, and yet to maintain his superiority at all points. His left wing, under Sedgwick, crossed at Fredericksburg, intending to attack and occupy the heights above the town, and seize the railway to Richmond. Meanwhile the stronger portion of his army crossed the river some miles above Fredericksburg, at the United States', Ely's, and Germania fords, and began to move toward Chancellorsville-the name of a place marked by a large house, formerly a tavern, and a few out-houses, about eleven miles above Fredericksburg, and about four miles south of the point of confluence of the Rapidan and the Rappahannock. On the 30th April, having got all his forces across the river, he issued a flaming address, announcing that "the operations of the last three days have determined that our enemy must ingloriously fly, or come out from behind their de fences and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits him." So confident was he of success that he declared that Lee's army was "the property of the Army of the Potomac." Indeed, his chief concern appears to have been to cut off Lee's retreat; and as his army crossed the river, the cavalry was to move around the Confederate position, one body under Averill, marching on Gordonsville, the other under Stoneman, interposing between Lee's army and Richmond, to cut the lines of rail and destroy his communications. The disposition of forces was such that the Northern newspapers declared that it was at once conclusive of the fate of Lee and of the Confederacy itself. Never combinations. Our experience proved this; for both Grant and Sherman came very near sharing the fate of many that preceded them. Nothing but the President's friendship and tenacity saved the former after the battle of Pittsburgh Landing. His overthrow was determined on; while the latter was removed from the department of Kentucky, as a crazy man. Great by nature, they were fortunately kept where they could grow to the new and strange condition of things, and the magnitude of the struggle into which we had been thrown. If the process of changing com. manders the moment they did not keep pace with the extravagant expectations of the country, and equally extravagant predictions of the Government, had been continued, we should have been floundering to this day amid chaos and uncertainty."