imputing the blame of the disaster to Bragg: he severely criticised the soldiers. In his message to Congress (December 7, 1863), he said:

"Some of our troops inexplicably abandoned positions Conduct of the Con- of great strength, and, by a disorderly retreat, federate troops. compelled the commander to withdraw the forces elsewhere successful, and finally retire with his whole army to a position some twenty or thirty miles to the rear. It is believed that if the troops who yielded to the assault had fought with the valor they displayed on previous occasions, and which was manifested in the battle on other parts of the lines, the enemy would have been repulsed with very great slaughter, and our country would have escaped the misfortune, and the army the mortification, of the first defeat that has resulted from misconduct by the troops."

Bragg reported that his artillery was shamefully abandoned, and that no satisfactory excuse could be possibly given for the conduct of the troops on the left.

It must be remembered that Bragg's efforts were paralyzed by his misunderstandings with his chief officers, two of whom-Polk and Hill—had been already relieved for disobedience of orders.

Grant, on the contrary, received a letter of congratulation Grant is made lieu- from the President of the United States, and tenant general. on the 17th of December a vote of thanks from Congress. On the 1st of the following March the grade of lieutenant general was restored in his favor, and on the 9th of that month he was appointed to that dignity. General Halleck then became chief of staff of the army; Meade was continued in command of the Army the command of of the Potomac; Sherman replaced Grant in the military division of the Mississippi, and McPherson replaced Sherman in the Department and Army of the Tennessee.

Other changes in

the armies.

SECTION XV.

THE CONTEST IN THE ATLANTIC REGION.

CHAPTER LXIX.

ADVANCE AND DEFEAT OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.

General Hooker, having reorganized the Army of the Potomac, caused a demonstration to be made in front of the Confederate Army at Fredericksburg, while he was turning its left.

In the midst of a successful advance, he suddenly abandoned his plan, and assumed the defensive at Chancellorsville.

THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE was fought, the Confederate generals turning his position, and completely routing his right wing. In accomplishing this, General Jackson was mortally wounded.

On the following morning Chancellorsville was carried by the Confederates; but their movements were arrested by the news that Sedgwick had carried the Heights of Fredericksburg, and was advancing in their rear.

They checked the advance of Sedgwick at Salem Church, and forced him across the river; but, before they could resume their attack on Hooker, he also had recrossed: his campaign had proved to be a failure.

IN the last section we have traced the movements of the Army of the West to their successful result-the occupation of Chattanooga. In this I have to relate the operations of the Army of the East, or, more correctly, of its chief element, the Army of the Potomac, and its powerful antag onist, the Confederate army under Lee.

But, before describing these military events, it is necessary to allude briefly to certain circumstances lamation of Eman- which greatly affected the efficacy of the Army of the Potomac.

Effects of the Proc

cipation.

The proclamation of freedom to the slaves was far from being sustained unanimously at the North. Many of the Republican party had misgivings as to its effect, and that section of the Democratic party which believed that restora tion to place and power depended on an alliance with the

South, loudly declared that it was really of "no more avail than the pope's bull against the comet." As if two years of war, with all their privations and horrors, had not already exasperated the seceding communities as much as could possibly be, it was affirmed that an open avowal of a determination to adopt the policy of emancipation would only serve to irritate them still more.

The mass of the nation was, however, gradually assenting to that policy: some through a conviction that it was the only mode of confronting successfully the states that were banded together by slavery; some through moral considerations and the rebukes of conscience; some, also, from baser motives, the suggestions of personal interest. Among the last there were many, liable to be drafted, who began to perceive that the enlistment of black soldiers would diminish the demand for white ones; and of the manufacturers of New England there were some who were not unwilling to retain their skilled operatives by filling up the quotas of their states with colored recruits, obtained in the South as the national armies advanced.

Political influences

my.

The Army of the Potomac, acting in the vicinity of Washington, was under the weight of an incubusin the Potomac ar- political influence-which unceasingly embar rassed, and frequently paralyzed it. The aspirants for the presidency, of whom there are always many in the capital, had each his upholders and antagonists in that army, and each aspiring officer in the army had his upholders and antagonists in the capital. To such influ ences the enemies of McClellan attributed his rise, and he himself attributed his ruin. It was the same with Pope, and again the same with Burnside, and again the same with Hooker.

General Hooker took command of the Army of the Potomac on the 26th of January, 1863. He much demoralized. found it in a very disorganized condition.

Hooker finds it

Among its officers the Emancipation Proclamation met with much disapproval, many declaring that they never would have joined the army had they known that they were to be used for the freeing of slaves. A very influential portion was determined to bring McClellan back again; they thought that it was better to overthrow the Confederates rather by the display of force than by its use. They were unwilling to do any thing that might injure or even jeopardize the institution of slavery, and could not forgive Hooker for his declaration that the peninsular campaign had failed through the want of generalship. The disaster at Fredericksburg, and the deplorable issue of what was termed Burnside's mud campaign, had greatly demoralized the troops. At one time it was found that 200 men were deserting each day: not less than 2922 commissioned officers, and 81,964 men, were reported absent; of these, though many were on leave, the majority had deserted. In spring the term of 40,000 nine months and two years men would expire.

Hooker lost no time in reorganizing, and, as far as was possible, restoring the spirit of his army. In He reorganizes it. place of the grand divisions he substituted seven corps: the 1st (Reynolds), 2d (Couch), 3d (Sickles), 5th (Meade), 6th (Sedgwick), 11th (Howard), 12th (Slocum). The cavalry, under Stoneman, was in four divisions: Pleasonton, Buford, Averill, Gregg, constituting one separate corps. The strength of his infantry and artillery was 120,000; his cavalry, 13,000; he had more than 400 guns.

Hooker lay at Falmouth. Confronting him, on the opPosition and strength posite side of the Rappahannock, was Lee's of the opposing army. army, 62,000 strong. It consisted of Jackson's corps, in four divisions, commanded respectively by A.P. Hill, Rodes, Colston, Early; there were also two divisions of Longstreet's corps, those of Anderson and McLaws, Longstreet himself, with the others, having been detached to the south of James River. Of the above-mentioned

force, the cavalry numbered 3000. During the winter Lee had constructed an impregnable line from Banks's Ford to Port Royal, a distance of twenty-five miles.

The detachment of Longstreet seemed to Hooker to of Hooker's proposed fer a fitting opportunity for making an attack plan of attack. upon Lee. Perceiving that his duty was not to displace the Confederate army by driving it toward Richmond, but to destroy it, and being authorized by the government to select his own time and line of attack, with the single restriction that he must move so as to cover Washington and Harper's Ferry, he determined not to renew Burnside's front movement, but to endeavor to turn Lee's left.

With a view of concealing from the enemy the real character of the proposed operation, Sedgwick, with a powerful force, was to pretend to renew Burnside's plan of attack by crossing the river below Fredericksburg, and making a vigorous demonstration. Meantime Hooker himself was to move rapidly and secretly to his own right, and, crossing the Rappahannock and the Rapidan above their confluence, to drive off the Confederate guards from the fords, and, facing his army eastward by pivoting it on its left, was to march down the roads perpendicularly to the river, thereby emerging from the Wilderness into the clear country, a movement which would bring him into the rear of the Confederate position at Fredericksburg, and threaten Lee's communications with Richmond.

In expectation of success, all the cavalry, except about 1000 under pleasonton, was to be detached to Lee's rear to break the railroads, destroy the bridges, and cut off the Confederate army as completely as possible from Richmond.

Preference was given to this movement by the right over one by the left from considerations connected with the greater width of the Rappahannock lower down its stream, and the consequent greater difficulty of crossing.