troops he had left in Richmond he had hardly 60,000 men. September 6, Jackson reached Frederick, where the now repudiated BarbaraFrietchie incident was said to have occurred. To his surprise the Harper's Ferry Captured. farmers drove off their cattle and would not sell their grain. Then Lee decided to open a line of supplies. through the Shenandoah valley, at the entrance of which was Harper's Ferry with a garrison of 12,500 men. To remove this obstacle he sent Jackson on the 10th, with orders to complete his task and rejoin his commander as quickly as possible. To divide his army thus in the presence of the enemy was ordinarily bad generalship; but he knew his opponents were slow and he believed no harmful results would follow. Jackson's march was swift, as usual, and on the 14th he occupied the hills which encircle the place, and the garrison, with many valuable stores, was surrendered without a battle. McClellan in Command. But let us return to the army of Pope, marching on September 5 hopelessly back to Washington. Near the city the vanguard was met by McClellan with orders to take command. In a moment the spirit of the soldiers changed, and shouts of joy welcomed him as he rode past the regiments. Pope was assigned to other duties in Washington. The same day orders were given to enter Maryland and follow Lee, but it was not until the 10th that McClellan had reorganized the army, and the 12th before he reached Frederick, through which the confederates had passed a few days earlier. Here he was handed, at 6 P.M. on the 13th, an order from Lee to D. H. Hill, recently found by a private, which revealed the plans of the confederate commander. It showed him that his opponent's army was divided, and he decided to place himself between its two parts. Twelve miles west of him were the South mountains, with two gaps in them, beyond which the roads connecting the two confederate forces were no more than eight miles away. Had he marched in the night he might have occupied these passes, but he waited until daylight, and when he reached them found they were held by the confederates. By hard fighting the gaps were both carried on the 14th, but the loss was severe. By this time Lee had learned the fate of the lost order and was falling back from Hagerstown. He stopped at Sharpsburg, threw up intrenchments in a strong position with Antietam creek on his front, and waited Jackson, who on the morning of the 15th received the surrender of Harper's Ferry and immediately set out to rejoin Lee, fifteen miles away. From Lee's position to the South mountains was only nine miles, and McClellan easily covered them by noon of the 15th. If he had fought in the afternoon he would have had half the confederate force at his mercy; but he chose to wait while his army recuperated. Next morning Jackson's men were coming up rapidly, but the last divisions did not His Slow Approach to Lee. INVASION OF MARYLAND 555 arrive until the following morning, the 17th. Yet McClellan was idle on the 16th. Nothing could better show how little he was capable of seizing upon a favorable situation. There was skirmishing late on the 16th, but it was not until dawn of the 17th that the battle was opened. Three corps, Hooker's, Mansfield's, and Sumner's, had approached Lee's left on the 16th, showing him where to expect attack. He Battle of drew back his lines and strengthened the point threatened. Antietam, September In the early morning Hooker came up most vigorously. 17, 1862. As he struggled for the high ground in front of him, Mansfield came up and joined in the battle. But the latter officer was killed, Hooker was severely wounded, and soon afterwards their corps fell back out of the deadly fire. Then Sumner advanced on the same position unsupported. He received the concentrated fire of Lee's left wing, and was so cut up that he had to withdraw with severe loss. Thus by one o'clock the fighting on Lee's left ended in a repulse. It was immediately renewed on his right, where Burnside's men pressed against lines which had been weakened to meet the charge on the left. They carried the battle before them and seemed about to seize the high ground which commanded this part of the field when A. P. Hill's division of Jackson's corps rushed up, completing an eighteenmile march from Harper's Ferry. Without orders from Lee they fell on the advancing union line and drove it back with bloody effect to its original position. Then night came, and the battle of Antietam was over. Lee's army of 60,000 had repelled the attack with a loss of 11,000 killed and wounded. McClellan with 87,000 lost 12,400. of the Next morning each army was in position, but McClellan did not renew the battle. Lee's advance into Maryland was checked, and nothing was left but to recross the Potomac, which was only two miles behind his position. This he did on the Results 19th without interference from his unaggressive adversary. Battle. September 17 was the bloodiest single day in the war. The union soldiers fought splendidly, and justified the confidence of their commander. The nation received the news with joy for although the confederacy was not destroyed, the union army's prestige was reestablished and the North was relieved from invasion. McClellan's failure to impede the confederate retreat again brought his serious failing into prominence, and for this he was removed, the command going, November 5, to Burnside. THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG Burnside did not wish to lead the army, but the appointment came as an order, and he obeyed it. The whole situation demanded a move on Richmond. Indeed, it was for not moving that McClellan was displaced. Two railroads ran from the Potomac southward; one from His Plan Washington by way of Manassas, through a rolling country in which the rivers are narrow, the other from Acquia Creek through Fredericksburg to Richmond, crossing rivers comparatively Burnside in broad. Along the former both McDowell in 1861 and Pope Command. in 1862 had operated. If the country was more practicable than that to the eastward, it gave a longer approach to Richmond. Burnside, weighing all advantages and disadvantages, concluded to move by Acquia Creek and Fredericksburg, and Lincoln, after some hesitation, accepted the plan. Lee was then at Culpeper with Longstreet, and Jackson was far away in the valley. Burnside ordered pontoons, and eluding Lee moved quickly to the Rappahannock opposite Fredericksburg, hoping to cross the river and hold the heights south of it before Lee could arrive. But his pontoons were not ready promptly, and when they arrived Longstreet held the southern heights and Jackson was coming up rapidly. Burnside had 113,000 and Lee, with Jackson at hand, had 78,000 men. Battle of burg, December 13, 1862. The ground adjoining the river on the south is a plain from a mile to a mile and a half wide, covered by Burnside's guns on the north bank. Behind it rise hills, on the crest of which Lee took position. His left was held by Longstreet and his right Fredericks- by Jackson, who arrived there on the 12th and was not well intrenched on the day of the battle. Burnside divided his force into three grand divisions under Hooker, Franklin, and Sumner. The first remained in reserve on the north bank, but the second and third he threw across the river on the 12th, where they remained safely on the plain. Franklin confronted Jackson, and Sumner, protected by the streets of Fredericksburg, was before Longstreet. Burnside by this time showed that the problem on his mind overwhelmed him. He displayed little decision, and his lieutenants were full of misgivings. Early on the 13th Franklin received an order which might mean to carry the works before him or to make a reconnaissance in force. The former was Burnside's intention, but Franklin in some doubt sent forward Meade's division, and some time later supported it with Gibbons's division. The former went forward with great courage, found a weak point, and penetrated Jackson's line, but he was not well supported, and was driven back with heavy loss by the confederate commander. With this, fighting ceased on this wing. On the Union Right. On the Marye's In the town Sumner had been held in restraint, but now came on to assault Longstreet. It was a murderous Union Left, task; for here the confederate position was exceedingly strong. Its center was Marye's Heights, well defended at the top by artillery and at the bottom by an infantry Across the plain by which it was reached was Heights. line behind a stone wall. LEE AGAINST HOOKER 557 an old canal, which would impede a charge, and the whole plain was so well covered that a confederate engineer remarked that it would be impossible for a chicken to live on it, once the confederate guns opened fire. Sumner's brigades, however, were thrown six times across this deadly spot, each time recoiling with enormous loss. Hooker, who had come over the river, rode hastily back to Burnside, on the north bank, to urge that the assault cease, but the general would not relent until 8000 of his men lay on the fatal slopes. The total loss in that day's fighting was 12,653 federals and 5377 confederates. December 15, under cover of night and a violent storm, the union army withdrew to the north bank. Grief and despair reigned in army and nation. Burnside himself was crushed, some of his highest officers were at open feud with him, and he asked for their dismissal or the acceptance of his own resignation. January 26 he was removed, and the command went to Hooker, chief of Burnside's critics. THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE Hooker in Excellent Hooker was a good fighter, and the soldiers liked him. His appointment to command them restored the broken spirits of the men, and by April they were anxious to meet their foes. Recruiting had brought the numbers up to 130,000, while Hooker's Lee in Fredericksburg had only 60,000. April 27, Hooker Initiative. broke up his camp opposite Lee, sending three corps thirty miles up the river. Here they crossed and turning eastward on its right bank approached Chancellorsville, nine miles from Fredericksburg. On the 30th another corps crossed the river and joined the other three, so that Hooker by clever marching was in good position beyond the river with 40,000 men and on Lee's left flank. While this was going on, Sedgwick with 20,000 men had crossed the Rappahannock south of Lee's position and threatened his rear. May 1, Hooker moved a short distance toward the enemy, but when he suddenly met them coming toward him, eager for battle, his confidence forsook him, and he fell back to Chancellorsville against the advice of his generals. Here he selected a position the with his back to the river, near a ford, and awaited at- Offensive. tack. Since he far outnumbered Lee, it would have been better to have made the attack. Part of his line lay in the "Wilderness," a region covered with small trees and chaparral and difficult for marching troops. His officers and soldiers were disgusted that he so quickly relinquished a promising offensive and accepted a careful defensive. May 2, Lee was before him ready to attack, spite of his numerical inferiority. Jackson is said to have suggested the plan of battle which was adopted. While the confederate line Abandons Battle of Chancellorsville, May 2, 3, and 4, 1863. made feint after feint along the union front, he made a detour of fifteen miles, until at five o'clock in the afternoon he fell unexpectedly on Hooker's extreme right, routing Howard's corps and badly demoralizing the corps next to it. Then darkness closed down, and it seemed that the coming of dawn would witness a renewed and successful fight by the terrible Jackson. But his end was at hand. In the twilight he rode past his own sentinels to reconnoiter in the enemy's rear. Half an hour later a group of horsemen galloped back on the sentinels and received a volley, after which a voice Death of out of the dark called: "Boys, don't fire again: you have Jackson. hit General Jackson!" They carried him through lines of his own awe-stricken men to a hospital, and May 10 he died. Had he been at Gettysburg, as Lee truly said, the story of the battle would have been different. The Victory May 3 the battle was renewed, and by 10 o'clock the field belonged to the confederates. Hooker, dazed by the effects of a cannon ball, which struck a column against which he leaned, drew back toward the river. Sedgwick now approached behind Lee, after driving off Early with 9000 men, whom Lee left at Fredericksburg. Lee believed Hooker was past active resistance, and turned his back on him to crush Sedgwick. He found him on the river's edge, five miles from the camp of his superior commander, and pressed him so disastrously on the 4th that Sedgwick crossed to the north bank during the night. Then Lee turned again on Hooker's 80,000, who stood not to fight, although they would have done it with a better general, but withdrew to the north bank by the morning of the 6th. Through three days of fighting at Chancellorsville the losses were 17,287 on the union side and 12,463 on the confederate side. It was the last great confederate victory. Lee's THE GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN Lee's motives in invading the North were three: 1. He wished to transfer the war to enemy's territory. 2. It was becoming evident that Vicksburg would fall, and he wished to counteract its effect by a victory of his own equally decisive, i.e. by taking Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Baltimore, or even Washington. 3. He knew the North was tiring of the war, that the terms of enlistment of her soldiers were expiring, and he thought a great defeat now would tend to make her accept peace on the basis of Southern independence. Calling to him Longstreet's corps, which was not in the battle of Chancellorsville, he had nearly 80,000 men, while his antagonist could hardly muster more until the new levies could be assembled. The rest of his army was in two corps: Jackson's old corps, now commanded by Ewell, and another commanded by A. P. Hill. To Ewell was given the van, and he His Plan. |