344

SAFE RETURN TO HELENA.

Union lines. Darkness shrouded the scene, and finding that the enemy could reach his rear by two roads, Clayton consulted with his officers, and determined to cross L'Aug. ville river at Hughes' Ferry. He did so in safety, and on the 12th of May reached Helena. The Union loss in this expedition was only two killed and forty wounded, while that of the rebels was fifty killed and one hundred wounded, including one colonel, four captains, and five lieutenants. In the end of April, and beginning of May, the rebel cavalry raided frequently, under Imboden, Jenkins, Harper, and Jones, in Western Virginia, on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, at Piedmont, Cranberry, Oakland, Rowlesburg, and Altamont. These raids were very annoying, and on both sides interrupted communications.

Greater events, however, now claim our attention. The mighty armies are again confronting, and another field of slaughter, the scene of a great conflict, one which carried desolation to many hearths, is about to be described.

CHAPTER XXIV.

MAY, 1863.

HOOKER'S REORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY OF THE POT MAC-SIX CORPS CONCENTRATED AT CHANCELLORSVILLE-LEE'S COUNTER-PLOT-ATTACK BY STONEWALL JACKSON ON THE RIGHT WING-PANIC AND FLIGHT OF THE ELEVENTH CORPS-ENEMY CHECKED BY BERRY'S DIVISION-BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS-JACKSON MORTALLY WOUNDED-HOOKER REFORMS HIS LINES-BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE-HOOKER AGAIN CHANGES HIS LINES-BATTLE AT FREDERICKSBURG OF THE SIXTH CORPS-SEDGWICK CROSSES THE RIVER-THE RETREAT OF HOOKER ACROSS THE RAPPAHANNOCK-HIS ADDRESS TO THE ARMY-THE TROOPS RETURN TO THEIR OLD CAMPS.

WHEN General Hooker assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, he increased its efficiency by the dismissal of incompetent officers, the reduction of transportation trains, and the consolidation of the cavalry into one body. When the army was in a proper condition, he determined to hurl it upon the foe, and having carefully studied the topography of the country, perfected a plan, which, as yet, was not divulged even to his corps commanders.

A large but secret cavalry expedition, with Stoneman in command, and Averill and Kilpatrick as subordinates, was sent out on the 27th of April. On the previous day, orders had been issued to the army, to be ready to break up camp on the day following, and march with eight day's cooked

rations.

The army moved on the morning of the 27th. Three corps, the First, Third, and Sixth, under Generals Reynolds, Sickles, and Sedgwick, respectively, were moved, Monday evening, to a point on the banks of the Rappahannock, two miles below Fredericksburg. The Fifth and Twelfth corps, under Generals Meade and Slocum, respectively, moved at the same time, up the north bank of the Rappahannock, and camped near Banks' and United States fords, the former being eight, and the latter eleven miles from Fredericksburg. The Eleventh corps, under General O. O. Howard, had taken the same direction on the night of the 26th, and

346 ADVANCE OF HOOKER TO CHANCELLORSVILLE.

the Second corps, under General Couch, still remained in

camp.

On Tuesday, April 28th, the boats were taken from the pontoon train, and carried Russell's brigade, of the Sixth corps across the river, the movement being favorably veiled by a dense fog. These troops drove the rebel sharpshooters from the rifle-pits, and aided in laying the pontoons, over which the whole of Brooks' division crossed, early in the day. General Sickles' Third corps had been sent back, and proceeded up the river. General Reynolds' corps, in attempting to cross, was fired on by sharpshooters, but suc ceeded, after some delay, and by the aid of the batteries on the Falmouth side. The rebel forces below, were drawn to Fredericksburg, by the ostentatious display of Reynolds' and Sedgwick's corps, marching and counter-marching, with all their artillery. This stratagem succeeded. Howard's and Slocum's corps moved twelve miles to the south, and crossed by wading the Rapidan at Germania ford, and Meade's corps crossed at Ely's ford. These three corps then advanced to Chancellorsville, a village consisting of but one house, at the point where the Gordonsville turnpike and the Orange Court House plank road intersect.

A squadron of Pleasonton's cavalry kept up communication between the advancing columns, and a squadron also protected Howard's left flank. The rebels had thrown up strong intrenchments at United States ford, at the mouth of the Rapidan, twelve miles from Fredericksburg, which they abandoned on the approach of the Union troops, and Couch's corps crossed on bridges, unmolested. Four army corps were now concentrating at Chancellorsville, where Hooker established his head-quarters.

A column of one hundred thousand men, each man carrying sixty pounds of baggage, and marching thirty-six miles in two days, had crossed, after bridging two streams, and baffled a wily and desperate foe. Lee's flank was turned, and Hooker announced to the army, on the 30th of April, that the Confederates must either ingloriously fly, or come out from behind their defences and give the Union forces battle on their own ground, where certain destruction awaited them. And indeed, such a result seemed inevitable. The Union army was now massed in the rear of the rebel batteries, which bristled on the Rappahannock. The foe must

"STONEWALL" JACKSON ATTACKS THE RIGHT WING. 347

either retreat south, along the line of the railroad to Richmond, or fight Hooker on his own ground. The way to Gordonsville was in possession of the Federals, and Stoneman, with three thousand selected cavalry, had gone to cut off the enerny's communication.

The Confederate force was one hundred thousand men, having been augmented recently by troops from Charleston, and by the division of Hill, which had but a few days before been operating near Suffolk. Longstreet's division, which, after a twenty-four days' siege of the latter place, was recalled to Chancellorsville, was not up in time for the battle.

The Chancellorsville house, which stands in a small clearing of a few acres, is a two-story brick mansion, and became Hooker's head-quarters. The piazza on the south has a view on a turnpike road a considerable distance, to Scott's creek; and the Orange and Fredericksburg plank road runs in front, through the middle of the clearing. The army of Hooker was stationed south of, and almost parallel to, this road, which runs from east to west. Two miles from headquarters, and on this road, the Eleventh corps was stationed, and formed the extreme right of the Union line.

There was skirmishing on Friday, the 1st of May. During the whole night, both armies were busy fortifying, constructing abatis, and throwing up intrenchments. The enemy had left Fredericksburg, and massed at Chancellorsville. In continual skirmishes, by day and night, considerable life was lost. In one of these struggles, Colonel McVickar, of the Sixth New York cavalry, a brave man and true Christian soldier, lost his life.

All day on Saturday, (2d), the rebels were massing along the plank road from Fredericksburg. When near Chancellorsville, they made a detour, through woods and behind hills, in order to hurl their whole force against Howard, on the right wing. Lee had sent Stonewall Jackson, with thirty thousand men, to attack this corps, which contained only nine thousand-fearful odds!

General Howard was conversing at his head-quarters, when he heard a heavy gun from the southwest, succeeded by musketry. He galloped up, and was met by a panic stricken crowd of fugitives. General Deven's brigade, composed of the Sixty-eighth and Forty-first New Jersey regiments, principally Germans, bore the first shock. The rebel

348 line was long enough to overlap the Union line on the right, and sweep it in flank and rear with a scathing fire of musketry and artillery. The first division had given way; and the noblest efforts of the brave Howard and his officers, could not arrest the panic, or stem the tide of fugitives rolling over the field.

PANIC AND FLIGHT OF THE ELEVENTH CORPS.

The whole plan of Hooker was changed in one half hour. The hopes of the mighty were laid low, and the army which he confidently expected by one bold stroke of strategy to overthrow, was threatening his own with destruction, and sweeping his legions before it like the roar and rush of a whirlwind. But the mighty spirit of Hooker was prepared for such an unexpected emergency. As Rosecrans, at the battle of Murfreesboro, so Hooker now rode to the front, unappalled in danger's hour. His comprehensive mind took in the situation at a glance. Fortunately, General Berry, in command of his (Hooker's) own old division, was at hand. He knew the man with whom to entrust the destinies of the army, and perhaps of the Republic, at this crisis, as he ordered: "General Berry, throw your men into the breach. Don't fire a shot. Receive the rebels on the bayonet." The disciplined troops, with steady ranks, moved forward, with their bristling bayonets, to the charge. The head of the rebel columns went down before the dreadful shock, and the advance was checked. Generals Williams and Sickles, at the same time, threw themselves in the path of the fugitives. Wagons, ambulances, men, horses, guns, and caissons were all struggling in a confused mass, into which the enemy hurled their de structive bolts. Sickles found his way to a stone wall, over which horses were tumbling, with their riders. Here he took his stand beside a gateway, where, drawing his sword, and with pistol raised, he threatened instant death to the drivers of the artillery, unless they stopped. The pieces were unlimbered, and turned against the fugitives, and the men were rallied, and came to order. Pleasonton himself took the artillery in charge, and formed it into a battery, which was supported by his cavalry. The rebels, pressed back by the charge of Berry's division, were now cannonaded by forty pieces of artillery. It was about the time that the enemy sustained this check, and when preparing for another attack, that 'Stonewall" Jackson was wounded severely in the arm, near the shoulder, in mistake by his own men. He fell from