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LXI.

1863.

CHAP. to guard the fortifications, and hastened with all the force he could muster to Chancellorsville. On the march he met "Stonewall" Jackson, who proposed to make a long detour and come in on the extreme right of the Union army. Early in the morning he set out with 22,000 veterans in a direction that induced the Union scouts to think he was falling back toward Richmond. Lee, meantime, with only 13,000 men, kept Hooker's attention by making feints at different points during the day, while Jackson was moving rapidly round to the rear of the Union army. There is certainly no excuse for Hooker and his officers to be thus deceived by this usual maneuver of Jackson. At eight May P.M. the latter fell with unexampled fury upon the Eleventh Corps, General Sigel, which was completely surprised and driven back upon the Twelfth Corps. Darkness came on, and the enemy was checked by some earthworks hastily thrown up, and by the persistent cannonade into the woods kept up by the Federals. Jackson wished to make a night attack, and gave orders to that effect. Not wishing to trust any one, he himself, with a few attendants, went forward to reconnoiter, leaving directions to his soldiers not to fire unless they saw cavalry approaching from the side of the Federals. He was returning, when a brigade of his own men fired by mistake, and he fell mortally wounded. A few days later he died. General J. E. B. Stuart was appointed to the command of his division.

2.

May

3.

Both armies prepared for the struggle of the next day. Sedgewick obtained possession of Fredericksburg and moved toward Chancellor's. Hooker's lines were now in a position that rendered his superiority of numbers unavailable for a general battle because of dense thickets of scruboak. Fighting in certain points continued through the day, and Lee himself, taking four brigades from in front of Hooker, forced Sedgewick back, though his troops suffered much from the Federal artillery. Sedgewick was compelled to recross the river. For three hours there was no responsible head to the army, as Hooker when on the

BLUNDERS-THE WITHDRAWAL.

911

LXI.

1863.

piazza of the inn-his headquarters-was stunned by a CHAP. piece of falling timber knocked down by a cannon-ball from a hostile battery. It is now well known there were a number of inexcusable blunders which made this battle more a disaster than a defeat. A council of war was held at Hooker's headquarters. Generals Meade, Reynolds, and Howard wished to advance and fight it out; Slocum was not present, and Couch and Sickles thought it prudent to withdraw. It was decided by Hooker to withdraw, and May during the night, in the midst of rain and darkness, the army passed safely to the north bank of the Rappahannock. The Union army lost in killed and wounded about 11,000 and the Confederates about 10,000. The disappointment of the loyal people of the country at this disaster was exceedingly great.

4.

Hooker, when about to move, sent a large co-operating cavalry force under Stoneman around the enemy's army to destroy railroads and bridges, and to cut lines of communication between Lee's position and Richmond. This raid, though not fully completing the orders given, did an immense amount of harm to railways; and a portion under Killpatrick passed entirely around Richmond to Gloucester May. on the James, and joined the army at Fredericksburg.

8.

LXII.

1863.

CHAPTER LXII.

LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION-CONTINUED.

Lee's Advance North.-Hooker's Movements.-Confederates Across the Potomac.-Gen. Meade in Command.-Battle of Willoughby Run.-Death of Reynolds.-Battle of Gettysburg.-Lee's Defeat.Vicksburg.-Running the Gauntlet.-Victories -Vicksburg Captured.-Port Hudson Captured.-Grierson's Raid.-Naval Expedi tion.-Capture of the Atlanta.-The Draft and Riot-French Protestant Address.-Colored Soldiers.

CHAP. THE Cry
"On to the North" was heard on all sides in
Richmond. General Lee coincided in this view; his army
was out of provisions, and it is said that on one of the
requisitions to the Commissary-general the latter wrote:
"If General Lee wants rations, let him go and get them in
Pennsylvania." Another reason was to compel Hooker to
withdraw his army to defend Washington. Childe, in his
life of Lee, enumerates among the encouragements, that
the Emancipation Proclamation "had exasperated the
Democratic party, who complained bitterly that all Consti
tutional liberties were disappearing ;" and also great hopes
were entertained from the influence of the "Friends of
peace." "The victories of Fredericksburg and Chancel
lorsville had filled the South with joy and confidence."
"If Lee's cannon had thundered at the gates of Washing-
ton or Philadelphia, the Peace party' in the North would
have felt sufficiently strong to intervene in an efficacious
manner, and it would have been impossible for the strife
to continue."1

Hooker was vigilant and felt assured that the enemy
Life of Lee, pp. 220, 227.

LEE'S ADVANCE NORTH-HOOKER'S MOVEMENTS.

LXII.

1863.

913 were moving toward the Potomac; this information he CHAP. sent to Washington, and asked permission to attack their rear, but the request was refused. At length Hooker took up his line of march toward Washington, and the 50,000 men under Longstreet in his front hastened to join Lee and the advance; their army numbered 70,000 effective men, 10,000 of whom were cavalry: by far the best of their armies in discipline.

Hooker by skillful reconnoitering discovered the movements of Lee's army, and in a cavalry skirmish Pleasanton obtained papers at Stuart's quarters which revealed the intentions of Lee: this information Hooker at once sent to Halleck's quarters at Washington. Meanwhile, the Con- June

federate advance under Ewell was rapidly and secretly moving down the Shenandoah Valley, marching seventy miles in three days. They surprised Gen. Milroy at Winchester and compelled him to retreat; he finally reached the Potomac and passed over, losing on the way about 4,000 prisoners. Milroy would not have been surprised if Halleck had telegraphed to him the news of the enemy's advance, which was known at his headquarters several days before.

9.

The movements of the two armies were nearly the same as the autumn before; Lee, moving down the valley and crossing the Potomac, and Hooker, conducting his march with great prudence, keeping between him and the National Capital; they moved in parallel lines, watching each other carefully. Bands of Confederate cavalry in force had cut the Baltimore and Ohio railway at important points, and had passed across Maryland by way of Hagerstown to Chambersburg, Pa., seizing cattle, horses, sheep, June and sending trains of wagons laden with plunder across the Potomac. This continued almost unmolested for two weeks. The Governors of the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia issued proclamations calling for the people to turn out and repel the invaders, and so did President Lincoln.

14.

CHAP.
LXII.

1863.

June

The advance of Lee's army under General Ewell crossed the Potomac at Williamsport and Shepherdstown, passing on to Chambersburg, and thence to York. Two days afterward the divisions of Longstreet and Hill crossed at the same places, and finally the whole army was reunited at Chambersburg. Hooker crossed the river at Edwards ford and moved to Frederick. Hooker now desired to send a strong force to unite with the troops at Maryland Heights, and take possession of the Potomac ferries in the rear of Lee, and thus cut off his communications and seize the laden trains continually passing south, but Halleck, the General-in-Chief, disapproved of the measure, as he usually did of the suggestions of the commanders in the field, who were presumed to know the situation better than any General in his office at Washington. Hooker, irritated at the reJune fusal, sent in his resignation, which was accepted, and MajorGeneral George G. Meade was appointed to succeed him.

25.

28.

June 29.

General Meade did not change the arrangements of his predecessor, nor were operations delayed longer than one day. The troops on Maryland Heights were directed to join the army. In consequence of the interception of a letter from Jefferson Davis to Lee it became known that no movement could be made direct on Washington from Richmond, and from the defenses of the former troops were forwarded to Meade. The Federal army marched up the Monocacy Valley toward Gettysburg, Killpatrick's cavalry in the advance.

Meanwhile Lee had heard of Hooker's judicious plan to seize his line of retreat, and he suddenly fell back, as he was marching on Harrisburg, to secure a position east of the South Mountain. Up to this time he was not aware that the Union army had crossed the Potomac, and was in ignorance of its movements. He at once recalled Ewell from York and Carlisle, and ordered Longstreet and Hill to concentrate their divisions at Gettysburg, toward which village both armies were approaching, each ignorant of the intentions of the other.

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