more than two years, every impediment to the free navigation of the Mississippi was removed. Powerful portions of the Confederacy were thus severed and weakened, and the loyal people of the land were jubilant with the hope and expectation that the end of the terrible strife was nigh. The blow dismayed the Conspirators, and the wiser men in the Confederacy clearly perceived that all was lost.'

WHILE a portion of the National troops were achieving important victories on the banks of the Lower Mississippi, those composing the Army of the Potomac were winning an equally important victory not far from the banks of the Susquehanna. We left that army in charge of General Joseph Hooker after sad disasters at Fredericksburg; let us now observe its movements from that time until its triumphs in the conflict at Gettysburg, between the Susquehanna and Potomac rivers.

From January until early in April, Hooker was employed in preparing the weakened and demoralized Army of the Potomac for a vigorous campaign. It lay on the northern side of the Rappahannock River, nearly opposite Freder icksburg, and, with the exception of some slight cavalry movements, it remained quiet during nearly three months of rest and preparation. It was reorganized,

1 The blow was unexpected to the Conspirators. They knew how strong Vicksburg was, and were confident that the accomplished soldier, General Johnston, would compel Grant to raise the siege. Even the Daily Citizen, a paper printed in Vicksburg, only two days before the surrender (July 2), talked as boastfully as if perfectly confident of success. In a copy before the writer, printed on wall-paper, the editor said: "The great Ulysses-the Yankee generalissimo surnamed Grant-has expressed his intention of dining in Vicksburg on Saturday next, and celebrating the Fourth of July by a grand dinner, and so forth. When asked if he would invite General Joe Johnston to join him, he said, 'No! for fear there will be a row at the table.' Ulysses must get into the city before he dines in it. The way to cook a rabbit is, 'first catch the rabbit,' &c." In another paragraph, the Citizen eulogized the luxury of mule-meat and fricasseed kitten.

2 See page 646.

See page 631. The army was arranged in seven corps, named, respectively, the 1st, 2d, 3d, 5th, 6th, 11th, and 12th, and each was distinguished by peculiar badges, worn on the hat or cap, and composed of scarlet, white, and blue cloth, made in the forms shown in the engraving, whose numbers correspond with those of the respective corps, as follow:

The corps composed twenty-three divisions; and

at the close of April [1863], the army consisted of 110,000 infantry and artillery, with 400 guns, and a well-equipped cavalry force, 13,000 strong. The corps commanders were Generals J. F. Reynolds, D. N. Couch, D. E. Sickles, G. G. Meade, J. Sedgwick, O. O. Howard, and H. W. Slocum.

and weeded of incompetent and disloyal officers.' Measures were taken to prevent desertions and to recall a vast number of absentees. Order and discipline were thoroughly established; and, at the close of April, Hooker found himself at the head of an army more than one hundred thousand in number, well disciplined, and in fine spirits. General Lee, in command of the Army of Northern Virginia, then lying on the Fredericksburg side of the Rappahannock, had been equally active in reorganizing, strengthening, and disciplining his forces. A vigorous conscription act was then in operation throughout the Confederacy, and in April, Lee found himself at the head of an army of little more than sixty thousand men of all arms, unsurpassed in discipline, and full of enthusiasm. A part of his army, under General Longstreet, was absent in Southeastern Virginia, confronting the troops of General J. J. Peck, in the vicinity of Norfolk. Yet with his forces thus divided, Lee felt competent to cope with his antagonist, for he was behind a strong line of intrenchments reaching from Port Royal to Banks's Ford, a distance of about twenty-five miles.

3

We have observed that only some cavalry movements disturbed the quiet of the Army of the Potomac in the winter and spring of 1863. Early in February the Confederate General W. H. F. Lee made an unsuccessful attempt to surprise and capture National forces at Gloucester, opposite Yorktown; and at a little past midnight of the 8th of March, the notorious guerrilla chief, Moseby, with a small band of mounted men, dashed into the village of Fairfax Court-House, and carried away the Union commander there and some others. A few days later the first purely cavalry battle of the war occurred not far from Kelly's Ford, on the Rappahannock, between National troops under General W. W. Averill and Confederates led by Fitz-Hugh Lee. Averill encountered Lee while he was pushing on toward Culpepper Court-House, from the Rappahannock, when a severe contest ensued, and continued until late in the evening, when Averill retreated across the river, pursued to the water's edge by his foe. Each lost between seventy and one hundred men.

Early in April, before the ranks of his army were full, Hooker determined to advance, his objective being Richmond, for the terms of enlistment of a large portion of his men would soon expire. He ordered General Stoneman to

1 There were officers in that army, high in rank, who were opposed to the policy of emancipating the slaves as a war measure, which, from the beginning, had been contemplated by the government. The proclamation of the President to that effect developed this opposition in considerable strength, and this in connection with the active influence of a part of the Opposition party, known as the Peace Faction, upon the friends of the soldiers at home, had a most depressing effect upon the army. The men were impressed with the idea that it was becoming a "war for the negro," instead of "a war for the Union." Officers known to be inclined to give such a tone of feeling to their men were replaced by loyal men, in active sympathy with the government in its efforts to crush the rebellion.

2 When Hooker took command of the army, he found the number of reported absentees to be 2,922 commissioned officers and 81,964 non-commissioned officers and privates. This, doubtless, included all the deserters since the organization of the Army of the Potomac, and the sick and wounded in the hospitals. It is estimated that 50,000 men, on the rolls of that army, were absent at the time we are considering, namely, the close of January, 1863.

Lee's army was composed of two corps, commanded respectively by Generals J. Longstreet and T. J. ("Stonewall") Jackson. His artillery was consolidated into one corps, under the com mand of General Pendleton as chief.

cross the Rappahannock with a large force of cavalry, strike and disperse the horsemen of Fitz-Hugh Lee, of Stuart's cavalry, known to be at Culpepper Court-House, and then, pushing on to Gordonsville, turn to the left, and destroy the railways in the rear of

Lee's army. Heavy rains, which made the streams brimful, foiled the movement at its beginning, and Stoneman and his followers swam their horses across the Rappahannock, and returned to camp. Hooker then paused for a fortnight, when he put his whole army in motion, for the purpose of turning Lee's flank. He sent ten thousand mounted men to raid on his rear, and threw a large portion of his army (Fifth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Corps) across the Rappahannock, above Fredericksburg, with orders to concentrate at Chancellorsville, in Lee's rear, ten

JOSEPH HOOKER.

miles from that city. This was accomplished on the evening of the 30th [April, 1863], when over thirty-six thousand troops threatened the rear of the Confederate army.

Meanwhile, the left wing of Hooker's army (First, Third, and Sixth Corps), under General Sedgwick, left near Fredericksburg, had so completely masked the movements of the turning column, by demonstrations on Lee's front, that the latter was not aware of the peril that threatened his army until that column had crossed the Rappahannock, and was in full march on Chancellorsville. Hooker expected Lee would turn and fly toward Richmond when he should discover this peril, but he did no such thing. On the contrary, he proceeded to strike his antagonist a heavy blow, for the twofold purpose of securing the direct line of communication between the parts of Hooker's now severed army, and to compel him to fight, with only a part of his force, in a disadvantageous position, at Chancellorsville, which was in the midst of a region covered with a dense forest of shrub-oaks and pines, and tangled undergrowths, broken by morasses, hills, and ravines, called The Wilderness. For this purpose, Lee put "Stonewall" Jackson's column in motion [May 1] toward Chancellorsville, at a little past midnight.

Early in the morning Jackson was joined by other troops, and the whole force moved upon Chancellorsville by two roads. Hooker sent out a greater part of the Fifth and the whole of the Twelfth Corps, with the Eleventh in its support, to meet the advancing columns. A battle ensued; and the efforts of Lee to seize the communications between the parts of Hooker's army, just alluded to, were foiled. But the Nationals were pushed back to their intrenchments at Chancellorsville, and there took a strong defensive position.

Both commanders now felt a sense of impending danger, for both armies were in a critical position in relation to each other. Hooker decided to rest on the

defensive, but Lee, in accordance with the advice of Jackson, took the bold aggressive step of detaching the whole of that leader's corps and sending it on a secret flank movement, to gain the rear of the National army. The movement was successfully made, though not entirely unobserved; but the troops seen moving behind the thick curtain of The Wilderness thickets were supposed to be a part of Lee's army in retreat. While General Sickles, in command of that portion of the line where the discovery was made, was seeking positive knowledge in the matter, Jackson, who had gained the National rear, solved the problem by bursting suddenly from behind that curtain with twenty-five thou sand men, failing suddenly and firmly upon Hooker's right, crumbling it into atoms, and driving the astounded column in wild confusion upon the remainder of the line. A general battle ensued, in which the residue of the Confederate army, under the direct command of General Lee, participated, he having attacked Hooker's left and center. The conflict continued until late in the evening, when the Confederates sustained an irreparable loss in the death of Jackson, who was accidentally shot, in the gloom, by his own men.'

Hooker made new dispositions to meet the inevitable attack the following morning [May 3, 1863]. He had called from Sedgwick the First Corps, full twenty thousand strong, and it arrived that evening and swelled the National force at Chancellorsville to about sixty thousand men. He had also ordered Sedgwick to cross the Rappahannock at once, seize and hold the town and heights of Fredericksburg, and push the bulk of his force with all possible haste along the roads to Chancellorsville. He also changed a portion of the front of his own line so as to receive the expected attack. During the night Lee effected a slight connection between the two wings of his army, and soon afterward, Stuart, at dawn, shouted at the head of the Confederate column on Hooker's right, "Charge, and remember Jackson!" whose troops he was leading, and fell furiously upon a portion of the line commanded by General Sickles. Lee attacked Hooker's left and center again. The struggle was severe and sanguinary, and when, toward noon, Sickles, finding himself sorely pressed, sent to Hooker for re-enforcements, the chief had just been prostrated by an accident, and for a brief space the army was without a head. There was an injurious delay, and finally, after long and hard fighting, the whole National army was pushed from the field, and took a strong position on the roads back of Chancellorsville, leading to the Rapid Anna and Rappahannock. Lee's army was now united, while Hooker's remained divided.

Sedgwick had endeavored to obey Hooker's command to join him, but failed to do so. He had thrown his army across the river on the morning of the 2d [May], and was lying quietly when he received the order at midnight. He moved immediately, and took possession of Fredericksburg. General

1 Jackson had been reconnoitering in front of his forces, and, when retiring in the darkness, he and his companions were mistaken by their friends for Union cavalry, and were fired upon. Jackson fell, pierced by their bullets, and some of his staff were killed. His arm was shattered, and afterward amputated. He died on the 10th of May.

2 A cannon-ball struck a pillar of the Chancellor House, and hurled it with such force against Hooker, that it stunned him. The command then devolved on Couch, but Hooker was able to resume it in the course of a few hours.

Early was then in command on the heights. Sedgwick formed storming columns in the morning, drove the Confederates from the fortified ridge, and with nearly his entire force pushed on toward Chancellorsville. At Salem Church, a few miles from Fredericksburg, he was met and checked, by a force sent by Lee, after a sharp fight, by which he lost, that day, including the struggle for the heights in the morning, about five thousand men. Instead of joining Hooker, Sedgwick found himself compelled, the next day, in order to save his army, to fly across the Rappahannock, which he did, near Banks's Ford, on the night of the 4th and 5th of May. Hooker, meanwhile, had heard of the perilous situation of Sedgwick, and, on consultation with his corps commanders, it was determined to retreat to the north side of the river. Lee had prepared to strike Hooker a heavy blow on the 5th. A violent rain-storm prevented, and that night the Nationals passed the river in safety without molestation. On the same day the Confederate army resumed its position on the heights at Fredericksburg. Both parties had suffered very severe losses.' While Hooker and Lee were contending at Chancellorsville, a greater portion of the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Stoneman,

were raiding on the communications of the Army of Northern Virginia. They crossed the Rappahannock [April 29], and swept down toward Rich mond in the direction of Gordonsville. Unfortunately for the efficiency of the expedition, the command was divided, and raided in various directions, one party, under Kilpatrick, approaching within two miles of Richmond. They destroyed much property, but the chief object of the expedition, namely, the breaking up of the railways between Lee and Richmond, was not accomplished, and the week's work of the cavalry had very little bearing on the progress of the war.

The National loss was reported at 17,197, including about 5,000 prisoners. They left behind, in their retreat, their dead and wounded, 13 pieces of artillery, about 20,000 small-arms, 17 colors, and a large quantity of ammunition. The Confederate loss was probably about 15,000, of whom 5,000 were prisoners, with 15 colors, and 7 pieces of artillery.

The villa and out-buildings of Mr. Chancellor constituted "Chancellorsville." That mansion was beaten into ruins during the battle. The picture gives its appearance when the writer sketched it, in June, 1866.