Part 19

Anderson now moved his division forward, and occupied the edge of the clearing, where the Union forces were still making a last stand about headquarters.

McLaws, meanwhile, in Couch's front, fought mainly his skirmishers and artillery. Hancock strengthened Miles's outpost line, who "held it nobly against repeated assaults."

While this is transacting, Couch orders Hancock to move up to the United-States Ford road, which he imagines to be threatened by the enemy; but the order is countermanded when scarcely begun. There is assuredly a sufficiency of troops there.

But Hancock is soon obliged to face about to ward off the advance of the enemy, now irregularly showing his line of battle upon the Chancellorsville clearing, while Sickles and Williams slowly and sullenly retire from before him.

The enemy is gradually forcing his way towards headquarters. Hancock's artillery helps keep him in check for a limited period; but the batteries of Stuart, Anderson, and McLaws, all directing a converging fire on the Chancellor House, make it, under the discouraging circumstances, difficult for him to maintain any footing.

When Couch had temporarily assumed command, Hancock, before Geary was forced from his intrenchments by Anderson, disposed the Second Corps, with its eighteen pieces of artillery, in two lines, facing respectively east and west, about one mile apart. But Geary's relinquishment of the rifle-pits allowed the flanks of both the lines to be exposed, and prevented these dispositions from answering their purpose. Hancock clung to his ground, however, until the enemy had reached within a few hundred yards. Then the order for all troops to be withdrawn within the new lines was promulgated, and the removal of the wounded from the Chancellor House was speedily completed,--the shelling by the enemy having set it on fire some time before.

Hancock's artillery at the Chancellor House certainly suffered severely; for, during this brief engagement, Leppien's battery lost all its horses, officers, and cannoneers, and the guns had to be removed by an infantry detail, by hand.

The Confederate army now occupied itself in refitting its shattered ranks upon the plain. Its organization had been torn to shreds, during the stubborn conflict of the morning, in the tangled woods and marshy ravines of the Wilderness; but this had its full compensation in the possession of the prize for which it had contended. A new line of battle was formed on the plank road west of Chancellorsville, and on the turnpike east. Rodes leaned his right on the Chancellor House, and Pender swung round to conform to the Federal position. Anderson and McLaws lay east of Colston, who held the old pike, but were soon after replaced by Heth, with part of A. P. Hill's corps.

In the woods, where Berry had made his gallant stand opposite the fierce assaults of Jackson, and where lay by thousands the mingled dead and wounded foes, there broke out about noon a fire in the dry and inflammable underbrush. The Confederates detailed a large force, and labored bravely to extinguish the flames, equally exhibiting their humanity to suffering friend and foe; but the fire was hard to control, and many wounded perished in the flames.

XXIV. THE NEW LINES.

The new lines, prepared by Gens. Warren and Comstock, in which the Army of the Potomac might seek refuge from its weaker but more active foe, lay as follows:--

Birney describes the position as a flattened cone. The apex touched Bullock's, (White House or Chandler's,) where the Mineral-Spring road, along which the left wing of the army had lain, crosses the road from Chancellorsville to Ely's Ford.

Bullock's lies on a commanding plateau, with open ground in its front, well covered by our artillery. This clearing is north of and larger than the Chancellor open, and communicates with it. The position of the troops on the left was not materially changed, but embraced the corps of Howard and Slocum. The right lay in advance of and along the road to Ely's, with Big Hunting Run in its front, and was still held by Reynolds. At the apex were Sickles and Couch.

The position was almost impregnable, and covered in full safety the line of retreat to United-States Ford, the road to which comes into the Ely's Ford road a half-mile west of Bullock's.

To these lines the Second, Third, and Twelfth Corps retired, unmolested by the enemy, and filed into the positions assigned to each division.

Only slight changes had been made in the situation of Meade since he took up his lines on the left of the army. He had, with wise forethought, sent Sykes at the double-quick, after the rout of the Eleventh Corps, to seize the cross-roads to Ely's and United-States Fords. Here Sykes now occupied the woods along the road from Bullock's to connect with Reynolds's left.

Before daylight Sunday morning, Humphreys, relieved by a division of the Eleventh Corps, had moved to the right, and massed his division in rear of Griffin, who had preceded him on the line, and had later moved to Geary's left, on the Ely's Ford road. At nine A.M., he had sent Tyler's brigade to support Gen. French, and with the other had held the edge of Chancellorsville clearing, while the Third and Twelfth Corps retired to the new lines.

And, when French returned to these lines, he fell in on Griffin's left.

About noon of Sunday, then, the patient and in no wise discouraged Union Army lay as described, while in its front stood the weary Army of Northern Virginia, with ranks thinned and leaders gone, but with the pride of success, hardly fought for and nobly earned, to reward it for all the dangers and hardships of the past few days.

Gen. Lee, having got his forces into a passable state of re-organization, began to reconnoitre the Federal position, with a view to another assault upon it. It was his belief that one more hearty effort would drive Hooker across the river; and he was ready to make it, at whatever cost. But, while engaged in the preparation for such an attempt, he received news from Fredericksburg which caused him to look anxiously in that direction.

XXV. SUNDAY'S MISCARRIAGE.

The operations of Sunday morning, in common with many of our battles, furnish scarcely more than a narrative of isolated combats, having more or less remote or immediate effect upon each other.

The difficulty of the ground over which our armies were constantly called upon to manoeuvre explains "why the numerous bloody battles fought between the armies of the Union and of the secessionists should have been so indecisive. A proper understanding of the country, too, will help to relieve the Americans from the charge, so frequently made at home and abroad, of want of generalship in handling troops in battle,--battles that had to be fought out hand to hand in forests, where artillery and cavalry could play no part; where the troops could not be seen by those controlling their movements; where the echoes and reverberations of sound from tree to tree were enough to appall the strongest hearts engaged, and yet the noise would often be scarcely heard beyond the immediate scene of strife. Thus the generals on either side, shut out from sight and from hearing, had to trust to the unyielding bravery of their men till couriers from the different parts of the field, often extending for miles, brought word which way the conflict was resulting, before sending the needed support. We should not wonder that such battles often terminated from the mutual exhaustion of both contending forces, but rather, that, in all these struggles of Americans against Americans, no panic on either side gave victory to the other, like that which the French under Moreau gained over the Austrians in the Black Forest." (Warren.)

The Confederates had their general plan of action, viz., to drive their opponents from the Chancellor House, in order to re-unite their right and left wings, and to obtain possession of the direct road to Fredericksburg, where lay Early and Barksdale. To accomplish this end, they attacked the centre of Hooker's army,--the right centre particularly,--which blocked their way towards both objects.

It had been no difficult task to divine their purpose. Indeed, it is abundantly shown that Hooker understood it, in his testimony already quoted. But, if he needed evidence of the enemy's plans, he had acquired full knowledge, shortly after dawn, that the bulk of Stuart's corps was still confronting Sickles and Williams, where they had fought the evening before; and that Anderson and McLaws had not materially changed their position in front of Geary and Hancock. He could have ascertained, by an early morning reconnoissance, (indeed, his corps-commanders did so on their own responsibility,) that there was no enemy whatsoever confronting his right and left flanks, where three corps, the First, Fifth, and Eleventh, lay chafing with eagerness to engage the foe. And the obvious thing to do was to leave a curtain of troops to hold these flanks, which were protected by almost insuperable natural obstacles, as well as formidable intrenchments, and hold the superfluous troops well in hand, as a central reserve, in the vicinity of headquarters, to be launched against the attacking columns of the enemy, wherever occasion demanded.

Hooker still had in line at Chancellorsville, counting out his losses of Saturday, over eighty-five thousand men. Lee had not exceeding half the number. But every musket borne by the Army of Northern Virginia was put to good use; every round of ammunition was made to tell its story. On the other hand, of the effective of the Army of the Potomac, barely a quarter was fought au fond, while at least one-half the force for duty was given no opportunity to burn a cartridge, to aid in checking the onset of the elated champions of the South.

Almost any course would have been preferable to Hooker's inertness. There was a variety of opportune diversions to make. Reynolds, with his fresh and eager corps, held the new right, protected in his front by Hunting Run. It would have been easy at any time to project a strong column from his front, and take Stuart's line of battle in reverse. Indeed, a short march of three miles by the Ely's Ford, Haden's Ford, and Greenwood Gold Mines roads, none of which were held by the enemy, would have enabled Reynolds to strike Stuart in rear of his left flank, or seize Dowdall's clearing by a coup de main, and absolutely negative all Stuart's efforts in front of Fairview. Or an advance through the forest would have accomplished the same end. To be sure, the ground was difficult, and cut up by many brooks and ravines; but such ground had been, in this campaign, no obstacle to the Confederates. Nor would it have been to Reynolds, had he been given orders to execute such a manoeuvre. Gen. Doubleday states in his testimony: "The action raged with the greatest fury near us on our left." "I thought that the simple advance of our corps would take the enemy in flank, and would be very beneficial in its results. Gen. Reynolds once or twice contemplated making this advance on his own responsibility. Col. Stone made a reconnoissance, showing it to be practicable."

The same thing applies to the Eleventh and portions of the Fifth Corps on the left. A heavy column could have been despatched by the Mine and River roads to attack McLaws's right flank. Barely three miles would have sufficed, over good roads, to bring such a column into operating distance of McLaws. It may be said that the Eleventh Corps was not fit for such work, after its defeat of Saturday night. But testimony is abundant to show that the corps was fully able to do good service early on Sunday morning, and eager to wipe off the stain with which its flight from Dowdall's had blotted its new and cherished colors. But, if Hooker was apprehensive of trusting these men so soon again, he could scarcely deem them incapable of holding the intrenchments; and this left Meade available for the work proposed.