A Youth's History of the Great Civil War
Van Evrie, Horton & Co., ©1866
Revised edition, ©2006 www.ronie-mooney-encs.us
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CHAPTER XXXV, GENERAL HOOKER'S CAMPAIGN
WE now return to the Army of the Potomac. General Hooker had spent full three months in re-organizing and bringing that army out of the wretched chaos and demoralization in which it was left by General Burnside. It must be confessed that General Hooker put forth a great deal of energy, and evinced a great deal of executive ability in repairing that army. When he had concluded his labors in that direction, and was about to commence operations in the field, he pronounced it "the finest army on the planet." It numbered one hundred and thirty-two thousand men of all arms, with an artillery force of four hundred guns.
To meet this tremendous army Lee had not over fifty thousand men. Again abolition faith ran high. The "On to Richmond" shout, for the fifth time, reverberated over the North. To doubt that Hooker would take Richmond in less than twenty days called down upon the sceptic the suspicion of "disloyalty." and many a man was mobbed for simply venturing to entertain a doubt of abolition success that time.
General Hooker certainly began with a great promise of success. His army outnumbered Lee's almost three to one, and never was an army better equipped. In this respect, too, his advantages over Lee were quite as great as his very great excess of numbers. And all his plans for the decisive battle, up to the very hour of its first gun, prospered wonderfully. His army crossed the Rappahannock at several points, and concentrated at Chancellorville, which place General Hooker himself reached on the night of Thursday, April 30th, 1863. He immediately issued an order to his troops, couched in language not much calculated to inspire the respect and confidence of men of good taste and good sense. He said: "The enemy must either ingloriously fly, or come out from behind his defences and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits him." His conversation was of the same boastful style as his order. He said: "The rebel army is now the legitimate property of the Army of the Potomac, They may as well pack up their haversacks and make for Richmond; and I shall be after them." This talk is precisely like Hooker.
An intelligent writer remarks that, "Lee, with instant perception of the situation, now seized the masses of his force, and with the grasp of a Titan, swung them into position as a giant might fling mighty stone from a sling."
Hooker's line of battle, formed on Friday evening, was five miles in extent, on ground of his own choosing. In this position he awaited an attack from Lee on Saturday morning, May 2d. But Lee simply showed very active signs of beginning an attack, while he, with great secrecy and despatch, sent Stonewall Jackson, with a force of twenty thousand men, to flank Hooker by assailing his right and rear. This plan was executed with such celerity and skill, that Hooker had no suspicion that he had not the whole of Lee's army before him until he heard Stonewall Jackson thundering and crashing into his rear. He fell upon Hooker like an avalanche, and drove this portion of his army before him in utter rout and confusion. The blow was dealt with such power that everything fell before it.
The Federal historian of the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac says: "The open plain around Chancellorville now presented such a spectacle as a simoon sweeping over the desert might make. Through the dusk of night-fall a rushing whirlwind of men and artillery and wagons swept down the road, and swept past head-quarters, and on towards the fords of the Rappahannock; and it was in vain that the staff opposed their persons and drawn sabres to the panic-stricken fugitives."
The Confederates had won a sudden and a great victory, but at a cost which was really a greater loss to them than twenty great battles, for Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded while riding over the battle-field in the dark, by his own men, who mistook him for a stray Federal.
I shall not pause here to speak of the shock which the news of Stonewall Jackson's death gave, not only to Lee's army and the Confederate States, but to the whole world. For he had won a fame which will last as long as valorous deeds command the admiration of mankind.
Lee received the news of Jackson's fall before daylight on Sunday morning, and the messenger who brought the sad news said: "It was General Jackson's intent to press the enemy on Sunday." General Lee replied, with deep emotion: "These people shall be pressed to-day." General Stuart temporarily was entrusted with Jackson's command, and at daylight he opened the attack with the battle-cry, "Charge,and remember Jackson!"
The charge was impetuous, and threw the enemy back in great confusion. At the same time, Lee attacked Hooker's centre, and in a short time his whole line was forced precipitately back. By ten o'clock Hooker's defeat was complete, and the Confederates occupied the field at Chancellorville.
General Hooker made two or three abortive strategic movements to regain his lost fortunes. His fate was sealed. The enemy whom he was sure to "bag," had whipped him unmercifully, and now it was even a serious question whether he would not himself be "bagged"by Lee's comparatively small army. But he succeeded in retreating across the river, and found safety only in flight. He had lost seventeen thousand two hundred and eighty-one men, nineteen thousand stand of arms, and a vast amount of ammunition. Lee's loss was less than ten thousand men. Hooker was obliged to leave his dead and wounded in the hands of the Confederates. He retreated until finally he brought up precisely where McDowell, Pope, and Burnside had before him, in the defences in front of Washington. He went out as proud and as boasting as Lucifer, and came back as badly fallen. All his division commanders despised his generalship, and there were none to do him reverence. His command was finally taken from him and given to General Meade, who had been a division commander under McClellan.
Military matters now remained in a quiet state until the first week in June, when General Lee began to move northward again. All doubt as to his real intention vanished when it was announced that his infantry had crossed the Potomac and that his cavalry was in Pennsylvania. The North was again aroused by frantic appeals for help from Washington. "The capital in danger" had again taken the place of the cry of "On to Richmond." Crowds of soldiers again rushed to Washington.
Lee marched with his veterans straight across Maryland into Pennsylvania, and occupied Chambersburg. No officer of soldier was allowed to commit any depredations, and the people, not used to seeing such soldiers, laughed at the "barefooted rebels." and the women jeered them from the sidewalks. On the morning of the 30th of June, when General Lee's army left Chambersburg in a northerly direction, a panic seized the whole surrounding country.
People ran away in droves from Harrisburg, Pittsburg, and even from Philadelphia money and valuables were sent on to New York. In Pittsburg five thousand men were set to work building forts to protect the city.
General Lee finally concentrated his forces near the town of Gettysburg, and here, on the 1st of July,1863, commenced perhaps the most important battle of the war. On the 1st day, Major-General Reynolds, of the abolition army, was killed, and the Confederates took some 600 prisoners and ten pieces of artillery.
The next day remained quiet until about four o'clock in the afternoon, when General Longstreet commenced the attack by a heavy cannonade. The day's work, on the whole, was favorable to the Confederates, but in the meantime the Federal army had been reinforced, and was concentrated in a strong position on Cementery Hill, used as a burial place by the citizens of Gettysburg.
The real contest was to drive General Meade's troops from this position. At one o'clock on the 3d of July, General Lee concentrated all his guns upon it. The cannonade was terrific. The shower of shot and shell went crashing and smashing through the graveyard with fearful effect. The slaughter among the Federal troops was fearful, but they held the ground manfully. About three o'clock the Confederates prepared for a grand charge upon the position. Never was there a braver or more gallant charge. Though hundreds of cannon mowed through their ranks a swath of death, these war-worn veterans heeded them not. They thought themselves invincible, and rushed into the very jaws of death, if thereby they could save their beloved land from the abolition destroyer. But in vain. No mortal men could withstand this tempest of leaden and iron hail. Slowly they fell back, but without dismay or confusion.
The Federal army was too much shattered to follow; indeed, so far as the battle was concerned, it was a drawn game. It was only in its effects that it was disastrous to the Confederates. General Lee was short of ammunition. He had expected to capture it from his enemies. But failing in that, was forced to fall back for supplies.
It was slow work, for besides his prisoners, he had an immense train of wagons, horses, mules, and cattle, captured in Pennsylvania. Still he pursued his course without any serious attack from the Federals, and safely crossed the Potomac with his captures.
An amusing incident is related of this retreat, which serves to show the fidelity of the negro character when uncorrupted. General Longstreet passing one day, observed a negro dressed in a full Federal uniform, with a rifle at full cock, leading along a barefooted white man, with whom he had evidently changed clothes. General Longstreet stopped the pair, and asked what it meant.
"Wall, massa, you see,' said Sambo, "de two sojers in charge of dis here Yand got drunk, so for fear he might git away, I jis took car of him myself"
This was spoken in a most consequential manner. If any abolitionist could have seen this negro, so-called slave, thus leading a white Northern soldier, alone and of his own accord,he would no doubt have been greatly disgusted.
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