self on a bed and went to sleep, saying he would CHAP. IV. vote with Meade. Meade, thinking the crossing would be too hazardous, voted to remain; so did Howard, who wished to give his corps a chance to redeem their reputation. Couch voted in favor of crossing the river. Sickles voted in the same sense. He afterwards gave as his justification for this vote, that their rations had given out, that the rain-storm of Tuesday had turned the Rappahannock into a rapid and swollen torrent, and had carried away one of the bridges and threatened the rest; besides they had only supplies enough for one day more of fighting, and defeat would entail a great disaster. These were the views of General Hooker himself, and, notwithstanding the majority of his corps commanders wished to stay and fight it out on the south side, he resolved to recross the river, and the movement was executed without further incident.

Hooker,

His confusion and bewilderment lasted long after the battle. He said himself to the committee of Congress, "When I returned from Chancellorsville I felt that I had fought no battle; in fact, I had more men than I could use, and I fought no general Testimony. battle for the reason that I could not get my men in position to do so; probably not more than of the War, three or three and a half corps on the right were engaged in that fight."

We need not recapitulate the fatal errors to which we have alluded to show that Hooker's reputation as a great commander could not possibly survive his defeat at Chancellorsville. Stonewall Jackson's bold and successful stroke on the Union right would not have prevented a great

Report Committee on Conduct

1865.

Part I.,

p. 142.

CHAP. IV. victory if a man of even ordinary capacity in great emergencies had been at the head of the army. He threw away his chances one by one. April and On the night of the 30th, and on the morning of May, 1863. the 1st, a swift movement forward would have brought him clear of the forest with his left on Banks's Ford, and given him an enormous tactical advantage in the attack which Lee was forced to deliver. And even on the morning of the 3d, by simply holding the position which Pleasonton, Sickles, and Berry had gained, with the help of the fresh First and Fifth Corps on the right, and the indomitable Hancock on the left, the enemy could, probably, have been repulsed. The successive withdrawals of Hooker's lines were a bitter mortification to his own troops and the subject of wonder and amazement to the enemy.

The attempt to throw the blame of his failure upon Sedgwick was as futile as Burnside's effort to saddle his upon Franklin. The distrust and criticisms which had darkened the latter days of General Burnside's command of the army now gathered about his luckless successor. He had been the most outspoken and the most merciless of Burnside's critics, and the words of the President's severe admonition must have often come back to him when he felt himself exposed to the same measure which he had meted out to Burnside. The opinion which General Warren expressed to the committee of Congress was that of most of the offiTestimony, cers of high rank of the Army of the Potomac: "A on Conduct great many of the generals lost confidence in of the War, him. . . I must confess that notwithstanding the

Warren,

Report

Committee

1865. Part I.,

p. 50.

friendly terms I was on with General Hooker,

I somewhat lost confidence in him from that CHAP. IV. battle."

Stoneman's expedition, although he started with the largest and most perfectly equipped cavalry corps which had ever been brought together upon the continent, accomplished very little. Instead of marching directly in a solid body upon Lee's line of communications, he divided his force into several parties of raiders, which spread wide alarm throughout the State, but did little serious and permanent damage.

The losses at Chancellorsville were large on both sides. The Union loss was 1606 killed, 9762 wounded, and 5919 missing, a total of 17,287. The rebel losses were 1649 killed, 9106 wounded, and 1708 captured: in all 12,463. The proportion of loss to the troops engaged was thus about the same on the Confederate and on the Union side.

CHAPTER V

CHAP. V.

July 23,

1862.

TH

PRELUDES TO THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGNS

HE promotion of General Halleck to the chief command of the armies of the United States, and his removal to Washington, placed General Grant at the head of the armies of the West. He was not at first able to follow his natural disposition, and to attack the enemy opposed to him, on account of the large subtractions which were made from his forces to enable Buell to hold his positions in Tennessee. He had a long line to hold, from Memphis to Corinth, and had all he could do to guard it against the attacks of an active and vigilant enemy. He massed his troops, as well as he could, in a triangle of which the points were Jackson, Bolivar, and Corinth. He remained about two months in this enforced inactivity, which was only broken, at last, by an attack of the enemy. The Confederate generals Price and Van Dorn were in front of him, the former on the left and the latter on the right; and towards the middle of September they made a movement, the object of which was to effect a junction and either attack and disperse the forces of Grant, or, together passing his flank, to reënforce Bragg in his campaign