While the three corps, whose movements I have indicated, had passed far up the Rappahannock to Kelly's Ford, the Second Corps under General Couch had moved no further than United States Ford, where it was directed to remain on the north bank of the Rappahannock till the turning column sweeping down the south bank should have uncovered United States Ford, when it was to cross and move also to Chancellorsville. This object was, of course, accomplished the moment the Rapidan was crossed; and the same afternoon, Couch threw a ponton-bridge over the Rappahannock, and marched on Chancellorsville, at which point the four corps bivouacked that night (Thursday, April 30). The same night, General Hooker removed his headquarters to Chancellorsville.* He had secured a position which took in reverse Lee's entire fortified line, and he held in his hand a puissant force of fifty thousand men.

The remarkable success attending this movement, of which Lee did not become aware till the Rappahannock had been crossed, was the result of a secrecy and a celerity of march new in the Army of the Potomac. To have marched a column of fifty thousand men, laden with sixty pounds of baggage, and encumbered with artillery and trains, thirty-seven miles in two days; to have bridged and crossed two streams, guarded by a vigilant enemy, with the loss of half-a-dozen men, one wagon, and two mules, is an achievement which has few parallels, and which well deserves to rank with Prince Eugene's famous passage of the Adige.

In securing this result, important service was rendered by the skilful manner in which the flank march was masked by General Sedgwick, under whom had been placed for the execution of this duty the First Corps (Reynolds) and the Third Corps (Sickles), in addition to his own Sixth Corps. As soon as the column destined to make the turning movement was well under way, Sedgwick was ordered to cross the river in the vicinity of Fredericksburg for the purpose of making a

* This place consisted of a single large brick house.

direct demonstration. Accordingly, before dawn of the 29th, while the flanking force was passing the Rappahannock thirty miles above, ponton-boats, borne noiselessly on men's shoulders, were launched three miles below the town, near the point at which Franklin had made his crossing on the occasion of the battle of Fredericksburg. In these a party passed to the south bank, capturing the small force in observation. Two bridges were then constructed, and two divisions thrown across. This menace immediately engaged the attention of the Confederates, who promptly began intrenching their entire front, as fearing a direct attack.* Demonstrations as though with that intent were made during the 29th and 30th, and as, by the night of the 30th, the feint had subserved its purpose, and a lodgment had been gained at Chancellorsville,

* There was much in what was visible to the Confederates of Sedgwick's operation to inspire them with the belief that Hooker was preparing his main attack at that point; and an accidental circumstance, the details of which are given below, tended greatly to confirm this impression. Being a spectator of Sedgwick's operations, I at the time interpreted certain movements as a ruse de guerre, designed to give the enemy an exaggerated notion of the strength of the force present at that point, whereas they were the necessary result of an entirely different operation; and I elaborated this point with some fulness in a letter on the battle of Chancellorsville in the New York Times. What was there stated has already passed into history; and Colonel MacDougall, an English military writer of repute, following that account (without credit given, however), thus writes:

"The four remaining divisions of these two corps [Sedgwick's and Reynolds'] remained on the north bank, and an ingenious ruse was practised to deceive the enemy into the belief that the greater part of the Northern army was there massed with the intention of crossing. It is to be noted that, from the configuration of the ground, the enemy could not see the bridges, neither could they see the four divisions on the north bank, which were behind the fringe of hills aforesaid. These troops were then put in motion, and, mounting the ridge, which, sloping both ways, served as a screen, marched along the top in full view of the Confederates, and then dipped down out of sight towards the bridges. Instead of crossing these, however, they turned back through a gully round the rear of the ridge, round again on the top, and again disappeared from sight to play the same game-just the same evolution as is practised by the 'brave army' on the stage of a theatre, and with the same intent of deceiving the spectators as to their numbers. The like stage effect was practised by the artillery and wagon-trains, until the Confederates had seen defile before

Sickles' corps was directed to join the force at that pointSedgwick, with two corps, meanwhile remaining below to await developments on the right.

The success that had crowned these operations, which, as they were executed out of sight of the enemy, may be called the strategy of the movement, inspired the army with the highest hopes and greatly elated the commander. On reaching Chancellorsville on Thursday night, he issued an order to the troops, in which he announced that "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."] This boast, so much in the style of Hooker, was amplified by the whole tenor of his conversation. "The rebel army," said he, "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," etc., etc.* And, indeed, there was much in the aspect of affairs to justify jubilant expectations; for, of the two lines them a force which they might well conclude to be the whole Northern army." -MacDougall: Modern Warfare and Modern Artillery, pp. 334, 335. The following note from Major-General McMahon explains the real purpose of the operation misinterpreted by me:

NEW YORK, January, 1866.

MY DEAR SIR-The movement of troops under General Sedgwick, to which our conversation referred, was not for the purpose of deceiving the enemy into the belief that we were re-enforcing the left wing, although such probably was its effect.

The movements consisted of the withdrawal of Reynolds' corps from the lower crossing, which was effected without attracting the attention of the enemy; and the transfer of one division of the Sixth Corps from the upper to the lower bridges, to hold the position abandoned by the First Corps. The march of this division was so ordered that only its arrival at the lower bridges could be seen by the enemy. It was a necessary movement, made so by the departure of the First Corps for Chancellorsville, and not a stratagem. Of course, in this as in all similar movements, advantage was taken of the nature of the ground, to conceal our intention from the enemy as far as it was practicable. Very respectfully, etc.,

W. SWINTON, Esq.

M. T. MCMAHON,

Late Chief of Staff to Major-General Sedgwick.

* These observations were made in presence of the writer.

of retreat open to Lee, Hooker already laid hold of that by Gordonsville, and threatened that by Richmond. The former he could not take up; and, if he chose the latter, he would have Hooker with five corps on his flank, and Sedgwick with two corps pressing his rear. The bright promise of these initial operations was beclouded by but one fact-the cavalry column which was to cross the Rappahannock on the right of the infantry, and cut Lee's communications at the same time that the infantry was operating on his army, had been so delayed by the rise of the river that it did not cross the Rappahannock till the morning of the 29th, and had thus far made very insufficient progress.

But, instead of "ingloriously flying," Lee preferred to come out of his defences" and give battle to Hooker; and, unhappily for that general, the circumstances under which he i chose to receive battle, in place of insuring Lee's "certain destruction," as he had vaunted, resulted in the disastrous termination of a campaign thus brilliantly opened. Now, as these circumstances furnish the key to the right appreciation of the whole action, I shall, in the succeeding chapter, set them forth with some fulness of detail.

III.

AT CHANCELLORSVILLE-FRIDAY.

When, on Thursday night, Hooker had concentrated his four corps at Chancellorsville, the real character of the movement, which, up to that point, had been so admirably concealed from his antagonist, became fully disclosed. The Confederate leader saw that the demonstrations near Fredericksburg that had engaged his attention were but a mask, and that the turn of affairs called for the promptest action. 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 a mighty stone from