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sane order to retreat, had been surrendered to them. Various explanations have been given of Hooker's actions on the afternoon of the 1st of May. The writer has always believed that they were due partly to lack of that firm moral stamina which is so often found to accompany a spirit of arrogance and boastfulness, but chiefly to a nervous collapse occasioned by the excitement and fatigue of the four preceding days. Drunkenness, once alleged, certainly was not any part of the cause.

The morning of the 2d of May found General Hooker's army in the position he had chosen, and with which he still declared himself entirely satisfied. In an order, dated 4.20 P. M. of the 1st, he had said: "The Major-General commanding trusts that a suspension in the attack to-day will embolden the enemy to attack him." In little more than twenty-four hours he was to learn what emboldening Lee and Jackson to attack him might imply. Sickles's corps was now all up; Howard's was on the extreme right at Dowdall's Tavern; Hancock's division and the Fifth Corps formed the left, stretching across the Fredericksburg pike and the river roads; the Third and Twelfth held the center. In this attitude, behind breastworks, the army waited and wondered. By noon it was forty-eight hours since the turning column reached Chancellorsville; yet here the Fifth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Corps still were, though re-enforced by their comrades

of the Second and Third, the whole advantage of surprise thrown away, the enemy given every opportunity either to strengthen their own positions or to seek some weak spot in the Union line on which to deliver an attack. This last was what Lee and Jackson were actually preparing; for, while our troops continued to wait and wonder, Lee's chief lieutenant had, since early morning, been on the march with a powerful column of twenty-six thousand men, to reach, by a long detour, a position opposite Hooker's right, where he might deliver an unexpected and crushing blow. In order to occupy Hooker's attention, the Confederate skirmishers, strongly supported, were pushed forward against our left, making the liveliest demonstrations. The heaviest firing was on the front of Hancock, along the Fredericksburg pike, his skirmishers being assailed with great spirit. Probably at this hour no serious purpose of an attack from that side was entertained; but, whether to make the demonstration so vigorous as to draw Hooker's attention entirely off from what might be going on in Howard's quarter, or to push Hancock's line back nearer to the Chancellor House, with a view to taking the utmost advantage of the coming crash at Dowdall's Tavern, the enemy certainly made most unusual efforts. Yet all the while Hancock's intrenched skirmish line, under the command of Colonel Miles, remained as steady as a rock.

But while the skirmishing was exceptionally severe, the troops never for a moment imagined that this was a battle. They knew too well the signs and portents of those great encounters in which men fall by thousands, and hostile divisions grind against each other like mighty ships in collision. That something was going to happen before night everybody felt, but when or how it would come few conjectured. And, yet, had headquarters been as vigilant and attentive as such great interests demanded, there were indications enough of Jackson's daring flank march. Hooker was, however, fully possessed by the idea that Lee was going to run away-actually was running away-and at one time Sickles's corps was pushed out from the Union center as if in pursuit. Unfortunately, Jackson's rear had just passed, and his movement thus escaped the disclosure which a collision at that point would have occasioned. Indeed, Sickles's reports only confirmed Hooker in his notion that the Confederates were retreating on Gordonsville, ingloriously flying, as he had prophesied in his general order.

But Hooker's illusions were terribly dispelled when, between five and six o'clock, Jackson, having completely flanked our army, broke out from the cover of the forest upon the small corps of Howard, which was swung out "in air" upon the Union right, badly posted, with an utterly inadequate force of skirmishers advanced, and without so much as a

company of cavalry to give warning of a hostile. approach. No body of troops in such a position could have resisted such an assault, led by Stonewall Jackson. In spite of the utmost resistance which the braver part of Howard's men could offer, the Eleventh Corps was routed and driven back upon the rest of the army, with the Confederates in fierce pursuit. After all the mutterings of the day, the blow came at last as unexpectedly as a bolt launched from a cloudless sky. In an instant all was excitement, and dire was the confusion on the great plain by the Chancellor House. Down the road from Dowdall's Tavern came the wreck of Howard's battle-camp followers, baggage wagons, ambulances and caissons, and fugitives from the ranks all rushing back pellmell to get as far as possible away from Jackson. But even here they found no peace, for, the moment the sounds of conflict told that the turning column was getting in its work, the divisions of Anderson and McLaws, which General Lee had kept with himself, redoubled their attacks with both artillery and infantry, trusting, in the surprise and alarm, to break through our lines on the left; or, if they could not do that, to prevent any force being dispatched to withstand Jackson.

The brunt of the new assault fell upon Hancock's division by reason of its being directly across the Fredericksburg pike; but the intrenched line. under Miles, which had been strongly re-enforced

during the night and which was fed by Hancock with fresh troops just as fast as needed, held its ground and kept the enemy at bay. Again and again the Confederates brought lines of battle down into the slashing, and again and again they had to go back. Rarely in the history of war has anything finer been seen. Rightly does Mr. Swinton say: "Amid much that is dastardly at Chancellorsville, the conduct of this young but gallant and skillful officer shines forth with a brilliant luster." So delighted was Hancock at the splendid behavior of his skirmish line that, after one repulse of the enemy, he exclaimed: "Captain Parker, ride down and tell Colonel Miles he is worth his weight in gold"; while Couch, turning to the major generals who commanded his two divisions, said, in his quiet, emphatic way: "I tell you what, gentlemen, I shall not be greatly surprised to find myself some day serving under that young man." Thirty-one years later (1894), “that young man," a volunteer of the great war, is now within three years of commanding the armies of the United States.

While Hancock was thus holding the enemy off from the Chancellor plain, where even a momentary collapse of our line would have been disastrous, Sickles and Pleasonton were straining every nerve to bring Jackson to a stand in his terrific movement down the road from Dowdall's Tavern. Batteries from the reserve galloped into position; troops from

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