網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

through every moment of the coming fight. There was no considerable portion of the Union breastworks which was not to be enfiladed or taken in reverse by the enemy's artillery. But the unfortunate position to which the army was condemned was the lightest of the disadvantages under which it was to suffer. That army had, in truth, no longer a head. Hooker had succumbed to the strange lethargy which had afflicted him ever since the morning of the 1st of May. The rout of Howard's corps had finished him. He had caused to be constructed a new line of works at the Bullock Clearing in rear; and his principal thought seemed to be to retire to this, while yet he would neither give the order to retreat nor make the necessary preparations for fighting upon the Chancellorsville plateau. The morning was to see troops desperately engaged for hours against superior numbers, without an effort to re-enforce them or even to supply their exhausted cartridge boxes. It was to see a gallant and veteran army defeated in a false position, while yet two fifths of its numbers had not fired a shot.

The battle of Sunday morning was divided into two separate actions. Even the enemy were not united, the force under Lee being still separated from that which Jackson had led out for his great flank march. The smaller of the two actions was that in which Hancock's division and troops from the Twelfth Corps held the intrenchments on the

left against the divisions of McLaws and Anderson. The larger and more desperate action was that in which the Third Corps and portions of the Twelfth, re-enforced later by French's division of the Second, held the center and right against the column commanded by General J. E. B. Stuart, who had succeeded to Jackson's command. All through the long morning the First and Fifth Corps, under Reynolds and Meade, thirty thousand strong, lay on their arms within striking distance of the Confederate left flank without an order to fall on.

The conduct of affairs upon the left was fortuThe troops there engaged on the Union side hold back McLaws and Anderson,

nate.

were enough to and they did it. Again Miles played the brilliant rôle that had been assigned to him the day before; and, with his skirmish line re-enforced so that it comprised nearly half the division, beat back every attempt of the enemy until, at last, this heroic young officer, after performing prodigies of valor and escaping a thousand deaths, fell severely wounded, and was carried to the rear, as it was believed, to die. But still the skirmish line, under the personal direction of Couch and Hancock, held its ground; and, though a triple line of battle more than once descended into the slashing to force it back, maintained itself unbroken. Upon Sickles's corps, however, and a division of the Twelfth, the whole fury of Stuart's assault was allowed to fall without sup

port or relief, except for the dispatch of French's division previously mentioned. The attack and the defense were alike of the most desperate resolution. The long Confederate lines were whipped into foam as they dashed against the Third Corps breastworks; their reserves were brought up in vain; and when, at last, Carroll's brigade of three small regiments from the Second Corps was brought over and thrown upon Stuart's flank it was hardly possible for the enemy to scrape together troops enough to bring this intrepid officer to a stand. Yet all the while the First and Fifth Corps lay less than a mile away. Entreaties met no reply, or else a surly rebuff. At last a fresh assault found an undefended point in the weakened Union lines, a brigade or two gave way and the Confederates poured in and were masters of the position. Even so, there was no rout or panic on the part of our forces; the enemy, dazed by their own success after such tremendous efforts, worn and torn by the savage fighting of the morning, made almost no captures, whether of men or of guns, and were cautious about advancing over the Chancellorsville plateau, perhaps suspecting a trap. Slowly the several Union corps fell out of their positions and took up their retreat to the Bullock Clearing, scarcely molested. By half-past nine o'clock the Confederate commanders were occupying the Union breastworks and were crowding the edges of the plain with their artillery.

Two divisions alone remain.

divisions of Hancock and Geary.

These are the

The former

division is no longer intact, General Caldwell having at a sudden call marched with three regiments to the United States ford road; General Meagher, with the Irish brigade, having been detached ever since the crossing of the river. The troops with Hancock, comprising eleven regiments, are now formed in two lines of battle, back to back, one fronting west toward Gordonsville, to protect Geary's right; the other, only a few hundred yards away, fronting east toward Fredericksburg, still in the position so long occupied and so gallantly defended. Geary's line faces southward, crossing the plank road. Couch and Hancock have but fourteen guns at command, of which only nine are in condition to be very effective. These are directed to fire up the turnpike; the remaining five-of Lepine's Fifth Maine Battery-are placed in the peach orchard behind the Chancellor House.

The gallant bearing of these troops for the moment checks the progress of the enemy's infantry, who, fearfully punished in the great action of the morning, believe that they have a new battle to fight; but the fire of the Confederate artillery now becomes infernal. Lieutenant Donohue, in command of Thomas's battery, is mortally wounded. Lepine's battery in the peach orchard is almost instantly cut in pieces; every officer is either killed

or wounded, whereupon Couch requests Lieutenant Kirby, of the First United States Artillery, to take command. Hardly has Kirby reached his new post when his horse is killed, and a few minutes later this most heroic and promising young officer falls mortally wounded.* And now a heavy infantry column falls upon the front which Geary has maintained with so much spirit across the plank road. Stubbornly the men of the Twelfth Corps resist; but at last this part of the line, too, falls out, and Geary's command passes, in no disorderly column, down the road to the Bullock Clearing, where the new position is being taken up. It is still of importance to gain time; to hold the enemy at bay as long as possible, that the roads leading to the rear may be cleared of troops and the broken brigades may be re-formed. This necessity presses strongly upon General Couch, and nobly does he set himself to discharge the duty. His example is superb. His horse is killed, he is himself twice hit. Nobly is he seconded by the chief of his First Division, Hancock, whose horse is killed and who is only able to secure a remount on an animal hardly large enough to allow the general's feet to clear the ground.

The Chancellor plain has become a very hell; shot scream over it from every direction but the north and

* Kirby died on the 28th of May. On the 23d President Lincoln sent him a general's commission in recognition of his brilliant abilities, undaunted courage, and faithful service.

« 上一頁繼續 »