DEATH OF STONEWALL JACKSON. fantry support worth naming for his batteries; and his few remaining troopers, being green recruits, were not adapted to such an emergency; yet these for a time were all the support he had. 36 In front of these batteries, fell Stonewall Jackson, mortally wounded-by the fire of his own men, they say; but it was dark, in dense woods, and men were falling all around him from our canister and grape; so that it is not impossible that he was among them. Prisoners taken by Pleasanton soon afterward told him that Jackson was mortally wounded, and mentioned other high officers as, like him, stricken down by our fire; adding that their forces were "badly cut up," and, "as to the men, they were disorganized." Still, it seems probable that Jackson fell by a fire from his own infantry, delivered in accordance with his orders. 36 "The Life of Stonewall Jackson, by a Virginian," gives the following account of his fall: "Gen. Jackson ordered Gen. Hill to advance with his division, reserving his fire unless cavalry approached from the direction of the enemy; and then, with that burning and intense enthusiasm for conflict which lay under his calm exterior, hastened forward to the line of skirmishers who were hotly engaged in front. Such was his ardor, at this critical moment, and his anxiety to penetrate the movements of the enemy, doubly screened as they were by the dense forest and gathering darkness, that he rode ahead of his skirmishers, and exposed himself to a close and dangerous fire from the enemy's sharp-shooters, posted in the timber. "So great was the danger which he thus ran, that one of his staff said: 'General, don't you think this is the wrong place for you?' He replied quickly: "The danger is all over; the enemy is routed. Go back, and tell A. P. Hill to press right on!' Soon after giving this order, Gen. Jackson turned, and, accompanied by his staff and escort, rode back at a trot, on his wellknown Old Sorrel,' toward his own men. · Unhappily, in the darkness-it was now 9 or 10 o'clock at night-the little body of horsemen was mistaken for Federal cavalry charging, and the regiments on the right and left of the road fired a sudden volley into them with the most lamentable results. Capt. Boswell, of Gen. Jackson's staff, was killed, and borne into our lines by his 359 His loss was the greatest yet sustained by either party in the fall of a single man; though Sidney Johnston had probably military talents of a higher order. But Jackson's power over his men was unequaled; and it was justified by the soundness of his judgment as well as the intrepidity of his character. Contrary to the vulgar notion, his attacks were all well considered, and based on a careful calculation of forces; and he showed as high qualities in refusing to squander his men toward the close of the fray at Antietam, and again at Fredericksburg, as he did in his most brilliant charges. Accident seemed to favor him at times, especially in his later Valley campaign; but then, accident is apt to favor a commander who is never asleep when there is anything to be gained or hoped from being awake, and who, if required, can march his men forty miles per horse; Col. Crutchfield, Chief of Artillery, was and two couriers were killed. Gen. wounded; Jackson received one ball in his left arm, two inches below the shoulder joint, shattering the bone and severing the chief artery; a second passed through the same arm, between the elbow and wrist, making its exit through the palm of right hand, about the middle, and, passing the hand; a third ball entered the palm of his through, broke two of the bones. "He fell from his horse, and was caught by Capt. Wormly, to whom he said, 'All my wounds are by my own men.' "The firing was responded to by the enemy, who made a sudden advance; and, the Confederates falling back, their foes actually charged over Jackson's body. He was not discovered, however; and, the Federals being driven back in turn, he was rescued. Ready hands placed him upon a litter, and he was borne to the rear, amid a heavy fire from the enemy. One of the litterbearers was shot down, and the General fell from the shoulders of the men, receiving a severe contusion, adding to the injury of the arm, and injuring the side severely. The enemy's fire of artillery on the point was terrible. Gen. Jackson was left for five minutes until the fire slackened, then placed in an ambulance and carried to the field hospital at Wilderness Run." He died, eight days afterward, at Guineas' Station, five miles from the place of his fall, and his remains rest at Lexington, Va., his home. day. It is doubtful if all the advan- not merely concealed its inferiority in numbers, but rendered it immaterial; while Hooker had lost heart, by reason of Howard's sudden disaster; and his subordinates were paralyzed by their ignorance of this region of woods and dense thickets, in which they could rarely determine whether they were confronting a regiment or a division, and in which, with 60,000 men at hand, they were never able to put in half that number so as to render them of any service. At daylight, the Rebels pushed forward heavy columns on their chosen points of attack, infesting our whole front with sharp-shooters, and keeping each of our corps which they had determined not to attack in constant expectation of a charge in force. But their main effort was made from the west, by direct advance on Chancellorsville down the plank road on the ground wherefrom Howard had been hurled. Never did men charge with more desperate determination, more utter recklessness of their own lives, than did that morning the Rebels, now led by J. E. B. Stuart (A. P. Hill having been disabled soon after Jackson was, in front of Pleasanton's batteries), dashing themselves upon Sickles's corps; whose forty guns, ably fought, tore through their close ranks with frightful carnage. Those guns were supported by Berry's and. Birney's divisions of their own corps; the remaining division (Whipple's) supporting Berry's, as Williams's (of Slocum's corps) supported Birney's. Charging up to the mouths of our cannon, the Rebels were mowed down by hundreds; but fresh regiments constantly succeeded those which had been shattered; until Sickles, finding * Sunday, May 3. Lee's army was nearly all now concentrated in Hooker's front, and on his left flank, elated with its easy rout of the 11th corps and its general success; covered by woods, which HOOKER STUNNED-SICKLES DRIVEN. 361 his cartridges running low, sent word | that French and Hancock, with two to Hooker that he could not hold his divisions of Couch's corps, had charged ground without assistance. the left of the Rebel attacking force, then threatening Meade's front, and forced it back. But this scarcely abated the pressure on Sickles, who was freshly assailed in his new position, and-being still nearly destitute of ammunition-was again compelled to recoil, after repelling, mainly with the bayonet, five fierce charges, and capturing eight flags. Under Couch's orders, our army was generally withdrawn a mile northward, or toward the Rappahannock, leaving the wreck of the Chancellorsville house to the enemy, whose guns had by this time reduced it to a heap of ruins. Major Tremaine, who bore this message, found the General stunned and senseless. A cannon-ball had just now struck a pillar of the Chancellorsville house, against which he was leaning, and hurled him to the floor. He was supposed by his staff to be dead or dying; so Tremaine could get no response to Sickles's message; and, after sending once more to headquarters in vain, Sickles -his artillery being now out of ammunition-was obliged to recede to his second line of defenses, expecting to be sharply followed, and to be compelled to hold his ground with the bayonet. But the enemy's formation had been so completely pulverized by our guns, and their losses had been so fearful, that half an hour elapsed before they renewed their attack. Had a corps been promptly sent to his assistance, Sickles believes that victory was his own. The precious hour passed, while our army was without a head. Gen. Couch was next in rank, and might have assumed active command during Hooker's insensibility, but hesitated to do so. Nothing had been done to relieve Sickles's corps of the weight of all Jackson's force, save 38 Sickles, in his testimony, says: "At the conclusion of the battle of Sunday, Capt. Seeley's battery, which was the last that fired a shot in the battle of Chancellorsville, had 45 horses killed, and in the neighborhood of 40 men killed and wounded; but, being a soldier of great pride and ambition, and not wishing to leave any of his material in the hands of the enemy, he withdrew so entirely at his leisure that he carried off all the harness from his dead horses, loading his cannoniers with it; he even took a part of a set of harness on his own arm, and so moved to the rear. I think this is as significant a fact as I can state to you, indicating the inability of the enemy to follow up." Sickles testified, when before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, that only his and a part of the 12th (Slocumn's) corps were engaged when he first sent to Hooker for help; and that, with 10,000 of the 30,000 then unengaged, he could have won a decided victory. As it was, the fact that he lost no prisoners, while he took several hundred, and that nearly 4,000 of his 18,000 men were that day disabled, including two of his three division commanders (Berry and Whipple) killed, and Gen. Mott, of the New Jersey brigade, wounded, without the loss of a gun on his repeated retreats, 38 Gen. Hancock, commanding a division of the 2d corps, thus describes, in his testimony, the retirement of our army from Chancellorsville: "My position was on the other side of the Chancellor house; and I had a fair view of this battle, although my troops were facing and fighting the other way. The first lines referred to finally melted away, and the whole front appeared to pass out. First the 3d corps went out; then the 12th corps, after fighting a long time; and there was nothing left on that part of the line but my own division-that is, on that extreme point of the line on the side of the Chancellor house toward the enemy. I was directed to hold that position until a change of save that lost at daylight, sufficiently | to urge Sedgwick to evince all possiproves that the ground we conceded ble alacrity, found him, at 3 A. M. of was lost by reason of misfortune or bad generalship, not by lack of valor or endurance in our soldiers. Gen. Hooker recovered his consciousness and resumed command by noon; but the fighting on this front was now nearly over: Lee's attention being forcibly drawn to Sedgwick, who was operating on his rear, where Hooker had expected him to strike heavily at an early hour this morning. Sedgwick, whose operations had hitherto been intended only to distract attention from the movement on our right, had been directed" by Hooker to cross at Fredericksburg, and advance forthwith on the road to Chancellorsville, demolishing any force that might attempt to bar his progress, until he should fall upon Lee's rear, simultaneously with an attack by Hooker on his front, and thus crush him between them. How hazardous such attempts at concerted attack on a great army from opposite and distant points are, was not now to be first learned. The order found Sedgwick already across the river, but at a point two or three miles below the city Gen. Warren, who was sent by Hooker, after the stampede of the 11th corps, line of battle could be made, and was to hold it until I was notified that all the other troops had gotten off. This necessitated my fighting for a time both ways. I had two lines of battle; one facing toward Fredericksburg, and the other line behind that. And I had to face about the troops in the rear line, so as to be ready for the enemy in that direction, who were coming on. I had a good deal of artillery; and, although the enemy massed their infantry in the woods very near me, and attempted to advance, and always held a very threatening attitude, I judge they had exhausted their troops so much that they dared not attack me, although I remained there for some time alone in this position, very heavily engaged with artillery all the time, and some of my men of the rear line occasionally being shot by their the eventful Sunday, just getting his corps in motion, and explained to him Hooker's critical position and the necessity for prompt action in this quarter. The night was clear; there was a full moon; and it would not have been impossible to march a corps from Sedgwick's pontoons to Chancellorsville between midnight and 6 a. M., had there been nothing in his way. But there was a serious obstacle-to wit, Lee's army; some portion of which was in Sedgwick's immediatė front, and opened a straggling fire on the heads of his columns so soon as he commenced his march; and at daylight he was just entering Fredericksburg, instead of approaching Chancellorsville. By this time, Gibbon had laid a pontoon, and was crossing into the city, raising Sedgwick's force to nearly 30,000 men. Meanwhile, the Rebel troops in this quarter had been concentrating on Marye's hill, where they had several guns in position; while a canal covering their left, with the bridges all taken up, increased the difficulty of carrying the hill by assault. One attempt to clear the enemy's rifle-pits at the foot of the hill was repulsed; and it was nearly 11 A. M., infantry at a distance of several hundred yards. There was no forcible attack on me; and, when the time came, I marched off to my new position, probably three-quarters of a mile from the old position, toward Untied States ford, where the new line of battle was laid out. "We immediately commenced to fortify that position by throwing up rifle-pits, and held it until we recrossed the river. In the mean time, we had given up all those great roads connecting with Fredericksburg. The enemy took possession of the belt of woods between us and those roads, and held us in the open space, and commenced using the roads we had abandoned, and marched down and attacked Sedgwick, as it proved afterward." 39 By order dated May 2, 9 P. M.: received at 11. SEDGWICK ADVANCES ON LEE'S REAR. 363 he gave no signs of vitality, and afforded no promise of vigorous cooperation. before Sedgwick had completed such | assailants, we of course lost the dispositions as he deemed requisite to greater number; and our men lay storm the heights; when, advancing down on their arms, with little hope resolutely, those heights were quickly of forcing their way through to carried; Gen. Howe's (2d) division | Hooker on that line, especially since forming three storming columns, under Gen. Neill and Cols. Grant and Seaver, and carrying Cemetery hill under a heavy fire of artillery, pushing thence to Marye's hill, which was likewise carried with little loss; our columns having scarcely been checked in their advance: the Rebel force (the 19th and 20th Mississippi, under Barksdale) being too light. Among the trophies of this success were 200 prisoners, some guns, camp equipage, &c. Having reformed his brigades, Sedgwick, leaving Gibbon at Fredericksburg, moved out on the Chancellorsville road on the track of Barksdale, following him three or four miles to Salem church, where the Rebels halted and began to fight in earnest; being joined by Wilcox, who had fallen back from Banks's ford. The position was strong, its flanks well covered by woods, and repeated attempts to carry it proved abortive. By this time (5 P. M.), Lee-the fighting around Chancellorsville being over-had thrown McLaws this way, with orders and men to stop Sedgwick's progress; and they did it. The fight continued till dark; but the enemy were on high ground, and held it; McLaws now taking command against us, with his force continually augmenting. Being the 10 Monday, May 4. "At 1 A. M., May 5, Hooker telegraphed him: Dispatch this moment received. Withdraw; cover the river, and prevent any force crossing. Acknowledge receipt." Morning broke;" and Sedgwick's position was fast becoming critical. The enemy were not only in force on his front, but were feeling around his left, and even back to the heights above Fredericksburg. He was not strong enough to fight the whole Rebel army; yet, should Hooker remain torpid, that luxury was just ahead. He received several dispatches from his chief during the day, evincing a very unsettled frame of mind: one, written early in the morning, saying, "You must not try to force the position you attacked at 5 P. M. Look to the safety of your corps ;" another, dated 11 A. M., saying, "If it is practicable for you to maintain a position on the south side of the Rappahannock, near Banks's ford, do so;" and another, dated fifty minutes later: "If the necessary information can be ob tained to-day, and, if it shall be of the character the commanding General anticipates, it is his intention to advance upon the enemy to-morrow. In this event, the position of your corps on the south bank of the Rappahannock will be as favorable as the General could desire. It is for this reason that he desires that your corps should not cross the Rappahannock." While Hooker was thus hesitating and vacillating," the Rebels were acting. No longer dreading an offenof his force, under a heavy fire of shell; when, at 3:20 A. M., he received this dispatch, dated 20 minutes later than the foregoing, but of course based on one intermediately received from him, (S.) saying that he could hold on south of the Sedgwick had accordingly brought across most river if required: |