網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

force, instead of a few hundred men upon jaded horses, General W. H. F. Lee would have cut off General Stoneman's retreat and compelled his surrender.

The Federal columns under General Hooker had meanwhile pressed on to Germanna and Ely's fords, where they succeeded in crossing in spite of resistance from Captain Collins, of the 15th Virginia cavalry. At the same time Couch's 2d Corps prepared to cross at United States ford below.

In front of Banks' and Ely's fords General Lee had two brigades of Anderson's division, Posey's and Mahone's, and one battery-in all about 8,000 men. Upon the approach of the enemy this force was withdrawn and concentrated at Chancellorsville, where it was joined upon the morning of the 30th by Wright's brigade, which had been sent up to reënforce it. The enemy still pressing on, reënforced now by Couch's Corps from United States ford-making four army corps, under the immediate command of General Hooker-General Anderson fell back from Chancellorsville to Tabernacle Church, on the plank road, five miles below, where he could be reënforced by the old Mine road, running thence to General Lee's position near Fredericksburg.

Such were the relative positions of the adversaries on the night of Thursday, the 30th of April. General Hooker had entirely succeeded thus far in his plans; his main body was over, Sedgwick's column was recrossing the river to march up and reunite with him, and Stoneman was streaming like a meteor toward the Central Railroad. Around Chancellorsville, the Federal forces were rapidly throwing up strong intrenchments, and two-thirds of the difficulties and dangers of the whole campaign seemed over.

They had just commenced.

CHAPTER XXXV.

IN THE WILDERNESS.

THE battle of Chancellorsville was a strange conflict, and it took place in a singular country. Let us attempt to sketch the features of the landscape, and define some of the localities of the great drama.

Journeying westward from Fredericksburg over a broad and excellent road, which in former days was the great highway between the lower Rappahannock and the mountains, the traveller is called upon to decide, some five miles from the town, whether he will continue in the road which he is pursuing-the "old turnpike "—or follow one which diverges to the left, and is known as the "Orange plank road." Both lead to Chancellorsville, five or six miles distant-the "old turnpike" conducting him straight over hill and through dale to the point in question; the "plank road" winding around so as to pass over a more level country. Taking the latter, the traveller passes the ruins of "Tabernacle Church," five miles from Chancellorsville; then "Aldrich's house," two miles distant; and reaches the locality of the great struggle.

Chancellorsville was (for it is now destroyed) a large brick mansion, with ample wings, and was formerly used as a tavern for the entertainment of travellers journeying to and fro from Fredericksburg to the mountains. Standing in front of the Chancellorsville house and looking southward the traveller had before him extensive fields bounded by forests; behind him a belt of woods, through which approached the main road from Ely's and United States fords, a few miles distant. By this road the Federal forces reached Chancellorsville. Two or three miles in front, but concealed from view by the thick growth of stunted oaks and pines, was "the Furnace," an assemblage of buildings for smelting iron ore. By this locality, Jackson moved from a

point between the "Tabernacle Church" and Chancellorsville, to gain the right flank of the enemy. A mile or two distant on the right was a plain wooden dwelling house, on the left side of the main road, known as "Melzi Chancellor's." Between this house and Chancellorsville, Jackson fell. A few hundred yards from it, in the edge of the woods on the right of the road, was a small white building, known as "Wilderness Church." Just beyond this point the old turnpike, which had been swallowed up at Chancellorsville by the plank road, again left it—the plank diverging to the left, the turnpike running straight on. Two or three miles beyond Chancellorsville the plank road was joined by a branch, the Germanna ford plank road coming from the northwest and crossing the old turnpike at " Wilderness Run," five miles from Chancellorsville, where stood and still stands a tall wooden building, called the "Wilderness Tavern." Here Jackson was taken when he was wounded. Last of all, about half a mile from the angle formed by the junction of the Orange and Germanna plank roads, an eccentric independent highway known as the "Brock Road," and running from Spottsylvania Court-House to Ely's ford, crossed the Orange road and the old turnpike, keeping on its course without respect to either. By the "Brock road" Jackson attained the old turnpike, and made his attack upon the enemy's right and rear.

"The

The country around Chancellorsville was known as Wilderness," and the bare fields, alternating with dense and impassable thickets, communicated to the region an appearance inexpressively drear and melancholy. The houses were few and lost in the interminable pines-often no indications of human habitation were seen for many miles; and the only sign of life which greeted the lonely traveller as he pursued his dreary journey in the evening over the interminable plank road, winding on through the thick wood, was the mournful cry of the whippoorwill-that sound which was the last to greet the ears of so many dying soldiers on the night of the great battle about to make this sombre region more gloomy and depressing than before.

In this country of unending thickets and narrow and winding

avenues, General Hooker had established himself, carefully adding to the natural strength of the position. His troops were massed around Chancellorsville, and the approaches to the central point were obstructed in every direction by felled trees, earthworks for infantry, and redoubts for artillery. From Melzi Chancellor's on the right, around toward the Furnace to the southward, and across the plank road and the old turnpike below, these defences extended in an unbroken line, or rather lines-for he had constructed additional works behind the first line, upon which to fall back if hard pressed. The approach to these defences was over narrow roads, completely commanded by hundreds of pieces of artillery, or through thickets where the growth was so dense as in many localities to prevent the passage of a human body between the trunks of the trees or the matted boughs. In front of all bristled an elaborate abatis of felled trees, which it seemed impossible for troops to charge across without being annihilated. Yet those obstacles were surmounted; that bristling abatis passed, and the Federal works carried at the point of the bayonet.

General Hooker had thus guarded elaborately against that attack which, in spite of his order to his troops, he probably expected. Federal writers assert that Chancellorsville was selected as enabling General Hooker to there intercept the army of General Lee on its "line of retreat toward Gordonsville; " but there is reason to believe that the Federal commander there halted to avail himself of the character of the ground to repel an attack, and from the very reasonable apprehension that if he advanced further he would expose his own "line of retreat" in case of disaster, back to the Rappahannock.

The left wing of the Federal army, composed of three army corps under General Sedgwick, and numbering about 20,000 men, crossed, as we have seen, three miles below Fredericksburg, on Wednesday, April 29th, and General Jackson, whose command was opposite that point, promptly drew up his corps in line of battle to repel the anticipated attack. D. H. Hill's division, commanded by General Rodes, was formed on the right of and

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]
« 上一頁繼續 »