28

STONEWALL JACKSON'S FLANK MOVEMENT.

Jackson turned off from the plank road at Aldrich's, not far from Chancellorsville, and moved swiftly and stealthily through the thick woods, with Stuart's cavalry between him and the Union lines, to the Orange plank road, four miles westward of Chancellorsville. At the same time Lee was attract-ing the attention of Hooker by vigorous demonstrations on his front, as if he was about to attack in full force.

a

The march of Jackson was not perfectly concealed. So early as eight. o'clock in the morning," General Birney, who was in command of Sickles's (First) division, between the Catharine Furnace and Melzie Chancellor's (Dowdall's tavern), discovered a portion of Jackson's column, under Rodes, crossing Lewis's Creek, and moving rapidly

May 2,
1863.

southward. When informed of this,. Sickles made a personal reconnois sance, and dispatched a courier to Hooker with the intelligence. The general impression among the commanders was, that Lee's army was retreating toward Richmond, and Hooker directed Sickles to ascertain the real character of the movement.. For that purpose the latter pushed forward Birney's division, followed by Whipple's and Barlow's brigades of Howard's corps. Cannon were opened on the passing column, which threw it into some confusion, and expelled it from the highway; but it pressed steadily along the wood paths and a new road opened by it. Then Sickles directed Birney to charge upon it. He did so, and cut off and captured a Georgia (Twenty-third) regiment, five hundred strong, when Birney's farther advance was checked by Colonel Brown's artillery and a brigade under Anderson.

DAVID D. BIRNEY.

The National troops now held the road over which Jackson had been. marching, and preparations were made for a vigorous pursuit of the supposed fugitives. Sickles asked for re-enforcements, when Pleasanton was sent with. his cavalry, and Howard and Slocum each forwarded a brigade to help him. But before these forces could be brought to bear upon Jackson, near the Furnace, he had crossed the Orange plank road, and under cover of the dense jungle of the Wilderness, had pushed swiftly northward to the old turnpike and beyond, feeling his enemy at every step. Then he turned his face toward Chancellorsville, and, just before six o'clock in the evening, he burst from the thickets with twenty-five thousand men, and like a sudden, unexpected, and terrible tornado, swept on toward the flank and rear of Howard's corps, which occupied the National right, the game of the forest-deers, wild turkeys, and hares-flying wildly before him, and becoming to the startled Unionists the heralds of the approaching

› May 2.

during the war as head-quarters by Generals Gregg and Merritt, and other officers of both armies. Near it the first skirmish at the opening of the battle of Chancellorsville occurred. It is rather a picturesque old mansion, on the south side of the plank road, about two miles southeast from Chancellorsville.

JACKSON'S ATTACK ON THE ELEVENTH CORPS.

29

tempest of war.' These mute messengers were followed by the sounds of bugles; then by a few shots from approaching skirmishers; then by a tremendous yell from a thousand throats, and a murderous fire from a strong battle line. Jackson, in heavy force, was upon the Eleventh Corps at the moment when the men

were preparing for sup per and repose, without a suspicion of danger near. Devens's division, on the extreme right, received the first blow, and almost instantly the surprised troops, panic-stricken, fled toward the rear, along the line of the corps, communicating their emotions of alarm to the other divisions.

3

The high

In vain the officers tried to restrain them, and restore order. and commanding position at Talley's, with five guns and many prisoners, was soon in the hands of General R. E. Rodes, who was closely followed by Generals R. E. Colston and A. P. Hill. General Devens was severely wounded, and one-third of his division, including every general and colonel, was either disabled or captured. In the wildest confusion the fugitives rushed along the road toward Chancellorsville, upon the position of General Carl Schurz, whose division had already retreated, in anticipation of the onset, and the turbulent tide of frightened men rolled back upon General A. Von Steinwehr, utterly regardless of the exertions of the commander of the corps and his subordinate officers to check their flight. Only a few regiments, less demoralized than the others, made resistance, and these were

1 See Chancellorsville, by Hotchkiss and Allan, page 48.

2 Jackson formed his force in three lines of battle perpendicular to the turnpike, and extending about a mile on each side of it. Rodes occupied the front; Colston the next line, two hundred yards in the rear of Rodes, and back of this was A. P. Hill. Two pieces of Stuart's horse-artillery moved with the first line. 3 Howard's corps (Eleventh), as we have observed, occupied the right of the army, and was composed of the divisions of Generals Devens, Carl Schurz, and Steinwehr. Devens was on the right, Schurz in the center. and Steinwehr on the left. Works for the protection of the corps were thrown up parallel to the plank road and the turnpike, facing southward. At the left of these was Steinwehr's division, joining Sickles. Devens, on the extreme right, was west of the intersection of the two roads mentioned, near Talley's house. The mass of his force occupied the works at that place. A portion of the brigades on the extreme right was thrown across the turnpike facing the west, and protected by slight breast works and an abatis. Two pieces of artillery were on the plank road.

4 This was the appearance of the spot when the writer sketched it, in June, 1866. The view is in a little intervale in The Wilderness, through which courses a small tributary of Lewis's Creek, and here crosses the road. 5 This was General Sigel's old corps, composed of 11,500 men, of whom 4,500 were Germans. Howard had recently taken command of the corps. He was censured at the time, and by General Hooker afterward in his testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, for being so illy prepared for an attack in force. This censure seems to be unjust, for the Commander-in-Chief, and General Sickles who had commenced a pursuit of Jackson's column, appear to have been under the impression that the Confederates were retreating toward Richmond. On that afternoon, a short time before the attack, General Hooker wrote to Sedgwick, saying: "We know the enemy is flying-trying to save his trains. Two of Sickles's divisions are among them."-See Swinton's Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, note, page 284. There appears no evidence of any lack of vigilance or skill on the part of Howard, either before or after the attack. No one seems to have suspected the bold and seeming reckless movement of Jackson until the moment when he burst upon Devens with almost the suddenness of a thunderbolt.

30

ATTEMPT TO CHECK THE FLIGHT OF TROOPS.

instantly scattered like chaff, leaving half their number dead or dying on the field.

While the divisions of Devens and Schurz were crumbling, Steinwehr quickly changed front and threw Buschbeck's brigade into works near Melzie Chancellor's (Dowdall's tavern), where some of Schurz's men were rallied, and for a brief space the advance of the Confederates was checked. But the halt was very short. Colston had joined Rodes, and the combined forces, with a terrific yell, charged upon and captured the works. In a few minutes almost the entire Eleventh Corps was seen pouring out of the woods in the deepening twilight, and sweeping over the dusty clearing around Chancellorsville in the wildest confusion, in the direction of the Rappahannock, strewing and blockading the roads with the implements and accouterments of war. These disordered the pursuing troops, and Rodes, when the darkness came on, finding himself entangled among felled trees, behind which was some National artillery, halted, and sent a request for A. P. Hill to be ordered to the front to take the advance, while the first and second lines should be re-formed.

In the mean time Hooker, apprised of the attack and the disorder on his right, had taken measures for checking the flight and recovering the field. The troops immediately at hand were his once own division, commanded by General H. G. Berry (the second of Sickles's corps), and French's brigade of Couch's corps. These were sent forward at the double-quick, and a courier was dispatched to Sickles, who had pushed some distance beyond the National lines, to inform him of the disaster to the Eleventh Corps, and his own peril, and to direct him to fall back and attack Jackson's left flank. Sickles was then in a critical situation, for the Confederates were in his rear and between him and the main army, while his artillery was behind him and exposed to capture, and Pleasanton, with two regiments of cavalry, were with the guns. These had been left behind, because artillery and cavalry could be of little service in the woods, and they were in a field at Hazel Grove. The circumstance proved to be a fortunate one, and probably saved Sickles and his two brigades from destruction or capture, for Pleasanton, by quick, skillful, and vigorous action, assisted the second division of the Sixth Corps, under Berry, in checking the pursuit long enough for Sickles to fall back in time to join in the conflict.

Pleasanton had just reached the artillery, when Jackson's pursuing column came thundering on after the flying Eleventh. Anxious to check the pursuers and save Sickles's cannon, he hurled one of his regiments (Eighth Pennsylvania, under Major Keenan) upon the Confederate flank. It was flung back terribly shattered. In the course of a few minutes Keenan was dead, and the ground was strewn with the greater portion of his men, slain or disabled. But they had checked the Confederates long enough for Pleasanton to bring his own horse-artillery, and more than thirty of Sickles's guns, to bear upon them, and to pour into their ranks a destructive storm of grape and canister shot. These were confronted by Confederate artillery on the plank road, under Colonel Crutchfield, who was soon wounded, and several of his guns were silenced, when desperate efforts were made by the Confederates to seize the National cannon. While this struggle was going on, General G. K. Warren, with the troops sent by Hooker, just mentioned,.

DEATH OF STONEWALL JACKSON.

31

came to Pleasanton's assistance; and soon afterward Sickles, with his two brigades (Birney's and Whipple's), joined in the contest.

At this time Lee was making a vigorous artillery attack upon Hooker's left and center, formed by the corps of Generals Couch and Slocum, but the assailing force, whose heaviest demonstration was against General Hancock's front, was held in check by his skirmish line, under Colonel N. A. Miles.' And while Lee was thus failing, a heavier misfortune than he had yet endured befell him, in the paralysis of the right-arm of his power, by the fall of General Jackson. That officer, encouraged by the success of his first blow, was extremely anxious to press forward, and, by extending his lines to the left, cut off Hooker's communication with the United States Ford. While awaiting the arrival of General Hill to the front, he pushed forward with his. staff and an escort on a personal reconnoissance, and when returning in the gloom to his lines, he and his companions seem to have been mistaken by their friends for Union cavalry, and were fired upon. Jackson fell, pierced by three bullets, and several of his staff were killed or wounded. Jackson was the superior of Lee as an executive officer, in moral force and in personal magnetism, and his loss to the Confederacy, and especially to the Army of Northern Virginia, as Lee's troops were called, was irreparable.*

Jackson had ordered a forward movement so soon as Hill should reach the front, and it was at the moment when that was accomplished that the notable leader was prostrated. Hill, also, was disabled by a contusion caused by the fragment of a shell while Jackson was on his way to the hospital, and the command of the corps devolved temporarily on Rodes, who, under the circumstances, thought it advisable not to attempt a forward movement in the night. General Stuart, whom Hill called to the command, agreed with him, and the Confederates occupied the night in defensive operations, and in preparations for renewing the struggle in the morning. Sickles, as we have observed, had reached Pleasanton at Hazel Grove, and at. once attempted to recover a part of the ground lost by Howard. Birney's. division, with Hobart Ward's brigade in front, charged down the plank road at midnight, drove back the Confederates, recovered some lost ground, and brought away several abandoned guns and caissons. Other attacks. were made, but little more was accomplished, when Sickles, then reporting

1 His troops consisted of the Fifty-seventh, Sixty-fourth, and Sixty-sixth New York Volunteers, and detachments of the Fifty-second New York, Second Delaware, and One Hundred and Forty-eighth Pennsylvania. See Hancock's Report.

2 Jackson received three balls, one in the right hand and two in the left arm, by one of which the bone was. shattered just below the shoulder, and an artery was severed. His frightened horse, now without guidance, turned and rushed toward the National lines, greatly imperiling the life of his rider, as he swept through the woods and underbrush. Jackson managed to turn him into the plank road, where he was checked by one of his staff (Captain Wilborn), who seized the bridle, and into his arms the general, exhausted by pain and loss of blood, fell. General Hill presently rode up, jumped from his horse, and stopped the flow of blood by bandaging the arm above the wound. Jackson was then placed on a litter, and conveyed to the rear in the midst of a storm of canister shot, which came sweeping down the road from two pieces of National cannon. One of the litter-bearers was shot dead. The wounded general was borne on to the Wilderness tavern (where the Confederates had established an hospital), attended by Dr. Hunter McGuire. There his arm was amputated. His wife was sent for, and two or three days afterward he was removed to Guiney's Station, nearer Richmond. There, at the Chandler House, he remained until his death, which was caused chiefly by pneumonia. That event occurred on Sunday, the 10th of May, 1863. “A few moments before he died." says an eye witness (Captain J. Hotchkiss), "he cried out in his delirium, Order A. P. Hill to prepare for action-pass the infantry to the front rapidly-tell Major Hawks' then stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face, and he said quietly, and with an expression as if of relief, Let. us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.""

32

HOOKER'S NEW LINE OF BATTLE.

directly to Hooker, was ordered to fall back and take position, and intrench in a new line formed by the chief, on heights between Fairview (a short distance west of Chancellorsville) and the Confederate lines in front of Dowdall's tavern. This was done at dawn on Sunday morning.

Hooker's situation was extremely critical, but with characteristic energy he had made new dispositions on Saturday night to meet the inevitable attack

on the morrow.

May 2, 1863.

When he heard of the southward march of Jackson's column on Saturday morning," he called Reynolds's corps, more than twenty thousand strong, from Sedgwick. It arrived late that evening, and was received with joy, for it more than filled the space of the shattered Eleventh, and made Hooker's force full sixty thousand men, with whom to confront a little more than forty thousand men; yet his situation was perilous, and he knew it. He ordered Sedgwick to cross the river at once, and seize and hold the city and heights of Fredericksburg, and then, pushing along the roads leading to Chancellorsville, crush every impediment and join the main army as speedily as possible. He changed the front of a portion of his line so as to receive the Confederate attack, making a new line of battle, as we have observed, with more than thirty pieces of cannon, massed at Fairview, a little westward of his head-quarters. Sickles, connecting with Slocum on his left, occupied the intrenched line in advance of Fairview, which extended across the plank road, and included the elevated plateau at Hazel Grove. On the left of the line was a part of the Second Corps, and still further to the right, behind breast works on the Elly's Ford road, was Reynolds's corps. On the National left, Meade's corps, with their faces toward Fredericksburg, joined Slocum's, Hancock's division being thrown back in a position to guard the communications with Banks's Ford; and on the extreme left the remains of Howard's corps were placed. The Confederates had also made dispositions for attack, in three lines: the first under IIill, the second under Colson, and the third under Rodes, with cannon massed on heights so as to command much of the

1 This is a view of the line of intrenchments on the plank road, between Fairview and Melzie Chancellor's, as it appeared when the writer sketched it, in June, 1866. The works were constructed of logs and earth, breast high.